Nike's Creative Director Says Nike's No-Lace $350 Shoes May Be the Future
*By Carlo Versano*
Marty McFly's self-lacing sneakers from "Back to the Future" are here at last. Kind of.
Nike on Tuesday launched the Adapt BB, its first mass-market "smart" sneaker, that uses elastic mesh and a small internal motor with Bluetooth connectivity to allow the wearer to tighten and loosen the fit of the shoe via a smartphone app.
Eric Avar, creative director for Nike, told Cheddar in an interview that the innovations that made the Adapt BB possible were simply the latest step in Nike's mission: "Solving problems for athletes."
Nike stock has outperformed the broader market, even despite tariff concerns, based in part on its track record of sneaker innovation.
The adaptive performance of the sneaker ー it has a "comfort" mode and a "high-performance lockdown" mode with custom fittings ー will help athletes perform better "in the moment," Avar said. "That's our singular focus."
Avar said Nike chose to make a "smart" basketball sneaker first so it could be tested by real players under the harsh conditions of the court. Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics helped Nike unveil the sneaker.
Once it is proven to handle the physical demands of basketball players, Avar said it's possible the technology could be used to create adaptive models for running or other use cases.
And while building a better sneaker remains the primary focus for now, he said the possible applications for the "smart" technology are much broader, and could potentially result in Nike sending some useful personal data back to athletes and casual wearers.
"It's a journey, and we're going to see where it takes us," he said.
The Adapt BB will be available online Feb. 17 for $350, making them far more expensive than the top basketball sneakers on the market, but still less than half the price of the first iteration, the 2016 Hyperadapt.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
It’s an annual tradition: the Fed’s banking ‘stress test.’ A year after the regional banking crisis, there are good reasons to make sure they’re prepped.
Summer is upon us, which means weddings, trips overseas, and trips to see Taylor Swift. Avoid a “Cruel Summer” with these budget-friendly tips and tricks.
While Nvidia's meteoric rise led it to briefly dethrone Microsoft as the world's biggest public company, there's a lot more going on in this market than A.I.
