Footwear Insight

12 • Footwear Insight ~ March/April 2018 footwearinsight.com Brooks is utilizing Superfeet's FitStation technology to personalize and customize running shoes. By Jennifer Ernst Beaudry T he real story about why Superfeet has launched an entirely new manufacturing cycle – one that includes an attention-grabbing partner- ship with Brooks Running to create fully custom running shoes here in the U.S. and a brand new factory model, Flowbuilt, to do it in – isn't about tech- nology, the brand says. The real driver, according to Superfeet FitStation project manager James Wnorowski, is the deep consumer desire for custom, per- sonalized footwear. All the innovations that the brand and its partners have launched are just a way to get there. "We recognize that customization is happening — it's no longer a 'when it happens,' it's happening now," he says. "[Brands we are partnering with] want to be a part of that evolution, and they want to lead their categories." It's what drove Superfeet to launch FitStation, the first consumer-facing step in the process, last year. The in-store scanning technology captures the size and shape of a person's foot, as well as their individual gait, using a scanner and force plate to create a digital profile. Developed in part- nership with HP Inc., and RSscan International, FitStation records and converts a person's stroll through a FitStation kiosk into the data it can use to create fully tuned, totally customized 3-D printed insoles. The first stations rolled out to specialty run shops last summer – early adopters included Naperville Running Co. in Naperville, IL; Oklahoma City, OK's Red Coyote; and Grand Rapids, MI-based Gazelle Sports – with more slated in 2018. The potential FitStation has unlocked has been attracting attention. At The Running Event trade show in Austin last December, Brooks announced it would be licensing the technology. Using FitStation and incorporating the science from Brooks' own Run Signature biometrics program will let the brand select the right last and build a midsole that's adapted in multiple zones specifically for the runner in its neutral Levitate shoe. "This is the manifestation of our 30-year effort in biomechanics," says Carson Caprara, director of global footwear product line management at Brooks. "It's runner-focused and it's about per- sonalization, not just about customization. It's how we can bring Run Signature to life because of access to this sort of platform. It's been an incredible catalyst for our thinking." The first FitStation Levitates will begin produc- tion this summer and Caprara says the brand is "moving fast" to explore the different paths that the partnership opens. "What we're trying to be the vanguard in is personalization," he says. "Other people might be focused on automation in a vacuum. But we want to [use this as a tool to] solve for personalization." Superfeet is leveraging the insights, too. Launching this year, the Superfeet ME3D Recover slides will take the FitStation data and turn it into personalized recovery san- dals. Other brands may be in the mix in future seasons, too. But making the footwear possible required another innovation. "As we got further down the road with FitStation we realized there was just wasn't a manufacturing facility that could accomplish what we wanted to accomplish," Superfeet marketing manager Amy Olive says. And that's why the brand decided to make its own. Dubbed Flowbuilt, the manufacturing facility is set to have a ribbon cutting before the end of Q1, with a grand opening scheduled for May. The space, located near Superfeet's Ferndale, WA, offices, houses two multi-section injection molding machines from DESMA (the German PU injection machine company is the fourth partner in the endeavor) and will employ 20 to 25 people to work on development and design. When fully ramped up, Flowbuilt will be able to create 350,000 pairs of footwear a year. Other changes to speed will be immediate: After the facility opens, the brand projects that the cur- rent two-week wait to receive custom footbeds ordered through in-store FitStations will drop to two to three days. Opening Flowbuilt, Olive says, is a research opportunity as much as it is a manufacturing tool. "We'll gain insight into different people's movement patterns and even their preferences in terms of shape and other factors," she says. "And it lets us advance development and design, with faster turnaround times and prototyping." The brand says it's in talks now to expand its FitStation base not just in specialty run but into the outdoor specialty and even comfort and casual world. And it continues to talk to footwear brands about ways the data and the manufacturing process might be able to create something new. "We really believe the future of consumer products is personalization. If you look around today, it's everywhere — coffee, our newsfeeds, grocery delivery," Olive says. "And the more and more that it's happening, the more consumers are expecting that from brands. We knew we could be on the forefront of that movement, or somebody else would." O Getting Personal MANUFACTURING The Ability to Tune Shoes to an Individual's Foot & Gait Is Happening Fast.

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