Subvert: Technology Decides Success Or Failure

　　 science and technology Today has become this. industry The basic elements of development are the rise of their Tao and the decline of their way. "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, the 39 year old NBA player "shark" suddenly announced the news on Twitter, announcing that he would lift the contract with the Celtics for a year ahead of schedule and end his 19 year career. A generation of NBA legend retired.

When he announced that he had retired for less than 24 hours, he liked his fans quickly to sort out all the sneakers introduced in his 19 year career and put them on the Internet for fans to recall. From his early childhood endorsement of the series, to the late career of endorsement. Xie Series, each pair of shoes can recall many wonderful memories of leather shoes fans.

Nearly 20 years of career, it is the most rapid development of the sports shoes industry for 20 years. 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.

Subversive

Before 1970s, the NBA arena was still a world.

The company was born in 1908. In the early years, most of the NBA athletes wore canvas shoes to compete. Today, the circular logo on the upper of the canvas shoe upper is commonly seen by the Gao Gang. At the beginning of the design, it was designed to protect the ankle better through such a rigid logo. This is almost the prototype of basketball shoe technology.

And the sports shoes market outside of basketball is the world of the company founded in 1948. In 1954, the German team won the World Cup championship by virtue of the development of the rotary sneakers, and this laid the dominant position in the field of football shoes. Since then, the company has continuously strengthened its technological superiority in the field of football shoes and extended the influence of brand to other sports. By the time of 1970s, he became the number one sport brand in the world.

Although he has accumulated some scientific and technological strength in football field, the particularity of football projects determines that more scientific and technological content, such as stud technology, can not be extended to other mass products. The demand for professional products and popular products is not exactly the same, which makes the accumulated experience of professional football in the long term useless.

This also caused the overlord in the basketball shoes field to be more enterprising. For half a century, the products of the company have changed little in details, including material and other details.

In the era of "Ying and Qi", the sports shoes industry has developed so slowly until the birth of Qi.

At the very beginning, he appeared with a unique image. He did not choose to compete with the giants at that time. Instead, he grabbed the jogging market that had just sprung up and was scorned. He launched a sports shoes suitable for the public and quickly stood firm.

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

Today, "air cushion technology" has become the pronoun of Qi. It is difficult to verify who first introduced the concept of "slow motion" into sports shoes, but it is certain that the 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 Phil Knight, a founder of the space plant, which injected air into a durable and flexible film, so that shoes could be cushioned. The two men chime in with each other and quickly cooperate with Rudy. After 9 months of hard work, a revolutionary new technology for earthquake mitigation was born. The new achievement was named 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 Air technology is Tailwind in 1979. In 1982, for the first time, Air Sole air cushion was applied to basketball shoes for the first time, thus creating Air Force 1, which was later praised as "the greatest basketball shoe in history" by countless shoe fans. Air cushion technology has injected new vitality into the depressed sports shoes industry at that time.

In 1984, he signed a price of $500 thousand, signing a contract with Mike Jordan, who had no name at that time. In 1985, he launched the first generation signature shoes, 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 Federation forbids wearing this shoe to play, otherwise it will be fined once every time. But he prefers to pay for fines rather than pay attention to the provisions of the alliance. The Union has 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, they still go their own way. With the rapid rise of China, more and more Americans know about it and know the amazing air cushion technology. At this point, it has begun to threaten the status of NBA in China.

In fact, it was not that there was no chance to block it before it grew stronger.

In 1980s, he actually held a good hand. At that time, under the command of the NBA, the most influential "black and white double" - "big bird" Bird and "magician", their endorsement of Weapon series basketball shoes had a good market reaction. At that time, the "God of basketball" was only a show of glory. Although in the 1984 rookie season, he became the scoring king of the league, but it was 7 years before he really got on the altar and got the first three consecutive championships.

However, he failed to take advantage of the card in his hand. 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 the Air Force 1 and Air Jordan 1, there is hardly any technology content. Products are not powerful, and good spokesmen are useless. He can only watch and bite off his site.

With its new air cushion technology and smart marketing strategy, it rose rapidly after the 80s of last century. In 1984, its sales volume was $900 million, and by 1997 it had turned to $9 billion 190 million. More importantly, through the wide application of air cushion technology to all kinds of products, people can really enjoy the convenience of technology sports shoes for the first time. The rise of Qi makes more and more sports brands realize the importance of science and technology, which directly promotes the upgrading and transformation of the whole industry. {page_break}

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 the rapid rise of the 1980s has become the theme of the brand competition in 1990s.

Over the past 10 years, the company has continued to optimize its air cushion technology, and has continuously developed subdivision products on the basis of the 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, the seismic mitigation technology has become more mature.

By the end of the 1980s, faced with aggressive attacks, the old talent realized the seriousness of the problem. In 1991, React developed a Air shock absorber to counter the 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 the Air products of the same period.

