Tag Archives: clothing

by | Wednesday, December 18, 2024 · 6:28 am

Spray-ON Shoes are Ready to Run

Many competitive runners (and some not-as-competitive runners) swear there are performance benefits to be had by running in light-weight shoes. The lighter the better, and consequently the lower the running time.

Cutting weight from running shoes can’t get much lighter than Swiss sportswear brand On and its new “spray-on” shoes made using robotics that spray polymers into complex shapes. On’s Cloudboom Strike LS weighs about 100g lighter than other popular running shoes of the same size. Using robotics and unique materials also cuts CO2 emissions by 75% compared to manufacturing other racing shoes.

On sprays the shoe’s uppers from a thermoplastic that can be sprayed by a robot in one long movement onto a standard foot mold. It can then be attached to the carbon-fiber and foam rubber sole using heat instead of glue. This eliminates the need to stitch together multiple pieces of fabric and takes roughly three minutes to assemble. There are no laces, tongue, or heel-cap, giving the shoe a translucent, sock-like appearance.

We’ve seen spray-on textiles used for custom-fit dresses and costumes before this, but not shoes. Spray-on fibers have also been used in the beauty industry – think “hair in a can” that can be used to conceal bald spots.

Cloudboom Strike LS costs $300 a pair and is targeted to the serious runner market. Olympian Kenyan athlete Hellen Obiri wore the shoes to win the Boston Marathon, and then again to win a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics. Weight matters.

Let’s run!

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: Have they traveled by train
  2. Show website: https://www.on.com/en-us/lightspray?srsltid=AfmBOoqz06S8CRtgIHMX4I9Zt_dwDSNZhWBWjsAEtjMdHCIcnPMra9d0
  3. There are a number of videos on the website that show how the shoe is made and performs. Show these in class.
  4. Discuss the importance of clearly defining a target market.
  5. For this product, who is the target market?
  6. Divide students into teams and have each team develop a profile of a target customer. Include demographics, psychographics, behaviors, values, attitudes, etc.
  7. Based on the target market profile, what makes this product unique for those customers?
  8. Have teams develop a marketing campaign for this product and market.

Source: Dolan, L. (17 July 2024). Marathon-winning ‘spray-on’ running shoes could shake up Olympics. CNN; Moss, T. (2 November 2024). Made in three minutes, feels like a sock: Are spray-on sneakers the future? Wall Street Journal.

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by | Tuesday, September 24, 2024 · 7:57 am

Finally – A High-Heeled Sneaker

Innovation takes many forms – it can be a technological breakthrough that helps to change  how the world communicates. Or it might be a manufacturing change to reduce waste. Or, innovation can also take a common problem and solve it using an entirely new experience.

Let’s take a common problem like, say, uncomfortable high heels. And now we apply innovation to deliver  a new solution to solve the problem. Something along the lines of making high heels that are as comfortable as a sneaker.

Easier said than done, as found out by entrepreneur Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx. Making a high heel as comfortable as a sneaker required changing the shoe design and manufacturing process in an industry long dominated by male designers and owners (who don’t wear high heels).

So what do we get when crossing a stiletto heel with a comfy sneaker? We get Sneex, a new luxury hybrid stiletto. After all, women already wear sneakers even at formal events, so why not a luxury brand to wear? And, yes, just because the word ‘sneaker’ is involved, it doesn’t mean the shoe is cheap. The luxury shoe retails for $395 – $595.  There are only a handful of styles and colors, and the shoe is only in whole sizes 5-11.

Shall we wear it for a run or take it to a gala?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students about their shoes and satisfaction.
  2. Show Sneex: www.sneex.com.
  3. Show video about the product: https://youtu.be/qhHUB9FUJcI?si=22Dp_5N9qqUhO6cV
  4. Discuss the four marketing strategies.
  5. Discuss setting SMART objectives.
  6. Which strategy is being used for this product?
  7. Divide students into teams. Have each team write three objectives for the strategy selected.
  8. Next, have the students define a target market and develop a targeted promotional campaign.

Source: Encinas, A. (28 August 2024). Sneex: Neither a heel nor a sneaker, a new shoe that is dividing the people. USA Today; Jackson, H. (19 August 2024). Spanx founder Sara Blakely wants you to run in (sneaker) heels. Vogue; Spanx founder Sara Blakely introduces Sneex, a sneaker-heel hybrid starting at $395 a pair. People magazine; other news sources.

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by | Saturday, April 20, 2024 · 9:41 am

Tide Evolves into New Tile Form

Laundry is big business. How big? Roughly $9.3 billion worth of big annually! Market researcher Circana estimates that of that amount, 70% is spent on liquid detergent, 24% on packets and tablets (e.g. Tide Pods), and powder detergent is only 6%.  Tide Pods were launched in 2012 and quickly reached $500 million in sales within its first year.

That’s a big shift in how consumers select detergents to do their laundry. And Tide (owned by Proctor & Gamble) is introducing yet another form of detergent – dry detergent sheets for your laundry – with hopes to repeat its success with Tide Pods.

Why the new form? The dry laundry sheets appeal to consumers who want to eliminate both plastics and waters that adversely impact our environment. The new technology also eliminates the need for heavy plastic bottles and thereby reduces shipping weight and cost for online purchasers. P&G isn’t the first to use this dry sheet format, but it is the largest laundry detergent brand and hopes to convince consumers to change the way they wash clothes.

What are they? The dry sheets are roughly the size of your palm and are composed of six layers of fibers that dissolve in cold water, reducing energy bills for washing. A package of 44-tiles will retail for $19.94, the same price as a 45-pod container of Tide Power Pods + Ultra Oxi.

Unlike the colorful Tide Pods, which presented problems with children mistaking the pods for candy as well as criticism of water pollution, the dry sheets will be colorless, a form preferred by consumers in the testing phase.

What’s your preferred laundry detergent?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Show website: https://tide.com/en-us/our-commitment/tide-evo
  2. Discuss the importance of clearly defining a target market.
  3. Divide students into teams. For Tide evo, what is the target market? Include demographics, psychographics, behaviors, values, attitudes, etc.
  4. Based on the target market profile, what makes this product unique for these customers?
  5. Discuss newness from the consumers’ perceptive. Is this product an example of continuous innovation, dynamically continuous innovation, or discontinuous innovation? Why?
  6. How does this product fit into P&G product line?
  7. Who is the main competitor to Tide evo?

Source: Khan, N. (3 March 2024). P&G launches Tile Tiles in bid to change how laundry is done. Wall Street Journal; Weiss, G. (8 March 2024). Forget Pods. Tide wants to make fabric ‘tiles’ the future of laundry. Business Insider.

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