Faster product development finds favour with Nike CEO
Chief executive of Nike, Elliott Hill, has paid tribute to the speed with which his team brought new running shoes, the Vomero Plus and the Vomero Premium, to market this year.
This shoes, which Nike introduced in June, attracted attention because they have enough cushioning to make them the tallest running shoe in the market. But something that was of at least as much importance in Mr Hill’s eyes is that Nike completed the development of the Vomero shoes in around eight months. This compares to a more typical product development time of 18 months.
In particular, he commended the work that the group’s chief innovation, design and product officer, Phil McCartney, and his colleagues had carried out to bring the Vomero products to market quickly.
When Elliott Hill returned to lead Nike last October, Mr McCartney, then vice-president for footwear, was in Busan, South Korea, with a team of designers and engineers. In recent comments to the Wall Street Journal, Phil McCartney explained that he in the team spent three weeks in Busan, testing shoes and working with manufacturing partners to make adjustments on the spot, eliminating what the newspaper called the usual development lags.
“We would work overnight, then put the shoes on and run up and down the river in Busan,” Mr McCartney said.
Elliott Hill has said he now wants to apply the same, quick development approach to other Nike products.
