An acquaintance of mine is part of the development team for track spikes at Nike. They often develop a top end shoe around one athlete like Centro or Farah with their direct input. They'll travel to training locations and meets to deliver the latest models.
Does anyone with inside knowledge know of the fallout from the Kipchoge incident?
A kid in the Phillipoines was fired. Don't worry about it.
Seems like you have some inside knowledge. Enlighten us...
Not Deepthroat wrote:
Seems like you have some inside knowledge. Enlighten us...
My inside knowledge stops at understanding the basic structure of Nike's shoe development teams. Based on what I know there is a short list of people directly responsible.
Unfortunately, I don't know this guy well enough to ask about an internal issue of this importance. I'm hoping that LRC has a better mole than me.
Outside The Berm wrote:
Does anyone with inside knowledge know of the fallout from the Kipchoge incident?
A serious question back to you: Is there anyone at Nike other than the distance team manager and now the PR team who knows who Kipchoge is?
I thought the issue was that he was using some sort of custom insole? I don't think this was a shoe issue...
Why would anybody lose their jobs? nike WANTS to make a shoddy product. That has been their business model since the very start..
children slaves wrote:
Why would anybody lose their jobs? nike WANTS to make a shoddy product. That has been their business model since the very start..
I could see an argument that they want to make the product as cheaply as possible, which would correlate with being shoddy, but I don't think any company intentionally makes a crappy product.
And, I would add, Nike does make some pretty sweet product. Other than Adidas, they're the only company that makes a wool-component running top, their spikes are great, the Pegasus is a great shoe, the Elite is finally good again, the Structure is gaining traction in run specialties, and the Streak LT is one of the best 5k flats on the market.
themanontherun wrote:
And, I would add, Nike does make some pretty sweet product. Other than Adidas, they're the only company that makes a wool-component running top
WTF are you talking about? I have been running in Patagonia merino running tops for over ten years. Get out much?
Ice Breaker
New Balance
Craft
Sugoi
just some others off the top of my head who make tops with Merino wool...
John Cappriotti had the employees flogged, the ones that actually made the shoes overseas and the product developers in Beaverton, at least that's what I heard.
Merino Topper wrote:
themanontherun wrote:And, I would add, Nike does make some pretty sweet product. Other than Adidas, they're the only company that makes a wool-component running top
WTF are you talking about? I have been running in Patagonia merino running tops for over ten years. Get out much?
For merino wool, Smartwool > Patagonia (though I love both brands).
I was talking about brands that have a significant focus/market share on running shoes, specifically. Sorry if I was unclear. I was contesting the idea that Nike makes garbage, when in fact they make a class of product that is usually the domain of higher end brands (though obviously Nike DriWool is a tier below Smartwool in quality).
Wooly wool wrote:
Ice Breaker
New Balance
Craft
Sugoi
just some others off the top of my head who make tops with Merino wool...
I didn't realize NB did wool; very cool. Sugoi and Craft (and Helly Hansen) are also brand favorites of mine. I've heard great things about Icebreakers, never had a chance to try them out though.
Solid reply to my over-the-top rude response.
New Balance just started doing it within the last couple of years I think, but it is nice stuff if you ever think about trying something new (in my opinion)
Asics use wool as do Brooks, Puma... just about everybody. What Nike is doing is getting very lazy on running specilaity R&D, the streak LT shoe is 6 or 7 years old, the Streak 4/5 is 5 or 6 years old and the fact their athletes choose an even older shoe (streak 3) shows what they think. They are falling further and further behind in this area, Adidas, Mizuno, New Balance, Brooks and Saucony all have superior product in this area. They spend the R&D budget on endorsements.
R&D wrote:They spend the R&D budget on endorsements.
Get back to me in 10 years when the bloom is finally falling off the Nike rose. In the meantime, Nike is making more and spending less on product.
Advertising sells stuff, not R&D.
don't be silly. nike does not make any mass produced model solely based around rupp, centro, or farah. each of them, however, will have their own custom shoes. most top elites with recognizable names (especially americans, though kiprop, souileman, and birech all have their own preferences) will have hybrids or variations of what actually are sold to the consumer. for example: farah runs in an original vic with a modified spike plate; rupp has varied over the years depending on event focus from original mamba upper with an original matumbo plate to trying out new prototypes; jager currently wears a vic 2 upper with original victory plate; centro wears a variation of the matumbo 2 upper with an original victory plate. what nike does do is come up with an idea, and tweak it for 2/3 years prior to mass production. for example, cookie and the gang have been testing out a new version of the victory over the last 2 2 1/2 years. it has been interesting to see its evolution with feedback from the elites that have been testing them: leer, McNamara, rupp, o'lionaird, etc. it has changed drastically from its initial inception, and is very close to being complete. regarding the new streak prototype worn by kipchoge in berlin, no one will be losing their job. that's absolutely ridiculous.
Under Armour is using Polartec, some of the best Wool blends in the industry, https://www.underarmour.com/en-us/sports/running/mens?iid=wbo
Cleaned the hell out of this thread I see. At some point ownership is going to recognize that authenticity is the only thing this site has. Remove that and you have neither users or advertisers.
Nike's main customers in the sport of running? Virtually everyone who attempts running.
The people who pay attention to international marathons are an extreme minority of people who run.
Even those in observance probably didn't infer anything about Nike.
However, if this made public media, different story, the majority of people make irrational inferences.
