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Nike unveils self-lacing basketball shoe

The Nike Adapt BB allows users to tighten and loosen the shoe using their smartphone.
Credit: Nike Inc. - Kenneth St. George
Nike Vice President of Innovation Michael Donaghu unveiled the company's first sport-specific self-lacing shoe on Tuesday. In an interview with the Business Journal, he compared the shoe to previous big sellers, such as Flyknit.

Last summer, Nike executives invited several WNBA and NBA players, including Celtics star Jayson Tatum, to the company's suburban Portland campus. They asked the players to test a prototype of the company's first self-lacing basketball shoe. They expected them to wear the shoes for about 20 minutes, which is typical for an elite athlete trying a product for the first time.

They wore them for more than two hours.

"All they wanted to do was play basketball," said Michael Donaghu, Nike vice president of innovation.

On Tuesday, Nike unveiled the shoe, called the Nike Adapt BB, at an event in New York City. It is Nike's second commercial self-lacing product, after the HyperAdapt 1.0, which Nike released in 2016. This time, the expectations are much higher because the self-lacing technology has matured from novelty to more commercial.

The Nike Adapt BB will cost $350, still expensive for athletic footwear, but significantly reduced from the $720 Nike charged for the HyperAdapt 1.0. Donaghu said the self-lacing technology could be the company's next "platform," a word that Nike executives reserve for innovations that can generate massive sales.

For example, in 2012, when Nike released Flyknit, its woven-shoe technology, executives described the technology as a "platform breakthrough." At its 2015 investor day, Nike announced Flyknit generated $1 billion in annual sales.

"I've worked on a lot of products," Donaghu said. "But when you can work on an idea that feels more like a platform with some extendability — a true 1.0 — those are always really exciting because it's kind of kicking the door open to a whole different era."

The Nike Adapt BB allows users to tighten and loosen the shoe using their smartphone. Donaghu said that will change Nike's relationship with consumers because it will allow Nike engineers to collect and analyze data on how the product performs. (Consumers can opt out of sharing data with Nike.)

Typically, a consumer buys a shoe and Nike doesn't get any feedback unless it gets returned or consumers post reviews on message boards.

"This allows us to understand how the product is performing and how to make it better," Donaghu said.

Nike chose basketball as the first sport-specific application for the self-lacing technology because of the demands the sport places on the foot. The company expects to introduce versions of the shoe for additional sports and a lifestyle version later this year.

Donaghu said the company's also working to reduce the $350 price.

"We are absolutely working hard to make it more and more accessible," Donaghu said. "It’s definitely part of the agenda."

The shoes will release on Feb. 14 in Charlotte at the NBA All-Star game. Pre-orders sold out on Nike's website.

Tatum will debut the shoe in an NBA game on Wednesday night against the Toronto Raptors.

The Portland Business Journal is a KGW News partner.

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