Nike Inc COO Optimistic About Using Modern Technology

Nike COO gets sarcastic and futuristic during GreekWire Summit stating that shoes will be manufactured with 3D printer in near future.

Just imagine, you switch your computer on, connect it to the Internet, and buy a file from the online store of Nike Inc. known as Nike.com. This file will contain data that is related to the company’s particular shoe type, which is customized according to the size of your foot. Along with that, it also has the color and design of your choice. So now, you will simply have to download the file, provide a 3D printer at home with the necessary material for the shoes, and wait for a few hours. As a result, you will be able to get a show similar to the ones found at the store. Eric Sprunk, the COO of Nike, does not really consider this impossible and farfetched as many might consider it to be. The 22-year-old Nike veteran graced the GeekWire Summit this Friday where he talked about the possibility of making a shoe at home. Therefore, he stated that there might be a day where this might actually happen. Todd Bishop, the cofounder of GeekWire, asked the question regarding 3D shoes.

This was actually a very timely question since Dan Shapiro, the chief executive officer of Glowforge, demonstrated a 3D laser printer a few minutes before Mr. Sprunk was asked this question. “Do I envision a future where we might still own the file from an IP perspective — you can’t just have anyone making a Nike product — and have it manufactured in your own home or we do it for you at our store?” Sprunk stated. “Yeah, that’s not that far away.” Sprunk particularly mentioned as to how the mechanism for testing and manufacturing has evolved over a short period. He mentioned about the Flyknit technology that is being sued in some of their running shoes that encompass a creative engineering and manufacturing methodology that have minimized the waste level during production and has paced up the process. According to Mr. Sprunk, the way shoes have been manufactured over the past decade has been completely transformed by Nike’s new strategy. “This shoe shows how technology and digitization of our process makes a huge difference,” added Sprunk. Nike is open to innovation and will try to make its products as advance as possible. A 3D printer developing a shoe is extremely futuristic that might not happen in near future but technology is constantly upgrading. Many companies are experimenting to utilize modern technology to their advantage and innovate.