In 2011 I was asked to rebuild the NSW Running business model and product creation team with a relevant merchandising assortment without losing revenue. The $2B category had ballooned in scale on the back of 'unrecognizable' branded product.
With direction and protection from Creative Directors Phil Dickinson and Andreas Harlow, the team allowed me to mine the archives to create revenue opportunities while developing new styles to grow the business and the vault.
I had already worked with the NSW through project like the Air Willy thanks to Drew Greer, Jesse Leyva and Darla Vaughn. I understood the delicate dance of creating nonperformance product under the Nike banner.
The brand history of building for performance first protected the overall brand but stifled opportunities to flex the styling cues that had authentically grown from years of being adopted off the court, off the field, off the track and off the pitch.
Design direction was easy. Recalibrating a team that had achieve extensive business success creating unrecognizable product was the heavy lift. The design team hadn't had a Design Director in 2 years so setting a definitive focus on a creative lead business model didn't come easy to a strong business team and an apathetic design team.
So I started making things without asking for permission with the creatives and engineers that understood the assignment. We needed to put real examples on the table to show that a) the creative was relevant and b) design was driving the bus now.
Once we had the team inspired we developed a creative roadmap that aligned with our business and our manufacturing capabilities. NSW had a fraction of the resources awarded to each performance category so we needed to improvise where we could. Whether it was finding existing molds/technology or driving nonperformance materials, we found path that consumers found relevant.
With direction and products came trust and revenue. What began as pictures on pages and samples on desks turned into purchase orders and retail success. From there we could build on the future without always needing to mine the past or rely on performance.
The best example of our freedom was Dylan Raasch's Roshe Run. The initial concept and price point - all Dylan's idea - was met with apprehension. Fortunately we push the rock up the hill and found pockets of the business that supported the idea enough to get a small batch to market. The rest is history.
With growing success our team was able to pull more energy into apparel and accessories. We focused on keeping our revenue growth without distracting the brands attention on performance.
