30 TennisIndustry June 2018 www.tennisindustrymag.com

TennisIndustry

Technology matters, but shoe companies are increasingly cultivating new sales approaches

driven by fashion and comfort.By Kent Oswald

D I S T I N G U I S H E D F A C I L I T Y - O F - T H E - Y E A R A W A R D S

C O U R T C O N S T R U C T I O N

F O O T W E A R

S H O E T R E N D S

The Substance of Style

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In a marketplace that swings between a focus on form and a focus on function, the pendulum currently

veers far from how shoes perform.

The Axilus Energized debuted in March and helped Fila showcase footwear in both the sport and style arenas.

According to Lauren Mallon, Fila’s director of marketing and strategic partnerships for tennis, a selling point for the signature Fila silhouette from the Heritage Category is that it refl ects “the brand’s rich history in tennis, while embracing current trends.” It also paired well with the other shoe premiering at the BNP Paribas Open, like the Axilus Energized, designed for aggressive players.

“Combined with the collaborative releases, we were able to showcase our footwear o� erings in both the sport and style spaces,” explains Mallon.

sport alone,” he says, “I think you will see the product change.”

Lightness and ComfortWhile journeying to the same destina-tion, shoe brands are not following the same path as they try to represent that coveted emotion and attitude. Accord-ing to Antoine Oui, a footwear and apparel category line senior manager for Wilson at the French Annecy Design Center, the company is focused on “long-lasting comfort” as a key feature of its shoes in 2018.

“Clearly lightness and comfort are the main aspects expected by consum-ers as long as performance and support are not understated,” he says. “There is no more space for heavy ‘brick’ shoes anymore. Players are looking for no-distraction, stylish footwear.”

It is in this spirit in which the Wilson Kaos 2.0 SFT was developed. Research for the shoe included interviews with juniors spending 10 to 20 hours a week on court and focused on creating a lighter, more fl exible ride—yet still durable enough for their games—that will leave them with “no pain, whatever the number of hours spent on court.”

In the same vein, says Yonex USA Marketing Manager Alyssa Yoneyama, “We focused more on ‘comfort’ with Sonicage”—the shoe they introduced this year. While the company’s Eclip-sion shoe continues as its fl agship for competitive players whose primary requirement is stability, a goal of the new Sonicage was to give it more of a “casual, lifestyle” appeal.

Cultivating a fashion-forward style as a sales driver is also a signifi cant aspect of Fila’s strategy. Fila launched limited-edition shoes at the BNP Paribas Open for the second year in a row.

Building on a partnership with the tournament, in which Fila dresses on- and o� -court sta� , the company expanded its on-site product o� erings with the Fila x BNP Paribas Open Original Tennis 2.0 Knit shoe.

hile manufacturers are improving dura-bility, reducing weight and enhancing stability and support for their high-performance tennis footwear, custom-ers are shopping as if unaware and unimpressed by the latest technological advances. It could be that because shoes don’t touch the ball, players feel there is nothing else they need to consider about what is on their feet except for its comfort and style.

Perhaps that leans too far to the hyperbolic, but it is the rare customer who auditions shoes like they would a new racquet, narrowing fi ve or six pos-sibilities down to the eventual one they choose based on how they handle on the court. In a marketplace that swings between a focus on form and a focus on function, the pendulum currently veers far from how shoes perform.

D’Wayne Edwards, who started at LA Gear before serving as Nike’s lead designer for Air Jordan—and, more recently, as a founder of the Pensole Footwear Design Academy in Portland, Ore.—encourages students interested in designing tennis shoes to play the sport to understand player needs.

“Tennis shoes require a lot of func-tional solutions to help aid players to move, stop and plant themselves more than any other shoe for any other sport,” he says. Today’s athlete, from lowliest amateur to highest profes-sional, has “a better sense of self and individualism,” adds Edwards.

“If the brands can just design tennis shoes that represent the emotion and attitude of their players and not the

32 TennisIndustry June 2018 www.tennisindustrymag.com

Sending the Right MessageWhether the focus is on style or perfor-mance, success for shoe sales depends on sending a message that the target audience wants to receive.

For K-Swiss, that means—accord-ing to Global Director for Tennis Mike Miringo� —o� ering shoes that provide “innovative technologies that can be ap-plied for on-court play and o� the court,

TennisIndustry

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companies are employing that should soon bring new styles between the lines. Adidas recently introduced a lifestyle shoe, the Deerupt, that was designed in part with a particular profi le based on how people show o� their kicks on Instagram. Adidas is also investing in “speed factories,” which use digital designs and robot labor to let players receive personalized shoes within days of them doing their own design work based on digital templates.

Even as he emphasizes the impor-tance of technology and function, Pensole’s Edwards believes advances in style are just as signifi cant.

“The collision between art and design is going to grow,” he says. “I say ‘art’ because art is a very personal expres-sion that you don’t care if someone likes, which means it has no rules. Design has rules and it is usually cre-ated for someone else. I look forward to seeing what artists do with design—and what designers do with art.”

Form. Function. The pendulum of customer attention swings one way, and one day will swing back to the other. But for now, style and comfort rule. �

K-Swiss designed the Ultrashot (women's at top, men's below) to appeal to the younger competitive player, counting on brand loyalty for the long run.

with products that are lightweight, have a modern design and with material stories as well.”

The example he highlights is the company’s new Ultrashot, designed to appeal to the younger competitive player with whom brand loyalty should yield long-term payo� s.

While not yet specifi c to the tennis category, there are other strategies shoe

Whether the focus is on style or performance, success for shoe sales depends on sending a message that

the target audience wants to receive.