20 Years Development Of Sports Shoes: Inspiration From Technology Competition

Science and technology have become the basic elements of the development of this industry today.

"Technology business" is so powerful.

In the past June, there was a major event that shocked the sports world.

On the evening of June 2nd, O'neal, a 39 year old NBA player, suddenly announced the news on Twitter, announcing that he would lift his contract with the Celtics for a year ahead of schedule and end his 19 year career.

A generation of NBA legend retired.

O'neal announced less than 24 hours of retirement. He liked his fans quickly to sort out all the sneakers introduced by O'neal in his 19 year career and put them on the Internet for fans to recall.

From the Reebok series, which he endorsed at the beginning of his career, to the Lining series endorsed by his late career, each pair of shoes can recall countless wonderful memories of leather shoes fans.

O'neal's career in the past 20 years is exactly the fastest growing 20 years in the sports shoes industry.

From his sneakers, we can clearly see the development and evolution of sports shoes, and see how the power of technology gives the new life of the traditional footwear industry.

Nike, the subversive

The NBA arena before 1970s is still CONVERSE's world.

CONVERSE was born in 1908. In the early years, most athletes in NBA wore CONVERSE's canvas shoes to compete.

Today, the circular logo on CONVERSE's high quality canvas shoe upper is commonly seen at the beginning of the design, in order to protect the ankle better through such a rigid logo.

This is almost the prototype of basketball shoe technology.

The market for sports shoes outside basketball is the world of Adidas, founded in 1948.

In 1954, the German team won the World Cup championship by virtue of Adidas's rotary soccer shoes with rotary embedded studs, which laid the dominant position of Adidas in the field of football shoes.

Since then, Adidas has continuously strengthened its technological superiority in the field of football shoes, and extended the influence of brand to other sports.

By the time Nike became popular in 1970s, Adidas had become the world's top sports brand.

Although Adidas has accumulated certain scientific and technological strength in football field, the particularity of football project determines that more scientific and technological content, such as stud technology, can not be extended to other popular products.

The demand for professional products and popular products is not exactly the same, which makes Adidas's experience accumulated in the field of professional football for a long time.

This also resulted in CONVERSE, the overlord in the field of basketball shoes.

In half a century, CONVERSE's products have changed little in details, including material and other details.

In the era of Adidas and CONVERSE, the sports shoes industry developed slowly until Nike was born.

At the very beginning, Nike appeared with a unique image. It did not choose to compete with the giants at that time. Instead, it grabbed the jogging market that was just emerging and ignored by Adidas. It launched a sports shoes suitable for public wear and quickly stood firm.

The disruptive change brought by Nike is that it really introduces the power of technology to this traditional industry.

Today, "air cushion technology" has become synonymous with Nike.

It is difficult to verify who first introduced the concept of "slow motion" into sports shoes, but it is certain that Nike's Air air cushion technology will bring the idea of "slow shock" to the extreme.

In the decades since the birth of the air cushion, slow shock technology has become an eternal theme in the development of sports shoes.

In 1977, Frank Rudy, a spaceflight engineer, presented a bold idea at the time to Nike founder Phil Knight, which injected air into durable and flexible films, so that shoes could be cushioned.

The two hit it off quickly, and Nike quickly collaborated with Rudy.

After 9 months of hard work, a revolutionary new technology for earthquake mitigation was born. Nike named this innovative achievement Air, and the Chinese call it "air cushion technology".

The Air air cushion is lighter than any foam used in the midsole (part of the soles and insoles). What's more, it is not as slow as other midsole materials for the time lapse.

Most of the sneakers were made of rubber materials. With the increasing number of stampede, the midsole will be deformed, thus losing the shock absorption effect.

But air cushion technology solves this problem very well.

The first pair of sneakers using Nike Air technology is Tailwind in 1979.

In 1982, Nike first applied the Air Sole air cushion to basketball shoes, thus creating Air Force 1, which was later praised as "the greatest basketball shoe in Nike history" by countless shoe fans.

Air cushion technology has injected new vitality into the depressed sports shoes industry at that time.

In 1984, Nike signed a price of $500 thousand to sign Mike Jordan, who was also nameless at that time.

In 1985, Nike launched the first generation of signature shoes for Jordan, carrying the air cushion technology Air Jordan 1.

At that time, according to the NBA requirements, the players wore shoes with a predominantly white tone, but the shoes used the red and black colors of the bull's Jersey.

