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I slip on a pair of Nike running shoes. I clip a chunk of metal to the heel, which wraps around my lower leg like a shin guard. The battery goes on last, hugging it all like a high ankle bracelet. In all of 30 seconds, Ive turned my legs into robots. I’m wearing Nikes new exoskeleton footwear, dubbed Project Amplify. My legs feel heavier for sure. But with each step, theres a little kick in my heel. Like a cherry bomb exploding underfoot. And when it launches next year under a new name for an undisclosed price, Project Amplify will power runs up to 10 kilometers long on a single charge, increasing your energy output by 15% to 20% along the way. Think of it as an ebike for your feet, says Michael Donaghu, a VP at Nike who leads the Project Amplify team. [Photo: Nike] The long road toward amplification Exoskeletons offer the possibility to completely reimagine human movement, so it might not be surprising to learn that Nike has been pursuing the possibilities of exoskeletons for 14 years. As Donaghu explains, he began at Nike decades ago working for the cofounder mad scientist running coach Bill Bowerman himself, who had a penchant for saying that an ounce on your foot was worth a pound on your back. As such, much of Nike innovation is about subtractioneliminating weight to ensure the product doesnt get in the way of your body. Nikes marathon-busting Vaporfly shoes offered some rebuttal to this idea, as Nike studied the possibilities of energy return, developing carbon plates and foams that could give back an extra 4% of your stride. What if, instead of playing subtraction, we could give you more? Donaghu muses. And exoskeleton research was right along these lines, albeit taken to the extreme. The problem a decade ago, however, was that the components needed for robotic assistance never quite added up. The technology was too heavy, or not powerful enough, Donaghu says. The theory just didn’t play out in practice. Rather than dissuading Nike, Donaghu says it kept the company focused on the longer gameand every once in a while, a new PhD would walk through the doors and reignite interest in the idea, just to keep the coals burning. I think you can have a lot of shared intuition as a group of designers and researchers, and sometimes technology just isn’t ready to do it, or you’re not smart enough to figure it out, he says. By 2021, the team opted to try again in earnest, dedicating full-time researchers to the project longer term. Quite a few developments helped. Algorithms, sensors, and microprocessors had all matured. But most of all, Donaghu credits the drone industry, fueled by a new wave of lightweight, high-RPM motors, with providing one of the most fundamental components of Project Amplify. That mass adoption made smaller, more energy-dense motors of the size that you would want to put on a body, he says. [Photo: Nike] Designing the first consumer-friendly exoskeleton The design of Project Amplify is inspired by the human body. Developed in partnership with Dephy, it’s essentially a robotic version of your Achilles tendonthe connection between your calf muscles and heel that powers running and jumping. As you walk, onboard sensors track your gait and attempt to power your step at just the right moment. Donaghu likens the challenge to pushing someone on a swing. Too early, it feels weird. Too late, and its pointless. The task requires accuracy in the milliseconds, while accommodating for the fact that everyones gait is a little different. [Photo: Nike] Nike hasnt mastered this work yet. As I take my first jog in Project Amplify, I find myself fighting the machine. I dont feel puppeted, as I have with larger exoskeletons in the past, but I dont feel like a super version of myself, either. Instead, theres a bit too much pressure on my shin, and my heel slips slightly out of the shoe. Allow me to admit, its a bit infantilizing to find yourself struggling to run at Nike HQ, and Im admittedly despondent when another tester trying Amplify for the first time flies by me effortlessly. Tweaking the level of support and response time (simple buttons and sliders in an app) does help. And while Im still a bit awkward, and the footwear never feels weightless, they also got my ass up a 500-foot training hill, leaving me reasonably but not devastatingly winded. For me, an elite running shoe feels like Im running on flubber, and an e-bike can straight-up feel like driving a motorcycle. I wanted one sensation or the other in a way that wasnt quite there yet in Project Amplify. But taking it off? A dream! All you do is pull a tab on the heel, and the robot ulatches. Im reminded of the handful of people necessary for me to don an exoskeleton pant made with Arcteryx. Meanwhile, Nike really has developed something that I believe most people could slip on with relative ease. [Photo: Nike] Polishing Amplify for launch Despite the fact that hundreds of people have taken more than 2.4 million steps with Project Amplify, Donaghu knows the product isnt fully cooked yet, and hes even a bit self-conscious as the team shares a platform theyve yet to perfect with journalists such as myself. Could we already be in the market right now? Yeah, we actually are getting really good functional testing results and feedback from most people. It just doesn’t meet the threshold of, like, is it swoosh-worthy yet? he says. I just think we have a responsibility to make sure that this thing ends up being really aspirational. Like, it really disappears visually. Functionally, it’s just something that’s there helping you. And if we can’t get to that threshold, then for some of us, it’s not going to be good enough. For now, Nike reaching that threshold means continuing to tweak the algorithms so that people like me dont face a learning curve when using the product. He also suggests that the team still has levers to pull to lighten the technology while increasing its power output. And, of course, it has to look fire on your foot. To this aim, the design team has developed a mockup of Project Amplify thats more svelt, graceful, and all-around Nike-vibing than the chunkier prototypes theyve built thus far. Now its just up to the poor engineering team to bring that vision to life. As for where Project Amplify fits in the market, its too much power for competitive sport, but perfect for recreation. Longer term, Nikes own CEO isnt making any bold predictions about revenue potential or market size, but the writing is on the wall that the age of exoskeletons is coming. That’s especially for those aging with lower mobilitythese technologies will revolutionize quality of life. There are so many ways that it doesn’t fit perfectly into our business model. It’s a bigger swing, says Donaghu, who a few beats later admits that it feels wonderful to be making such a swing, to launch a product on the true edge of the companys capabilities. That’s Nike at its best, when we’re just being a little more bold to say we’re responsible for trying to change this industry and just help people move by and large. What are all the things that we’re not releasing that would do that?
