Ch. 10 - Product Concepts

LeBron James posing with his newly released "LeBron XI".

Nike Inc. has been apart of the athletic apparel market ever since its inception as Nike Inc. on May 30th, 1971, and has always been known for innovating and making better a product that exists. Bill Bowerman the co-founder of Nike started his run of product concepts back when he would pull apart the then modern running shoes of his day and try and see how he could make them lighter while at the same time not losing the durability and flexibility that a running shoe has to offer the athlete. Bowerman was always striving to make the current running shoe better in his day, and had that attitude to make better and innovate an existing product throughout his company. Innovation is a very important factor, probably the most important when it comes to Nike's product concept approach. Personalized collections lie in that field of their concepts as well, having athletes from various sports custom design products for Nike to sell to consumers.

Kobe Bryant discussing design concepts with Nike a design team member.

 Nike through its sale of sneakers is probably the biggest of products for them, as they draw the most attention and bring in the most revenue for the company. Nike preaching innovation is well applied as Nike is able to instill and put forth the best and latest fashionable, technological and design trends and patterns and directions that are "in" in today's world and today's consumer base. One thing Nike does well is having a series of numerous top athletes being represented by them, and having them design apparel and especially sneakers for them to sell. The Nike basketball shoes sold by them that are designed by and represent stars such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Kevin Durant sell especially well. They have these super star athletes sit down with a designer and they then go ahead and design the sneaker and select the color ways and everything from the laces to the sole of the sneaker and put it out for the concumer. The fact that Nike has these athletes design these sneakers personally not only makes the sneaker more appealing to consumers, but gives it more reason to be purchased. 

The designs of these players are very unique as most of their designs have a story or a meaning behind them as well as a direction for the consumers, which most other athletes from other companies do not have or really apply. The personal ties and stories and the personalization done by them is huge for Nike's product concepts. Kevin Durant especially always has a personal tie and a back story and a direction for the consumer's feeling to why and how he designed a certain sneaker and gave it certain colors and features, and offers his personal story to it. As all these factors play in, Nike's shoes I would consider to be a shopping product, as consumers are constantly looking up info on them and are willing to spend more on them, as these products are more expensive than others and are not found in all stores or are hard to find or only have limited availability. Nike is always updating and modifying and improving their products on a regular basis, and releasing new sneakers as often as possible. For example,every winter Nike will release a newly designed line of sneakers for the winter season, and does the same for the summer season as well. They are constantly making new and improved designs available for a consumer. As well as the actual design of the shoe Nike keeps intact the idea of using environmentally safe and beneficiary materials when making sneakers, as most of the materials they use in the designing are from recycled sneakers.