2007
Sneaker giant Nike knows the true meaning of…
Posted by: Fashion06 in Design |
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Sneaker giant Nike knows the true meaning of imitation is the purest form of flattery. Hopefully that is how they take it considering so many companies love to base their shoe design after the Nike Air Force One sneaker.
I’m pretty sure everyone is familiar with sneaker giant Nike and the Air Force 1 look, which is used by other footwear companies as the blueprint for what a saleable shoe should look like.
I know many of our readers are also in the process of starting a sneaker or footwear company. Hmm…Where did you start? Hopefully with a creative mind and clear design palette. I’ve seen at least two or three advertisements in magazines I read on a monthly basis with sneaker/footwear companies that design their shoe base after the Air Force 1 low and mid style by Nike. Even dominant companies that have their own following (Greedy Genius) mimic the Air Force 1 sneaker, most predominantly, the A Bathing Ape shoes Bapestas.
For some reason it seems consumers criticize footwear companies shoes for being ridiculously close in design to the Air Force 1, but still continue to support these smaller footwear companies businesses that are slowly chipping away at Nike’s profits. Nike the footwear company not being a company known to brag, apparently released statements last year about their yearly profits and how they bring in $1 billion dollars in sales on the Air Force 1 sneaker division alone! From that statement it would seem that is their most profitable shoe, maybe that is what motivates other companies to do all the knocking off I mean flattering.
It seems the shoe design (Nike Air Force One) alone has become as much of a staple in the footwear business as let’s say the design of jeans or pants. Jeans do come in different styles, but for the most part they have two large front pockets with a smaller third with the zipper and the crotch…not much difference too it other than a few logos and creative branding. Maybe it goes back to the old saying “If it ain’t broke…don’t fix it”. I guess these new companies see Nike had it right the first time…so why not a second, third, and fourth time at least until consumers change their taste and with the success of the Air Force One sneaker I don’t see that coming any time soon.
What does Nike owe to all this flattering? Why aren’t more toward being more creative and designing their own future staple in the footwear business?
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Fred
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May 9th, 2007 at 6:36 am
I think the current generation has had a lot of the culture and experience ‘mediated’. Drawing so much inspiration from media (cartoons, music, movies, comics), yet we don’t actually OWN our experiences - they belong to companies.
It’s not like a kid can draw a picture of the Transformer he saw on TV and then sell his artwork for money. You’ll get sued, because you don’t OWN the intellectual property, even though it came out of your mind, and you physically re-created it.
‘Design’, fashion in particular, holds a very different position in the eyes of the law. For the most part, you can’t OWN a design. So as long as you don’t put a Nike swoosh on your shoe, Nike can’t claim they own the shoe you made, unlike the Transformer you drew in crayons.
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Because so many of our experiences are not our own, when we create and re-create, very often it is built on existing corporate products. Cars, mobile phones, music… all examples of things we remix, decorate and modify.
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I see Nike as being similar to the Transformers. A product that inspired us as children, a product that we associate different memories, stories and feelings, a product that when we see now, has us reminiscing of a simpler time.
UNLIKE the Transformer, an AF1 can be re-structured, re-created, re-mixed and re-sold without winding up with a ‘Cease and Desist’ order.
The fact that people sell shoes based on Nike’s classic designs has everything to do with the fact that, as children, we were taught to idolize the shoes. Nike made money from doing that then, and they still make money now. They have grown and adapted, incorporating young artists, new collaborators and new styles, keeping the product apart of our culture as we grow, and they’re HEALTHY for it.
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Industries that refuse to acknowledge consumer participation are ones that are being over thrown. Thier last few years have been their WORST years, not the best.
Think about it; the RIAA, MPAA shutting people down and trying to sue. Brands like Levis, suing all the Japanese companies that paid homage to their history in their denim logos. They choose to fight, not participate and innovate. But how can a company win by fighting its own consumers?
A message to corporate America? Be like Nike.
May 9th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Wear in the world would we be without re-inventing the wheel?
Fashion is always going to “comeback” so to speak, but with a twist. Who woulda thought that bell bottoms were going to come back so big in the late 90’s? Designers simply lowered the hip and called them hipsters/hip huggers and then attached the term wide leg to them instead of bell bottom. Seeing bell bottoms on my parents in pictures from the 60’s & 70’s…I just knew that I was NOT going to look that old school. Next thing you know, I’m in the dressing room trying a pair on because they were so hot. God Forbid!!
I predict that since the resurgence of 80’s fashion this past year or so, we will see the fat lace (w/ a twist, of course) come back in some shape or form….or has somebody already jumped on that?
So, in some shape or form, why indeed should anyone re-invent the wheel? Starbucks ain’t mad at Coffee houses and Coffee houses ain’t mad at Starbucks. They ALL are making scrilla!!!!!!! You dig?
May 16th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Be like Nike ? I hope these guys fall real hard once we lose our sheep mentality and start developing some style and personality not based around a Swoosh logo. Are their shoes the most comfortable ? Not a fat chance.See Asics or New Balance. Are their clothes more high tech or higher performance .Not really.
I would hope many of you reading this would strive to be so unlike Nike, as they are not as great a corporate citizen they want you to believe. In fact, without invoking Godwin’s Law, they are known in the industry circles as the Nazi’s of the apparel/footwear world , their logo simply referred to as the Swooshtika.
I know many people that have dealt with them over the past 30 years. Everything with them is short term. They like to shaft people at every chance and they don’t really care. They don’t even use lube.
They are that arrogant.
May 21st, 2007 at 7:19 pm
NIKE. . what can you say………NOTHIN!!!!!