Born of Performance.

The sports industry exists because there was a need to elevate the game, the sport, the athlete.  

Athletes have challenging and specific problems to solve. Throughout the history of sport, problem solvers have delivered better and better solutions.

Because no matter your background or physical location on this planet, nearly everyone can be inspired by the incredible things athletes accomplish when pushing the boundaries of human performance.

The sports industry doesn’t exist because athletes needed to look better. Nor because athletes needed to be more stylish. It is wonderful we can do those things, too, but performance is still the core of an industry that supports sports.

So, I suggest everyone just stop with the statements of how “performance athletic apparel and footwear is dead.” As long as there is a sports industry, it will be driven by performance products, period.   Not athleisure, not sport style, not activewear. 

Without the sharp tip of performance, the athleisure segment wouldn’t have penetrated anything.

I understand the hype. The athleisure category is here to stay.  It’s the shiny new toy, and right now the dollars it is generating are significant.  But let’s not falsely associate this monster SUPPORTING segment as the slayer of performance footwear and apparel.

This is an opinion piece, so here’s mine: 

Performance footwear is alive and well, and perhaps even more important than ever. 

There I said it. And, I stand by it.

Let me start with a reminder: 

Performance footwear ≠ accessories

Performance footwear ≠ shoes 

Performance footwear = precision equipment

Regardless of your sport, performance footwear are instruments, chosen deliberately, with an expectation of optimal performance. 

Let’s go back to the very beginning of footwear. Whenever it was that humans were able to cobble the first crude footwear out of grasses or animal hide, the reason was surely to provide them with some advantage. 

Those early humans likely craved protection from rocks, thorns, cold, you name it.  Once even the most basic foot-covering was created, the shod suddenly had an advantage over the unshod. 

Maybe it meant the difference of surviving exposure to cold. Or covering more ground to catch food. Whatever the case, from its very inception, footwear has been about a performance advantage.  

Now, fast-forward to today.

Entering the Hyper-Performance Era

It’s astonishing to see how a performance instrument, in this case Nike’s Next% shoe, helped enable a human to run 26.2 miles in less than 120 minutes for the first time in history. 

The shoe has been studied independently, proving that it provides a measurable efficiency advantage. The shoe even faced a decision about being banned from the Tokyo Olympics (it will not be banned).  

Wow.  A shoe that actually, measurably, makes you faster.  Will the record books after the Tokyo Olympics be filled with asterisks?  Will the Next% face the record book controversy that skin suits like the Speedo LZR caused in the swimming community?

Only time will tell, but one thing is clear: the Nike Next% is the hypercar of footwear, without the relative sticker price.  Damn near anyone with $250 can buy this piece of high-performance equipment.  

No other brand is even close to Nike in offering this true performance-advantage-in-a-shoe.  This has essentially left a pack of running brands all looking at each other, shrugging, and rushing to offer the best imitation product the law allows.

And we want to talk about athleisure?!

While Nike may not sell a million pairs of the Next% shoe, that was not its intent.  Its intent was to help athletes be faster over 26.2 miles. 

It works. 

It Broke 2.

And that is exactly what performance instruments do:  They support the pursuit of human potential

A Red Thread Through It All

In the time since both the product launches and the Breaking 2 events, the industry has seen the influence trickle down to Nike’s broader running line.  Will that unique, pointy tail on the Pegasus 34 midsole do anything for your run?  No, it isn’t functional, but it visually and subtly connects the Pegasus range to the authenticity of the Next% product through these visual cues.  

Meanwhile, we have also already seen several collabs on the lifestyle side of the 4%/Next% family of shoes.  The influence of this hyper-performance shoe has gone wider, deeper, and faster than ever before.  This connection of performance to lifestyle is still of vital commercial importance, even with such a different landscape.

Now, the average consumer shopping the retail wall likely won’t notice the details connecting the Next% to the Pegasus.  However, it will open the door for the “ah-ha!” moment if/when a consumer does recognize the origin of that midsole heel shape.  Furthermore, these connections are important because they provide a foundation, a “red thread,” that pulls the entire performance running range together. 

Without the pinnacle performance product, and athletes like Kipchoge to wear them, what would be that red thread running through Nike’s running product range?  What story would they, or a salesperson on the floor, tell to make a consumer believe that their $70 run shoe will be better than anyone else’s? 

This question is a real one. Every day, in every retail touchpoint, every online sale, and even within the other big athletic brands.  How do you get consumers to care about performance?  Technology stories like Air, React and Boost don’t resonate emotionally with consumers, so their ability to last in the market is limited.  

Being connected to something at the edge of human performance?  That type of story grabs the heart and soul - always has, and always will. 

History Proves the Point, too\

Let’s look back on performance footwear, just a little.  The majority of key lifestyle models, even today, have their roots in performance.  Yes, there are some new models developed to look like old ones, and even newly created silhouettes coming out of collabs.  But I would argue that still, at the core of most successful athleisure styles, are performance products. 

While the AF1’s and Dunks play well enough to be seen on the NBA floors once and a while even today, these styles live on as lifestyle icons.  They have been spun in an infinite variety of colors and materials, and knocked off by countless others.

But I feel like there’s a generation out there that needs reminding, these products:

Born

Of

Performance.

Adidas?  Puma?  Stan Smith, Superstar, Clyde…just to name a few.  Do the homework, it’s the same story.

Performance is Permission

Brands without these authenticators - these aspirational products that the top athletes actually want to wear, and measurably benefit from using - they wouldn’t have the lifestyle businesses they do, or they won’t for long.

Give up on the performance side because it’s too hard or doesn’t return the revenues soon enough, and watch that lifestyle business evaporate.  Being the best, setting records, defying expectation, these things will always be cool.

Pendulum Effect

The other major point I think is being forgotten is that this business, like most, is a pendulum.  We are at an apex of athleisure influence, but it will swing away.  While the segment isn’t going away, it will not be this prominent forever.  “Born to Run”, Nike Free, Vibram 5 fingers, NB Minimus – these things brought minimalism to the forefront roughly a decade ago.  While this segment still exists today, the numbers are a far cry from their peak, and they generate very little chatter today.

Just look at where we are now - Maximalism.  “Dad shoes” came back, thanks in part to team Yeezy, but thanks in other parts to the fact that the highest performing shoe in the world has stack heights well above what was typical, pre-2017. Even within performance, paradigm shifts can cause the pendulum to swing, - so why would this athleisure segment behave be any differently?

I don’t believe the doom and gloom for performance, and I don’t think you should either.  Not at all.  Because at the end of the day, aspiration is the core of what we do.  Products that help athletes reach their goals have far more power than any fashion piece.  I’m not hating on fashion, don’t get me wrong - I love the creativity it introduces, and consumers want choice.   But in the land of athletic footwear and apparel, performance will always lead the way. 

Performance is dead.

Long live Performance.