The league has banned Jordan from wearing the shoes again, otherwise he will be fined once every time he wears a game.

But Nike prefers to pay a fine for Jordan rather than pay attention to the rules of the alliance.

The union raised the fine from the initial $1000 per session to the last $5000, but in order for more people to see their air cushion technology, Nike still went its own way.

With the rapid rise of Jordan, more and more Americans know about Nike, and know the amazing air cushion technology.

At this point, Nike has begun to threaten CONVERSE's position in NBA.

In fact, CONVERSE didn't have the chance to block Nike before it grew stronger.

In 1980s, CONVERSE actually held a good hand.

At that time, CONVERSE had NBA's most influential "black and white double" - "big bird" Bird and "magician" Johnson. Their endorsement of Weapon series basketball shoes had a good market reaction.

At that time, Jordan, the "God of basketball", was only a prime minister.

Although in the 1984 rookie season, Jordan became the league's scoring champion, but at this time he really boarded the "altar" to win the first "three consecutive champions" in 7 years.

However, CONVERSE has not been able to take advantage of this brand.

Although the Weapon series has made significant progress compared with the previous basketball shoes, it has only been optimized in terms of material and shape.

Compared with Nike's Air Force 1 and Air Jordan 1, there is hardly any technology content.

Products are not powerful, and good spokesmen are useless.

CONVERSE can only watch Nike eating its site a little bit.

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With its new air cushion technology and smart marketing strategy, Nike rose rapidly after the 80s of last century.

In 1984, Nike's sales amounted to $900 million, and by 1997, this figure had been $9 billion 190 million.

More importantly, through the wide application of air cushion technology to all kinds of products, Nike has enabled the masses to really enjoy the convenience of technology sports shoes for the first time.

The rise of Nike makes more and more sports brands realize the importance of science and technology, which directly promotes the upgrading and pformation of the whole industry.

Science and technology melee in 90s

"This is the best and the worst of times."

This is undoubtedly the best commentary on the sports shoes industry in 1990s.

Well, in the past 10 years, all kinds of sports brands have been flourishing, and all kinds of dazzling technologies have been launched. The whole industry has made a qualitative leap for the first time.

The shock absorption technology that helped Nike to rise rapidly in 1980s has become the theme of unchanged brand competition in 1990s.

In the past 10 years, Nike has continued to optimize its air cushion technology, and has continuously developed subdivision products on the basis of early Air Sole air cushion.

In 1995, the Zoom Air air cushion was developed for speed players. The Air air cushion was poured into the airbag with built-in elastic three-dimensional fabric, so that the feet were closer to the ground and the stability of the shoes was strengthened.

After more than ten years of development, Nike's damping technology has become more mature.

Until the late 1980s, faced with Nike's aggressive attack, the old CONVERSE realized the seriousness of the problem.

In 1991, CONVERSE finally developed a React shockproof system to compete with Nike's Air air cushion.

What is the React shock absorber system? Simply speaking, it is a "oil bag" with compressed liquid.

It is generally placed in the main stress area of the heel of the shoe, using the mobility and pressure elasticity of the stored liquid to achieve shock absorption and power supply.

Although there is a "oil bag" vulnerability, it must be admitted that React technology is not inferior to Nike's Air products at the same time.

With the success of CONVERSE's advertising strategy, sports shoes equipped with React technology also received good market feedback.

React helped CONVERSE temporarily recover its decline and gained a foothold in the early 90 years of last century.

Another company that has made great achievements in this period is Reebok.

In 1989, Reebok launched its unique and innovative concept of "PUMP" and was successfully applied to sports shoes.

The principle of "PUMP" is very simple, and its most outstanding feature is that it can provide personalized tailored functions for every pair of feet.

The secret lies in the fact that the shoe body has an automatic forming air bag. When it is put on it, it needs to take a few steps, and the large capacity air pump starter on the heel part is compressed, and the shoes will automatically induce inflation, and when the pressure reaches a certain value, the air bag will stop inflating.

It also provides a suitable "boots" for each wearer.

Reebok also uses "Pump Up and Air Out" as its advertising slogan, aiming directly at Nike's Air technology.

In the 1991 NBA all star game, Di Brown, the Celtic's unknown, won the dunk contest by relying on a single arm blindfolded dunk.

At that time, he was wearing a pair of PUMP technology Omnizone Lite Pump.