Category:
E-Commerce
Halloween is a fun, scary time for children and adults alikebut why does the holiday seem to start so much earlier every year? Decades ago, when I was young, Halloween was a much smaller affair, and people didnt start preparing until mid-October. Today, in my neighborhood near where I grew up in Massachusetts, Halloween decorations start appearing in the middle of summer. Whats changed isnt just when we celebrate but how: Halloween has evolved from a simple folk tradition to a massive commercial event. As a business school professor who has studied the economics of holidays for years, Im astounded by how the business of Halloween has grown. And understanding why its such big business may help explain why its creeping earlier and earlier. The business of Halloween Halloweens roots lie in a Celtic holiday honoring the dead, later adapted by the Catholic Church as a time to remember saints. Today its largely a secular celebration one that gives people from all backgrounds a chance to dress up, engage in fantasy, and safely confront their fears. That broad appeal has fueled explosive growth. The National Retail Federation has surveyed Americans about their Halloween plans each September since 2005. Back then, slightly more than half of Americans said they planned to celebrate. In 2025, nearly three-quarters said they woulda huge jump in 20 years. And people are planning to shell out more money than ever. Total spending on Halloween is expected to reach a record US$13 billion this year, according to the federationan almost fourfold increase over the past two decades. Adjusting for inflation and population growth, I found that the average American will spend an expected $38 on Halloween this yearup from just $18 per person back in 2005. Thats a lot of candy corn. Candy imports show a similar trend. September has long been the key month for the candy trade, with imports about one-fifth higher than during the rest of the year. Back in September 2005, the U.S. imported about $250 million of the sweet stuff. In September 2024, that figure had tripled to about $750 million. This is part of a larger trend of Halloween becoming a lot more professionalized. For example, when I was a kid, it wasnt unusual for households to pass out brownies, candied apples, and other homemade treats to trick-or-treaters. But because of safety concerns and food allergies, for decades, Americans have been warned to stick to mass-produced, individually wrapped candies. The same shift has happened with costumes. Years ago, many people made their own; today, store-bought costumes dominateeven for pets. Why Halloween keeps creeping earlier While theres no definitive research establishing why Halloween seems to start earlier each year, the increase in spending is one major driver. Halloween items are seasonal, which means no one wants to buy giant plastic skeletons on Nov. 1. As total spending grows, retailers order more inventory, and the cost of storing ever-larger amounts of unsold items until the next year becomes a bigger consideration. Once a seasons commercial footprint becomes large enough, retailers begin ordering and displaying merchandise long before its actually needed. For example, winter coats start appearing in stores in early fall and are typically gone when the snow starts falling. Its the same with Halloween: Retailers put out merchandise early to ensure theyre not stuck with unsold goods once the season is over. They also often price strategically charging full price when items first hit the shelves, appealing to eager early shoppers, and then marking down prices closer to the holiday. This clears shelves and warehouses, making room for the next upcoming shopping season. Over the past two decades, Halloween has become an ever-bigger commercial holiday. The growth in people enjoying the holiday and the increase in spending has resulted in Halloween becoming one giant treat for businesses. The big trick for retailers is preventing this holiday from starting before the Fourth of July. Jay L. Zagorsky is an associate professor at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
When Ben Stiller goes out to dinner, he drinks between one and three Shirley Temples. But a fully-grown adult ordering a classic childs beverage can elicit funny looks. So, to help cut the stigma, and the sugar, the actor, director, and producer launched his own soda company last monthcalled Stillers Sodawith a grown-up version of a Shirley Temple as one of its three flavors. He simply wanted a version that he could feel good about drinking himself, says Stillers Soda cofounder Alexander Doman, a serial food and beverage entrepreneur. Stillers isnt the only soda company suddenly flirting with the Shirley Temple. In the past year, soda powerhouses and drink disruptors from 7UP and Gatorade to Spindrift and Bloom Pop have debuted Shirley Temple products. Even frozen yogurt chain 16 Handles got into the game. The fizzy drink, ordered previously mostly at bars, has been a staple of American childhoods since the 1930s, when Shirley Temple herself