Through Nike+ you can invite friends
to race against you, the results being displayed within the personal
sections on the website. Collecting data to be 'used'
virtually, sure enough opens a whole new spectrum of applications
for this technology - Mark Parker:
"I think the applications and the content will
get richer and richer as we go forward. The creative folks within
Nike have been developing new ideas together with the people from
Apple and there is a lot of creative synergy between the two companies.
What you see in the first introduction of this product is just the
beginning. We're working on generation two and three at the moment
and we're hoping it gets more people to participate. [...] What I
think is going to be interesting is how people are actually going
to use this. Steve (Jobs) and I were talking about this the other
day, and we were talking to people who have used it since just this
week. They have ideas what they would want to do with it. We are going
to keep really close with the folks who us the product and learn from
them."
Paula Radcliffe and Lance Armstrong truly are great athletes –
both of them have already been using Nike+. But what about the people
in the audience at the Nike+ launch – all mainly from the 'lifestyle'
camp...? After a few conversations it
|
|
became clear that not all of us were actually runners.
We all had – at one point or another – tried to put our
sneakers to their original use. Not many had stayed with it. After
a quick test-run, however, the common notion seemed to be "let's go",
"let's use this and see who's best". Besides the application, it was
also the shoe itself which captured people's excitement. While so
many performance-based sneakers tend to look just like that –
performance-based sneakers – the Nike Zoom Moire is definitely
also a very stylish shoe. Maybe even a bit too stylish, too easily
adaptable for 'lifestyle' purposes... - Mark Parker:
"I don't see a problem in the shoe crossing
over into lifestyle. I believe that many people who use it as a performance
shoe would probably also use it casually. That being said, we'd like
to encourage people to use it for workout purposes. But to have a
lifestyle version of it wouldn't seem to be a bad idea either. If
you're careful I don't think one compromises the other."
We'll see what happens to the special edition of the Nike Zoom
Moire which was handed out to the guests at the launch event. We know
that at least one pair was put to the test the next morning. Hopefully
we'll see the rest of them sometime soon... on the road. |
