ACG FEATURE - PART TWO
“Back in the day we ran things a bit different in design. Most of us worked on multiple categories, not just one, which was cool because you’d learn a lot about different sports and how other shoes were built and share ideas. All the footwear designers would actually sit in a room to have spirited weekly meetings. We voted we should have a ‘marketing-free’ product session and everyone would submit their ideas. (I remember designing a climbing machine for one of these sessions that would simulate a rock wall anywhere and only take up a 15ft x 15ft wall space... but that’s another story). These ideas were critiqued and we’d decide which ones we would build. This is how we developed the Pocketknife.
When hikers venture off on a multi-day adventure, they set up camp and explore. If you’re wearing a heavy pack you need load-bearing boots to get you in, but once you’re there you don’t want to wear clunky boots – enter the Pocketknife. It was designed to be a simple, collapsible pair of versatile outdoor sneakers that you could simply slide into a pack.
The cool thing is that we made one. The bummer was that some people thought the idea was too ‘niche’ and they said ‘not enough people will buy it!’ Fortunately, one of the marketing guys in ACG at the time, Patrick Seehafer, really wanted to see it happen and convinced the powers that be to make a very limited quantity. They sold well and stayed in the line, selling just enough until the numbers grew and the rest is history. What I liked about that project was the fact that it was adopted by climbers and really was used for the intended purpose. Imagine that!”
SERGIO LOZANO
Check out our next feature: NIKE ACG FEATURE - PART ONE
