If you haven’t been keeping your eyes on Nike lately, you might have missed the unveiling of their most creative and original shoe design yet.  It’s called the Nike Flyknit Racer, and prepare for them to be flying off the shelves faster than the Olympians who will be wearing them. In addition to the …

If you haven’t been keeping your eyes on Nike lately, you might have missed the unveiling of their most creative and original shoe design yet.  It’s called the Nike Flyknit Racer, and prepare for them to be flying off the shelves faster than the Olympians who will be wearing them.

In addition to the gorgeous minimalistic design, there is so much more to this shoe than meets the eye.  It is completely new, imploring minimal waste use with fabrics.  The Flyknit uses new technology on a machine that automatically knits the complete upper part of the shoe in a single piece before attaching it to the tongue and the sole. That basically means that the normal thirty seven pieces needed to make a standard Nike running shoe are cut down to just two.  Maybe I should leave it to Nike to describe it best:

An additional environmentally sustainable benefit to Nike Flyknit is that it reduces waste because the one-piece upper does not use the multiple materials and material cuts used in traditional sports footwear manufacture. Nike Flyknit is truly a minimalist design with maximum return. NIKE embarked on a four-year mission of micro-engineering static properties into pliable materials. It required teams of programmers, engineers and designers to create the proprietary technology needed to create the knit upper. 

The next steps were to map out where the specific yarn and knit structures were needed. Applying 40 years of knowledge from working with runners, NIKE refined the precise placement of support, flexibility and breathability – all in one layer. The result is precision engineering in its purest form, performance on display. Every element has a purpose: resulting in one of the lightest, best fitting running shoes NIKE has ever made.

Good design and unique technology don’t come easy or cheap though. The shoe is officially released in July, and will be priced at $150.  Obviously it is more expensive than a normal runner’s shoe, but if it holds up to everything it is touting, it will be worth it.  The shoe is pushing the norm, and I’m all for supporting that.

The Flyknit Racer shoe and technology has one of the most unique and expansive stories to tell in Nike’s history.  I’m willing to bet with four years of R&D on the technology and shoe, we’ve only heard a little bit of the story.  It’s so easy sometimes to see a polished finished product, and forget how much time, effort, and dedication went into it.  Nike could have just kept spitting out a shoe with a slight design change, maybe some new colors, and the same old materials.  Instead, they decided (years ago) to go back to the drawing board, to the founding question of, “How should a runner’s shoe be made?”.  The ability to make this shoe wasn’t possible, so Nike decided that they would make it possible.  Or as I like to imagine, a Nike manager saying to a pessimistic engineer, “Damnit, I don’t care that the technology doesn’t exist, the resources aren’t available, or the capability isn’t possible…Just Do It!”.

  Mountain Dew and Monster can drink eat Red Bull’s marketing shorts.  Just a few years ago these three energy drink companies were vying for the same (extremely liquid amped) people in the same standard advertisement ways.  Red Bull’s marketing campaign ads with the cheesy hand drawn cartoons saying “Red Bull gives you wiiings” were …

Mountain Dew and Monster can drink eat Red Bull’s marketing shorts.  Just a few years ago these three energy drink companies were vying for the same (extremely liquid amped) people in the same standard advertisement ways.  Red Bull’s marketing campaign ads with the cheesy hand drawn cartoons saying “Red Bull gives you wiiings” were the worst and least emotionally motivating to the viewer.  The other energy drink companies were content with the typical ads and promotions, but Red Bull, like its athletes, wasn’t satisfied with the status quo. Through expansive video content and marketing, they put the consumer in the driver seat with their rally car racers or on the waves with surfers.  The viewer was finally experiencing the amazing and emotional rush the athletes get everyday.  Jamie Monberg, CEO of Hornall Anderson, wrote it best for an article in Fast Company:

“The difference is not positioning; it’s experience. Branded experiences are designed interactions that leverage the inherent stickiness of participation—the strongest driver of preference we know. Red Bull has woven its brand into human experiences—not just as a sponsor, but as a participant. They walk the walk: the brand could almost be called a fan.

Red Bull’s “sponsored” experiences credibly inspire many of their consumers to authentically participate in creating and sharing “branded experiences” such as Flugtag. Mountain Dew is less credible because it is still using the old guard type of branding and messaging principles.”

Red Bull isn’t sitting on a billboard or armband; it’s actively involved out there, and using social media to maximize broadcast of their expeditions and adventures.  Their strongest form of video communication is definitely through their YouTube channel.  If you have an account, I highly recommend subscribing to them, as they dish out new short films and documentaries with their sponsored athletes and teams.  The Red Bull ad below defines this perfectly. The only person exempt from getting the chills and jaw dropping thought of “oh…my…god” from this video is Travis Rice.