was a young star on the big screen. Legend has it that the concoctiongrenadine, lemon-lime soda, and a maraschino cherrywas created by West Hollywood bartenders so that Temple could enjoy a drink with her costars. Everyone has their own Shirley Temple memory. Barb Stuckey, chief new product strategy officer at Mattson, a major food and drink developer for retailers and restaurants, remembers family outings to the Flower Drum Chinese restaurant in Baltimore in the 80s, ordering chop suey with a Shirley Temple. It made her feel like a grown-up. She’s having a glass of wine, he’s having a beer, and hes having this thing with a straw with a little umbrella, she says. I want to be part of this, whatever it is. That feeling has been passed down through generations, though few are still alive who recall the drinks namesake. I can’t imagine that more than 5 to 10% of Gen Zs have any clue who Shirley Temple was, Stuckey says. She was maybe the youngest-ever child star on the silver screen. She’s now become a maraschino cherry, pretty much. All the more eye-opening is that Gen Z is enamored with the drink. This could be due to the generations love of nostalgia, its lower alcohol use, and the mocktails effervescence on social media. These factors have combined to raise the drinks profile among young people and made it something you dont have to graduate out ofleading companies to go all in on stirring up their own batches. Arc of a new trend Mary Haderlein, the head of Mattsons Chicago office, tracks the modern Shirley Temple revival back to around 2021 when, homebound during the pandemic, people were shaking their own cocktails. The Shirley Templeand the Dirty Shirley, made with vodkawas easy and unpretentious, offering the comfort of nostalgia during a scary time. All of these childhood favorites became these master brands , she says, as processed favorites like Oreos and Cinnamon Toast Crunch surged in sales. Young people had the time to post their colorful creations on TikTok. [Photo: Stiller’s Soda] At the same time, restaurants and bars were facing shutdowns and supply shortages, and Shirleys only required basic pantry ingredients. They didn’t have to rely on an import that got caught up in the Suez Canal, Haderlein says. When people returned to the in-real-life socializing theyd craved, the Dirty Shirley stayed popular; it was hailed as the drink of summer 2022 by The New York Times. Its profile has continued to grow. Earlier this year, The Times profiled Leo Kelly, an 11-year-old known as the Shirley Temple King, who since 2019 has rated the drink at different restaurants on Instagram, docking points for slip-ups like too few cherries. One review, of a Shirley Temple at Evermore Resort, in Orlandowhich had five cherries and a score of 9.6/10received 335,000 likes last year. Casey Ferrell, senior VP of consulting at marketing data firm Kantar, who focuses on how different generations embrace culture, says that even the youngest influencers can push trends into the public consciousness. (In the most embarrassing of snubs, Kelly declined my interview request.) In the typical arc of a new trend, Haderlein says, something will become popular at independent restaurants, then move to chain eateries, and eventually become ready-to-drink products on grocery store shelves. Wholesome newstalgia 7UP was the first major beverage brand to offer the Shirley Temple via retail, in October of 2024. Katie Webb, VP of innovation and transformation at its parent company, Keurig Dr Pepper, says that 7UP naturally had equity in the drink, given that a lemon/lime soda is the very base of the beverage. (Note: the Shirley Temple King prefers his with ginger ale.) [Photo: Keurig Dr Pepper] It was a limited run, for the holidays, and will return this year to capitalize on a season when multiple generations gather, toast, and embrace old traditions. Gen Z are receptive to stuff that we think is nostalgic but that they never actually experienced, says Kantars Ferrell says. Gen Z may use the word wholesome in this context. Its a word they use a lot. Webb likes the term newstalgia to describe Gen Zs unique spin on the past. And as with everything Gen Z related, visuals are key. Todays teen and 20-somethings are drawn to food and drinks with features that stand out on TikTok or Instagram, such as bright colors, textures, foams, and fizzes. To a degree, photogenic is more important than flavorful, and Shirley Templ plays right into that: it swirls, it bubbles, and it pops on the gram. They also like their beverages on the rocks. Cold drinks represented 75% of Starbucks U.S. sales in Q3 of 2024. If you walk into a Starbucks, I dare you to find a single Gen Z that is drinking a hot beverage, Stuckey says. 16 Handles knows. The frozen yogurt chain took this trend even further with its Shirley Temple cherry lime sorbet, launched as a limited run this past August. Will a Shirley Temple without sugar still taste as sweet? The downside of the traditional Shirley Temple is that its not exactly good for you. A typical serving could have between 30 and 60 grams