In 1992, Reebok followed Nike, signed the first prize winner of the year, O'neal, and launched his personal sneakers The Shaq One Pump.

Shortly thereafter, Reebok launched Hexalite technology.

Hexalite is a light weight and impact resistant air cushion system consisting of several honeycomb chambers. Hexagonal geometry can absorb and disperse pressure from all sides. Even if Hexalite is damaged, its damping structure remains unchanged.

In 1995, in order to counter Nike's Zoom Air, Reebok then developed DMX technology.

DMX is an airflow damping system. It consists of two parts of airflow switching system. It provides cushioning effect through multiple small air bags placed in different positions of the foot.

Last but not least, the old giant Adidas.

The company was on the brink of bankruptcy in the late 80s and early 90s because of poor management.

In 1993, the new CEO Frenchman, Robert Luis Dreyfuss Louis-Dreyfus, helped to save the company and helped Adidas succeed in listing in 1995, Robert.

After that, the company's performance began to flourish.

By 1998, the company's profit reached 425 million dollars, and sales revenue in North America increased by 109.2%.

The reason why Adidas can achieve ZTE after 1995 is that the Feet Your Wear technology that the company introduced at that time is very important.

In 1995, Adidas bought the "foot foot" technology from a less famous company, which later shocked the whole industry and applied it to all kinds of sports shoes design.

At that time, most sports brands under the influence of Nike developed the technology of retarding too much, which made the feet farther and farther away from the ground, which restricted the natural activity of the feet and made the feet unable to exert the greatest function.

However, the concept of "foot foot" holds that human feet are the best pair of shoes, and the natural structure of feet provides the shock resistance, stability and agility in motion.

Therefore, Adidas integrates all kinds of technology with such a concept, designs and produces a series of sports shoes that imitate human feet.

The concept of "Tian foot" spawned many classic shoe styles of Adidas in the mid and late 90s of last century.

In 1996, Adidas signed a series of products of "Tian foot" by Kobe Bryant.

With the rapid growth of Kobe in the alliance, the development of "foot foot" technology has reached its peak.

The overall situation has been decided.

Finally, the battle of the group in 1990s finally came to a close in the new century.

In 1998, CONVERSE launched React 2 technology on the basis of React.

However, due to defects in design, in order to enhance the damping effect, React 2 deliberately increased the "oil bag", but this needs to be wrapped with thickened hard material to maintain stability and safety. The hard material wrapped outside the oil bag in turn will reduce the shock absorption effect of the soles, even worse than the first generation React.

In order to restore the trend of decline, CONVERSE in Waterloo rushed out a technology called "helium air cushion", which is known as "helium air cushion".

But because the development cycle is too short and the technology is not mature, consumers naturally do not buy it.

To sum up, in the late 1990s, CONVERSE's technical attempt was not very satisfactory.

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Although CONVERSE has repeatedly stressed the originality and uniqueness of its technology, it can be found by eyes and eyes that both React and helium air cushion are basically copying the design ideas of Nike Air air cushion, replacing the soup with dressing.

In scientific research, it is impossible to jump off the mindset set by Nike, which makes CONVERSE go farther and farther in the wrong direction.

Development costs and market returns are seriously misaligned, and the ultimate failure is inevitable.

In 2001, the 93 year old CONVERSE filed for bankruptcy protection.

In 2003, Nike completed its acquisition of CONVERSE for $305 million.

Also, after 2000, there was Reebok.

In fact, in the late 80s and early 90s, the strength of the two companies of Reebok and Nike was still the same.

It was not until Jordan won the NBA championship in 1990 that Nike gradually pulled the gap with Reebok.

Seeing him lagging behind Nike, impatient Reebok quickly signed O'neal, the champion of the 1992 champion, hoping to fight against Nike, but the result was not satisfactory.

So, when Nike launched the landmark Air Zoom technology in 1995, Reebok did not hesitate to give up its already mature Hexalite technology. It followed the introduction of DMX technology, which obviously had the imitation of Nike Air traces.

Despite the excellent effect of DMX, there are still major technical defects, that is, durability is always difficult to solve.

Reebok's performance in the market has been very mild.

Before and after 2000, Reebok was already unable to compete directly with Nike, and its revenues continued to remain at US $3 billion for many years, while Nike was now close to US $10 billion.

Adidas, though not like Reebok and CONVERSE, has made major mistakes in technology research and development.