Red Bull is constantly making amazing films daily around the world like this one.  Their most recent adventure is Red Bull Stratos, documenting Felix Baumgartner as he attempts to set the record for highest skydive jump from 120,000 ft in the air.  He did a “test run” at 71,500 which looked like he was jumping from space (he did have to use a space capsule to get up that high).

I consider Red Bull the BBC Life of extreme sporting, constantly documenting the unknown and never-before-seen.  They are changing the way brands can and should engage with their fans through video.  In addition to Monberg’s article, they were recently named as one of the “50 Most Innovative Companies” by Fast Company Design for this very reason.

I love that they weren’t satisfied with just being another stagnant sticker on a monster truck or skateboard.  Those old ways don’t build loyalty, raise the hairs on your arms, or wipe the drool from your face. All industries should be taking notes because Red Bull is pushing the boundaries in marketing (and extreme sports) and they’re not looking back.  Welcome to their world, the world of Red Bull.

  You probably have experienced in some way over the past few years Domino’s Pizza new “tell it like it is” marketing campaign.  They have publically bashed their own “cardboard” (as one customer put it) pizza while showing all forms of customer comments in tv commercials, websites, social media and now even on a virtual …

You probably have experienced in some way over the past few years Domino’s Pizza new “tell it like it is” marketing campaign.  They have publically bashed their own “cardboard” (as one customer put it) pizza while showing all forms of customer comments in tv commercials, websites, social media and now even on a virtual screen in New York City.

Half-baked efforts are no longer acceptable, and they are promising to go back to the ingredient boards and reestablish how they do business and pizza.  In a world filled with marketing campaigns of trophy polishing, and pat on the back marketing, it’s a breath of fresh air to see a company close their mouths and open their ears.  It takes a lot of courage for a company to hand over their brand to the customer and say, “Here, take it, tell everybody what you think, we won’t intervene”.  I applaud Domino’s for looking honestly into their business model and realizing it wasn’t good enough for them or their customers.

They are revamping their image through a way that few businesses dare to try these days, and apparently it is paying off.  In addition to sales and net income improving yearly, they were just recently named the pizza chain of the year (for the second straight year).

So congrats Domino’s Pizza, keep up the good work and please remember to always “x” the anchovies off my pizza or you and the mass media will be hearing from me.

  If you haven’t had the opportunity to see the new HBO tv series A Game of Thrones, you are not only depriving yourself of a superb tv show on the rise, but probably the most creative opening title sequence ever made. A Game of Thrones is a tv adaptation of the first book in …

If you haven’t had the opportunity to see the new HBO tv series A Game of Thrones, you are not only depriving yourself of a superb tv show on the rise, but probably the most creative opening title sequence ever made.

A Game of Thrones is a tv adaptation of the first book in George R. R. Martin’s fantasy medieval series A Song of Ice and Fire.  The plot is thick, the characters are numerous, and the mythical world is detailed.  Think of a grittier The Lord of the Rings.  They wrapped up their first season to awards and praise, and season two is just around the corner in April.

To give the viewer a better understanding of the world (and their bearings), the show brings to life a map of the world by artistically “building” important cities and locations through animation.  As you move across the world, the architecture and design springs to life, bringing elements and similarities of a childhood pop-up book.

I have never seen anything so dynamic and innovative dedicated to just an opening sequence like A Game of Thrones has done here (not to mention the beautiful score playing along).  I know you shouldn’t “judge a book by its cover” but this is for sure one example of correctly “judging a tv show by its opening”.

  Welcome! Come one, come all. So begins the epic journey of my blogging abilities. My blog, “breaking standards”, will dive into the creative worlds of technology, marketing, and design. I’ll be bringing you the cream of the crop in trendy topics. We live in a rapidly changing and evolving world, and what’s popular today …

Welcome! Come one, come all. So begins the epic journey of my blogging abilities. My blog, “breaking standards”, will dive into the creative worlds of technology, marketing, and design. I’ll be bringing you the cream of the crop in trendy topics. We live in a rapidly changing and evolving world, and what’s popular today might not be tomorrow.  It’s a scary thought to some, because being as richly informed as these guys still seems comically absurd.  Exciting news from yesterday is now literally becoming “yesterday’s news”. New things have only a few seconds to grab attention away from our Angry Birds busy lives. My goal with this blog is to stop us all in those busy tracks, and take some time to admire the great creativity right in front of us!