‘Obsess the details’ advises Nike researcher
10/09/2014
“What really motivates us is when we see our products being used on the field of play, whether it’s at a pinnacle event like the Olympics or the World Cup, or just seeing someone out on a run.
“We obsess the details. We stare at their feet, and if they are in a motion-controlled shoe and it looks like they are pronating too much, we worry about those things. If we go to a soccer game and an athlete slips, we obsess over that and we come in the next morning and everybody’s asking each other ‘Hey, did you see that person slipping?’ We start to question why did that happen, what are we doing wrong, and how do we make it better.”
The research lab was started in 1980 and is home to an “unbelievable amount of data”. “It’s an extremely creative process in the sport research lab, because you are solving new problems and coming up with new ways to apply findings every single day.”
He adds that while athletes are getting stronger and faster, there are three basic things they have asked for 30 years: “Make me better, protect me and inform me.”
Share this story:
