September 27, 2007, - 7:37 pm
Interesting Americana: New Nike Tailored to Native American Indian Footbed
By
Did you know that American Indians a/k/a Native Americans have feet shaped differently than those of most other Americans? Their feet are apparently bigger, according to Nike. (And you know what they say about big feet. Just kidding.)
Anyway, apparently, Nike not only took notice, but made a new shoe specific to Native Americans’ foot specifications, including a much wider toebox and footbed. The new model, to be sold exclusively to Indian tribes and reservations (and priced in the $40 range), is called the Nike Air Native N7.
According to Nike specifications for the shoe, the Air Native toebox for women is four widths wider than that of a traditional Nike women’s shoe. For men, it is two widths wider. For both sexes, the shape of the shoe is different, to accomodate the different foot shape of American Indians. Other things, like “thicker outsole rubber for added durability,” are not explained, and I’m not sure why Native Americans would need added durability.
That’s interesting and smart niche marketing. Still, you have to wonder about the sales strategy, since many of those of American Indian heritage no longer live on reservations and probably also want such shoes tailored more to their foot shape–even if they are only part Indian and the foot difference isn’t as pronounced).
For example, “Katzimo, Mysterious Mesa“–a book my Dad bought me as a kid and which I read–tells the true story of how an entire Indian tribe in New Mexico (at the Acoma Pueblo) converted to Judaism when the tribal chief’s daughter married an Orthodox Jewish trader in the early 1900s. There were many such Jewish traders in the Old West of the 1800s who intermarried with Indians. And many Native Americans, today, aren’t on tribal rolls, so they wouldn’t have access to that purchasing channel, either.
Clearly, the price is subsidized for Indians unlike other Americans in the Nike customer base, since you’d be hard-pressed to find any shoe by Nike in that relatively-low price range, especially this kind of specially-customized shoe. That might upset other Nike customers who are paying $160-$180–at least four times the Air Native price–for Nike running shoes, etc., which aren’t as customized.
Still, the story and Nike’s entry into the Native American foot market is definitely an interesting piece of Americana.
More from Associated Press on the Nike Air Native N7.
Tags: Associated Press, Debbie Schlussel Did, New Mexico, Nike, thicker outsole rubber, Trader, tribal chief, Tribe, USD
Debbie-
Nike made acquired it’s success designing shoes for a specialty market. My first track shoes were Adidas made for the Tokyo Olympics although many years later when I acquired them. Nike was the first shoe maker that made shoes for high jumpers. I bought a pair with a heal designed to absorb the 700 pounds plus pressure brought to your heal and knee at take-off under the bar, a smaller market than Native Americans.
The shoe isn’t “subsidized” but the profit margin adgusted. Having some Native American heritage myself, I can assure you that any vertical marketing with shoe size is less about genetic differences than a re-connect to the way shoes used to be marketed ie to a variance in human construction. Today a “one size fits all” crap is indicative of where most shoes are imported from (CHina). In the Civil War, the left and right boots were the same, now every shoe is a medium or size “D”. Where are the size EEEs or AAs? There are American Indians that grow up never having been introduced to a recuriter from college footabll or athletic programs yet they dwarf some NFL players! I’ve seen them with my own eyes! So keep putting growth hormones in the beef and triple sizing the crap kids eat and dumping nuclear junk onto the reservations and see what that produces in the years to come. Nike is an athletes’ shoe, the rest are just posers who tag along, so don’t be surprised about their dedication to a a smaller market.
code7 on September 27, 2007 at 11:28 pm