However, due to a patent dispute with the "foot foot" technology company, Adidas can no longer continue to use the "foot foot" technology, which has led to the abandonment of Adidas.

In 2005, Adidas bought Reebok at a price of 3 billion 100 million euros.

When the two companies completed the merger in early 2006, the annual revenue of the new company reached US $12 billion 300 million, which was close to Nike's $13 billion 700 million in fiscal year 2004-2005, and its share in the global sports market reached 20%, which is catching up with Nike's 33%.

After the wave of the sand, Nike laughed to the end.

In 1990s, the significance of the brand competition is that the whole industry has reached an unprecedented height as the "arms race" with the core of technology as the core continues to escalate.

Technology not only gives higher value-added products, but also completely changes the rules of the game that the whole industry can win before relying on marketing means such as star advertising before 1980s.

Over the past 10 years, such a traditional industry has gradually evolved into a technological industry.

This "arms race" started from the basketball court, then gradually extended to other areas - running, football and so on.

The major brands have applied their experience and skills from basketball courts to other sports events, thus promoting the overall progress of the industry.

The most obvious example is Nike's Air technology.

Although this technology was first used in running shoes, the maturity and development of air cushion technology were completed on the basketball court.

The improved Air technology is widely used in running, tennis, even football and outdoor products.

Several brands will be the main battlefield in the basketball field, which is to give some smaller sports brands outside the development of basketball space, such as running shoes New Balance and Asics.

But on the other hand, the competition of several brands has greatly improved the technology content of the whole industry. This forced the brand developing in the vertical field like New Balance more and more to study its own characteristic technology.

Today, New Balance has dozens of technology patents, such as structural damping, material damping, and so on. This is the fundamental factor that it can survive in fierce competition.

"Lighter" smoke again

From the competition of the sports brand in 1990s, it is not difficult to find that CONVERSE and Reebok, which have been led by the idea of "slow shock" by Nike, have failed to escape the bad luck.

On the contrary, the "heavenly foot" technology that advocates the restoration of foot characteristics has been successful (but it is a pity that it can not continue).

This shows that there is no way out of the homogenization of competition.

On the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Nike released another landmark technology, Flywire.

Just like 30 years ago, Air technology has led the trend of the whole industry's slow shock technology. Flywire has once again affected the trend of the development of sports shoes technology. This time, Nike brings the concept of "lightweight".

Flywire technology is a shoe supporting technology that is ultra lightweight and durable.

Research shows that when the shoes are reduced by 100 grams, the efficiency of people's movement can be increased by 1%, which means that a marathon runner who runs 3 hours can improve his performance by 3 minutes.

Flywire's technical inspiration is from suspension bridge.

The high strength thin wire on the upper surface of the technology is similar to that of the suspension bridge. The location of the thin line is precisely designed at the supporting part of the foot.

The shoe making method is changed by reducing the required material of the vamp to the degree of forming the same bare feet.

The weight of running shoes can be reduced to less than 100 grams by Flywire technology.

In just 3 years, Flywire technology has almost been applied to all newly developed Nike sports shoes.

The concept of "lightweight" is also well known to consumers as Nike vigorously publicizes it.

In 2010, Nike further launched Fuse technology to integrate leather, mesh and TPU traditional shoe upper materials to create a new material to achieve lightweight, tough, breathable and protective effects.

In the face of the "lightweight" trend of surging clouds, Adidas is naturally unwilling to lag behind.

In mid April of this year, Adidas released adiZero Crazy Light sneakers using SPRINTWEB shoe upper technology, which is a response to Nike's "lightweight".

Adidas claims that this sneaker is the lightest basketball shoe product ever created, creating a new industry standard, weighing only 9.8 ounces (about 278 grams), 15% lighter than the same product.

A month after adiZero was released, Lining also launched his own "lightweight" sports shoes, "light shadow" running shoes.

The structure of leaf vein is supplemented with ultra-thin mesh fabric to achieve weight reduction for shoes.

In this series of events, we seem to be vaguely aware of the shadow of the industry in 1990s, but this time the theme of science and technology has changed from "slow shock" to "lightweight".

Finally, share an interesting piece of news.

June 22nd, local sports brand

The news is worth pondering, with more sophisticated technology and

Over the past 30 years, technology has not only been given.

Obviously, such an ancient industry such as shoemaking is brightened by technology, shining new brilliance, and reorganizing the story by technology, which should have profound implications for other traditional industries.