With the success of advertising strategy, React sports shoes also received good market feedback. React helped to temporarily recover the decline and set a firm footing in the early 90 years of last century.

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

In 1989, it launched the 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. In addition, the slogan "Pump Up and Air Out" is used as an advertising slogan.

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, he signed the first prize winner of the year, and launched his personal sneakers The Shaq One Pump.

Shortly afterwards, Hexalite launched the 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 the Zoom Air, he 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, it is the old giant. The company was on the brink of bankruptcy in the late 80s and early 90s because of poor management. In 1993, the new CEO Robert (Robert Louis-Dreyfus) turned the tide and saved the company and helped him succeed in listing in 1995. 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 China can achieve ZTE after 1995 is that the Feet Your Wear technology that the company introduced at that time is indispensable.

In 1995, he bought the "foot foot" technology from a less famous company, which shocked the whole industry and applied it to all kinds of sports shoes design. At that time, most sports brands under the influence of excessive development of earthquake mitigation technology, making the feet farther and farther away from the ground, which limits the natural activity of the feet, so that the feet can not play the biggest 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, with such a concept, we integrate all kinds of technology, design and produce a series of sports shoes that imitate human feet.

The concept of "Tian foot" spawned many classic shoe styles in the mid and late 90s of last century. In 1996, the company signed a series of products of "Tian foot". With the rapid growth of the alliance, the development of "foot foot" technology has reached its peak. {page_break}

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, it 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.

A year later, he rushed out the technology of "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. All in all, in the late 1990s, the technical attempts were not very effective.

Despite repeated emphasis on the originality and uniqueness of its technology, people can see that React and helium air cushion are basically copying the design idea of Air air cushion. In scientific research, it is impossible to jump off the mindset under the assumption, which makes it 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 man filed for bankruptcy protection. In 2003, it bought $305 million for the acquisition.

Also, after 2000, there was still lost. In fact, in the late 80s and early 90s, the strength of the two companies was similar. It was not until 1990 when NBA won the championship that he gradually opened up the gap with him.

I saw myself lagging behind the anxious and anxious rush to sign the champion of the 1992 champion, hoping to fight against it, but the result was not satisfactory. Therefore, when the landmark Air Zoom technology was launched in 1995, it was willing to abandon the already mature Hexalite technology, followed by the introduction of DMX technology with obvious imitation of Air traces. Despite the excellent effect of DMX, there are still major technical defects, that is, durability is always difficult to solve. Its performance in the market has been very mild.

Before and after 2000, the company had already been unable to compete directly with the company. The company's revenues continued to remain at US $3 billion for many years, and at that time, it was close to US $10 billion.

Although it did not produce a major error in technology research and development as it did in the past, However, due to a patent dispute with the company, the company could not continue to use the technology of "heaven and foot", which resulted in the abandonment of "heaven and foot".

In 2005, the price was 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 the US $13 billion 700 million in fiscal year 2004-2005, and its share in the global sports market reached 20%.

　 After the ebb and flow, I 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 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. {page_break}

"Lighter" smoke again

From the competition of sports brand in 1990s, it is easy to see that the "lucky" and "lucky" who are led by the idea of "slow shock" are finally doomed to failure. On the contrary, the "foot foot" technology, which advocated the restoration of foot characteristics, has been successful. This shows that the homogenization of competition is ultimately no way out.

In 2008, on the eve of the Olympic Games, Flywire released another landmark technology, namely, flying technology. Just like 30 years ago, Air technology has led the trend of slow shock technology in the whole industry. Flywire has once again affected the trend of the development of sports shoes technology. This time, the concept brought about by the company is "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 been applied to all newly developed sports shoes. The concept of "lightweight" has been well known to consumers as its vigorous publicity. In 2010, he 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 surging "lightweighting" trend, we will not lag behind. In mid April of this year, the adiZero Crazy Light sneakers using SPRINTWEB shoe upper technology were released to respond to "lightweight". It 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), lighter than the same product 15%.

One month after adiZero was released, the company also launched its 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. In June 22nd, the local sports brand signed the NBA Rockets player, which means that if the NBA of the next season can be carried out normally, then China will have a "match" against the US "Jordan", that is, "Li Gui and Li Kui".

The news is worth pondering over the fact that the ambition of local sports brands with more sophisticated technology and marketing methods is gradually emerging, and the local brands represented by ",", "and" are crossing the stage of imitation of foreign brands in the early stage. Just like 30 years ago, local brands began to lay out in the NBA arena. As for whether we can develop innovative technology that is enough to subvert the industry, it is not clear that 30 years ago, we played a good role in the market. But it is certain that China's brand will always be vigilant at all times to ensure its technological superiority.

Over the past 30 years, technology has not only given higher added value to sports shoes, but also a decisive factor in maintaining the industry's vitality. "Technology + marketing" has become the basic element of the development of the industry today. "Technology business" is so powerful.

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.