of sugar, and up to 300 calories. Even Temple herself had issues with it, telling NPR in 1986 that she hated the saccharine sweet, icky drink. Holy cow, they have tons of sugar, says Amy Steel Vanden-Eykel, chief growth officer at Spindrift, who was incentivized to create an alternative. In February, Spindrift launched its own version, with no added sugar or sweeteners. Its made with real fruit, essentially just a higher ratio of juice to carbonated water than its seltzers. (Shirley Temple is one of five flavors in its new soda line, which includes other throwbacks like Strawberry Shortcake and Orange Cream Float.) [Photo: Spindrift] Spindrifts tart iteration doesnt taste all that much like a Shirley Temple to me. But the good-for-you modification is probably a smart move, given that one in three consumers say reducing non-healthy ingredients like high sugar in beverages is important, according to Mattsons data. Other brands have dialed back the sugar, too. 7UP released a zero-sugar version as part of its rollout last year. Bloom Pop, also owned by Keurig Dr Pepper, released a prebiotic Shirley Temple in July thats low sugar and low calorie. In September, so did Slice, which PepsiCo relaunched this year as a gut-health drink brand after sunsetting it in the early 2000s. [Photo: Bloom Pop] The drink is also benefitting from the fact that Gen Z is famously not consuming as much alcohol as previous generationsabout 20% less, consistent data shows. (It’s one of a handful of perceived risky behaviors theyre engaging in less, Ferrell says, along with driving and sex. In a chaotic-feeling world, theyre careful about how much [risk] theyre willing to tolerate in their lives, he says.) But they still want fun drinks, and wholesome sodas become favorites for the sobercurious to bring to the party, without the stigma such adult mocktails may have had in the past. 44 bottles Keurig Dr Peppers data shows that 72% of Gen Z try a new drink monthly, versus 44% of all Americans. This is great news for new flavor debuts, but worrisome news for the folks trying to build them into sustainable businesses. For 7UP, keeping the Shirley Temple flavor as a limited run makes sense. Brands used to be the arbiters of culture, Ferrell says. Today, that power has tipped to the consumer. Companies now need to be reactive to whatevers hot on TikTok. When they pounce fast, it pays off. 7UPs Webb, who says that the company is constantly monitoring social media to track what kind of concoctions consumers might be making with our products, notes that 67% of its Shirley Temple trialists were new to the brand. [Photo: Gatorade] Gatorade is also staying flexible. In June, the brand presented WNBA player Paige Bueckers with a special-edition flavor of her favorite drink, the Shirley Temple. The video of the presentation became the brands most commented-on piece of social content ever, says chief brand officer Anuj Bhasin. (The company then sent 44 bottles to Bueckers fans who commented on the Instagram post, the number being a nod to the points Bueckers scored when setting a rookie record.) With only 44 bottles, the release could be considered a brand activation, a limited run of a product based on a disruptive cultural moment, with a campaign around it. We are absolutely seeking to do more of these things, Gatorades Bhasin says, adding that the company will rarely commit to making a new flavor like Shirley Temple permanent. The next new thing Although Gatorade maintains multiyear road maps, it also now keeps resources in reserve for forming a quick-strike team to execute last-minute campaigns based on fads and quick shifts in the zeitgeist. It now has a special development facility at its Valhalla, New York, R&D site to enable faster market turnaround; products produced at this site are not even meant for retail sale. The good news for big beverage companies is that ginning up a new flavor like a Shirley Temple is relatively simple. Theyre sourcing straightforward syrups from longtime suppliers, not mapping out new supply chains. This is not rocket scienceits lemon, lime, and cherry, Stuckey says. When it comes to Shirley Teple, it just feels like this is built for mass consumption. (Stillers cofounder Doman insists that its Shirley Temple soda had nothing to do with trends. He insists it was driven merely by Stillers own tastebuds, which signed off on every iteration until it was finished.) But soon enough there will be a new thing, as there always is. These same brands are going to have to tap into something else after this winds its way through everybody’s system, Ferrell says. Whats next? Mattsons Haderlein is seeing a rise in bitter spritzes. Her colleague Stuckey isnt betting against matcha. Yet because of its history, the Shirley Temple also has staying power. It does have a genuine cultural underpinning to it, Haderlein says, predicting that it will likely endure, at least peripherally, as a part of childhoods across the country, no matter what generation. How wholesome.
Category:
E-Commerce
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