I think the idea of seeing innovation helps a product stand out. However from a retail or sales perspective it also helps a lot for the salesperson to have something to talk about. I think ON has had great success because they seem to be investing in shoe trials more than most other brands. This is so crucial for converting customers.
Will be interesting to see how Satisfy’s core customer reacts to the growth in terms of who ends up wearing it. It’s a fine line and I am interested to see how they approach the challenge of growth over “selling out” . For the next up I could see Hermanos Koumori getting some funding and I’m not sure If Bandit needs it but they are a good contender.
Thank you for mentioning our new initiative. We are trying to focus on general rights, but just immigration rights, but leaning into other orgs to help us with the pieces like POW and others!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR VOICE MY FRIEND!!!!!!!
If I were still in manufacturing running gear, my 'what's next for 2025' would be: Perseverance Furthers. The I Ching made a timeless point: sometimes the best move is to just keep doing what you're doing. The hubbub around brilliant new ideas often exists in a media/creative bubble with minimal relevance. Branding is sometimes just like running - no magic button; keep stacking those bricks!
And someone should indeed sponsor Riley Brady.
And the Nike Super Bowl ad was by far the best of the lot - it was so good I re-watched it this morning - even while NPR did not mention it in their stupid review which was focussed on political meaning, which few people are excited to hear more about. An hour-long video of Nike ads would be worthwhile - they’ve been killing it for decades - and they all were done in about the same style. Don’t be deceived - repetition is good.
Lots of great stuff here Matt but just a quick response to this line ("If we can’t see the innovation does it still sell on the shoe wall?") because it's something I've thought a lot about over the past 10-15 years. I think this is a big reason (note: not the only) newer brands like HOKA and ON in particular have been able to break through a historically tough-to-break-into market: the obvious innovation in the form of a higher than usual stack height and decoupled pods on the outsole, respectively, caught consumers' eye on the wall at a time when most everything else looked the same. It's an easy and somewhat compelling story to tell from an innovation standpoint. (Didn't work so well with external springs, but hey, not everything is going to hit.) There are other factors that helped these brands a lot here too, of course (the most obvious being Deckers acquiring HOKA and On's fashion-forward marketing approach) but I do think the "visible innovation" combined with reliable enough performance and a sense of fashion (which I wouldn't have initially predicted for HOKA, but that is definitely the case now) has helped both brands sell massively. That said, consistently making a reliable performance product, even without any obvious innovation, still sells, but more steadily over time.
I think the idea of seeing innovation helps a product stand out. However from a retail or sales perspective it also helps a lot for the salesperson to have something to talk about. I think ON has had great success because they seem to be investing in shoe trials more than most other brands. This is so crucial for converting customers.
Will be interesting to see how Satisfy’s core customer reacts to the growth in terms of who ends up wearing it. It’s a fine line and I am interested to see how they approach the challenge of growth over “selling out” . For the next up I could see Hermanos Koumori getting some funding and I’m not sure If Bandit needs it but they are a good contender.
Thanks for taking the time to write !
Thank you for mentioning our new initiative. We are trying to focus on general rights, but just immigration rights, but leaning into other orgs to help us with the pieces like POW and others!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR VOICE MY FRIEND!!!!!!!
If I were still in manufacturing running gear, my 'what's next for 2025' would be: Perseverance Furthers. The I Ching made a timeless point: sometimes the best move is to just keep doing what you're doing. The hubbub around brilliant new ideas often exists in a media/creative bubble with minimal relevance. Branding is sometimes just like running - no magic button; keep stacking those bricks!
And someone should indeed sponsor Riley Brady.
And the Nike Super Bowl ad was by far the best of the lot - it was so good I re-watched it this morning - even while NPR did not mention it in their stupid review which was focussed on political meaning, which few people are excited to hear more about. An hour-long video of Nike ads would be worthwhile - they’ve been killing it for decades - and they all were done in about the same style. Don’t be deceived - repetition is good.
Lots of great stuff here Matt but just a quick response to this line ("If we can’t see the innovation does it still sell on the shoe wall?") because it's something I've thought a lot about over the past 10-15 years. I think this is a big reason (note: not the only) newer brands like HOKA and ON in particular have been able to break through a historically tough-to-break-into market: the obvious innovation in the form of a higher than usual stack height and decoupled pods on the outsole, respectively, caught consumers' eye on the wall at a time when most everything else looked the same. It's an easy and somewhat compelling story to tell from an innovation standpoint. (Didn't work so well with external springs, but hey, not everything is going to hit.) There are other factors that helped these brands a lot here too, of course (the most obvious being Deckers acquiring HOKA and On's fashion-forward marketing approach) but I do think the "visible innovation" combined with reliable enough performance and a sense of fashion (which I wouldn't have initially predicted for HOKA, but that is definitely the case now) has helped both brands sell massively. That said, consistently making a reliable performance product, even without any obvious innovation, still sells, but more steadily over time.