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Nike has unveiled its first fully “hands-free” shoe, the GO FlyEase.
Video transcript
SEANA SMITH: Let’s talk about detail. It’s a great start happening. Nike is launching a whole new shoe. Now it’s a slip-on shoe, but it has a bit of a twist. We want to call on Reggie Wade for all of these details, and who actually has the shoe here for us. Reggie.
REGGIE WADE: Yes, Seana, thank you. One of the things I miss most about working from home, besides seeing everyone in the newsroom smiling, is our unboxing. We used to take these big shoes, put them on the desk and really get a glimpse, a good look. But we’re going to do it virtually. So I have the new Nike GO Flyease. This is Nike’s first fully hands-free shoe. And here you have them.
And what really stands out from other shoes that can be considered slip-on shoes is that it has this thing called the bi-stable hinge. You see this is the open position of the shoe. So you put your foot in it, and then it just snaps into place. And then when you want to get out of it, you use that crutch here, put your foot on it and boom, it pops open right away.
This is the latest in Nike’s Flyease design. Flyease, which of course was designed in 2015 to help people with disabilities put on and take off their shoes. And this is the next generation. And I have to tell you, it’s rarely that many shoes that I look at, you see a shoe and say, wow, I’m really blown away. But it is really impressive. It upsets me.
ADAM SHAPIRO: Hey, Reggie, I’m going to hang out with me here because I can go back to the original Vans on “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”. You talked about helping people who might have a disability. But also, who is it for whom? Is it for Spicoli for Mr. Hand? Is it for someone young or old, the teacher?
REGGIE WADE: It’s for everyone. I spoke with a lot of people at Nike, especially in the design team, and they said their goal is to create a shoe for anyone. Someone who has a disability for an Olympic athlete. At first, when we look at the figure, we kind of prefer a running figure. And the folks at Nike said it was a running shoe.
But you can do a lot of different things in these shoes. And even a fence. Professional shooters even use these shoes. And I think a good kick out of that is that it doesn’t have any laces here. That’s why I think it lends itself to a number of different sports. You don’t have to worry about tripping over these laces. And they really have Nike Zoom really built in here in the heel, which just gives it great comfort.
SEANA SMITH: Reggie, I was going to say, when I first saw these shoes, I wasn’t really convinced I should be excited about it. But you are helping. Now I’m a little more convinced that this is something that could possibly be a huge success here for Nike in the future. But I’m curious to hear your thoughts as we step back and take a look at Nike and how they’ve performed over the past few months.
It has actually weathered the pandemic quite well. Guess what from your perspective, what do you think have been the strongest elements as to why we’ve seen this outperformance at Nike? And also, where the company could potentially see this success in the future.
REGGIE WADE: Well, Seana, it’s double. It’s technology, technology like that. And it is also the technology directly to the consumer. Nike really said, look, we want to create an unprecedented direct-to-consumer business model. So when you walk into Nike stores, they have so many different features built in. There’s right now in their new Nike by Eugene store, you can walk in there and you can actually pick up a product and you can ship it right from the store. So you don’t need to reconnect. You can ship it directly from the store anywhere you want.
So Nike is really saying we want to listen, straight to the consumer. And they really push the boundaries. And frankly, they’re doing it better than anyone right now.
ADAM SHAPIRO: Reggie, that shoe said hello to me, because I have a middle aged man’s disease. When I throw the back, this stuff will be a godsend. I’m curious though, are we going to have this shoe in 10 years as a collector’s item? Is this the kind of thing that would excite collectors?
REGGIE WADE: You know what? It remains to be seen. As a sneakerhead, I dig that a bit. I have always liked unique stuff. I asked the folks at Nike, is this going to be the future? Will we see this technology in a Jordan shoe or some other type of Zoom, another type of shoe? And they said, you know, we don’t wanna give nothing, but we could. So I think it depends on their integration into other technologies. If this becomes really common, I don’t think it would be a collector’s item. But if it’s as far as they go with it, I definitely think so.
SEANA SMITH: Reggie, two-part question here. First, if I miss the price, how much do these shoes cost? And secondly, is this something Nike is aiming for only here in the US or is it more of a global marketing event specifically with this shoe?
REGGIE WADE: This shoe costs $ 120. And now, February 1, it’s on sale. But only for certain Nike members. And that’s through the Nike app. Later this spring, they will have a more global version.
SEANA SMITH: Alright, Reggie Wade is giving us all the details we need to know about the brand new shoe from Nike. All right, Reggie Wade, thank you very much for your participation.
Originally published
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