The National Basketball Association. Where amazing happens.
Uh, yeah. Something truly amazing for athletic shoe marketers and manufacturers the likes of extreme newbie Athletic Propulsion Labs.
For the first time since its founding in 1946, the NBA has banned a new line of shoes based on the league’s rule against an “unfair competitive advantage” that increases a player’s vertical leap. Yes, NIKE’s Air Jordan shoes were banned, too, some 25 years ago, but because they were more distracting than performance-enhancing.
Just a few months after the July 2010 debut of Athletic Propulsion Labs’ first pair of athletic shoes, inspired by high-performance autos the Koenigsegg CCXR and the Pagani Zonda, the virgin athletic shoe maker was (read: happily) slapped with an “unfair competitive advantage” designation by the NBA. Within a few hours, the shoe maker’s website sported a less-than-dynamic user experience with one landing page and an image of one of its Concept 1 shoes stamped in red with “Banned by the NBA” and two notes: “Because of the NBA ban announcement today, we are experiencing an enormous amount of traffic” and “Our technical team is working on this as we speak. Please check back.”
Reaching high are twin, 20-something brothers Adam and Ryan Goldston, the founders of Athletic Propulsion Labs. Could it be that this pair of entrepreneurs has an unfair competitive advantage for the already successful launch of their debut shoes priced at $300? Sure, they were basketball players at the University of Southern California, so they should know what a player wants and needs from a pair of basketball shoes. But for this sprightly duo, their secret weapon is the valuable lessons-learned information culled for years from seasoned veterans in the athletic shoe industry before the Goldston brothers ever put pen to paper to ink their five-year business plan.
Adam and Ryan spent their young lives accumulating business experience as the sons of a marketing executive in the shoe business, even being test subjects for the runaway shoe L.A. Gear Lights. Their father, Mark Goldston, worked for Reebok, L.A. Gear, and Converse, while others who have advised the brothers have logged between 20 and 30 years at shoe behemoths NIKE and adidas.
Athletic Propulsion Labs attributes its out-of-the-gate success to focusing on developing a shoe that outperformed others in one area: jumping. The Goldston brothers took the sage advice to not compete head to head with established performance-shoe companies that want to be everything to every athlete. Instead, the pair chose to spend three years in the lab to launch a new technology that does less to level the playing field.
The Goldston brothers’ secret weapon was developed in a laboratory at a West Coast university. The company’s Load ‘N Launch Technology, its proprietary device and moneymaker, gives the wearer a boost of up to 3.5 inches through the exertion of less energy by the player, according to the company’s biomedical tests.
Right now, the Los Angeles-based company is peddling its Concept 1 shoe through its website, but I can’t imagine that will be the only avenue for acquiring a pair for much longer. To extend its reach and possibly give its website a rest if the NBA’s ban is truly a boon, Athletic Propulsion Labs is shopping around for athletic footwear and sporting goods retailers.
Or the NBA could just make their nets higher and let the players wear whatever they want to on the court.