Scoop’s Views

Nike, it seems is doing something sort of unique: it’s doing target marketing to a specific segment of society.

Before you jump up and down, wanting to hit that comment button and tell me how stupid I am, telling me many companies already do that, listen to me. Okay?

In announcing a new line of shoe, called the Air Native N7, with the N7 being a reference to the seventh generation theory. It’s used by some tribes to look to the three generations preceding them for wisdom and the three generations ahead for their legacy. If you don’t understand it, well, it’s a lifestyle, I suppose, not something you think about, much like many of our customs.

The Beaverton-based company says the Air Native N7 is designed with a larger fit for the distinct foot shape of American Indians, and has a culturally specific look. It will be distributed solely to American Indians; tribal wellness programs and tribal schools nationwide will be able to purchase the shoe at wholesale price and then pass it along to individuals, often at no cost.

Sam McCracken, Sioux/Assiniboine, originally from Fort Peck, MT., is Nike’s Native American Business program manager, is quoted in the press release as saying:

"Nike is aware of the growing health issues facing Native Americans. We are stepping up our commitment … to elevate the issue of Native American health and wellness."

In the press release, Nike said this is the first time it has designed a shoe for a specific race or ethnicity, which is what I was hinting at with my opening paragraph. Ah, yes, sometimes good things really do come to those who wait. For the American Indians, this may be a nice gesture that helps with some of that patience we’ve developed over the past few hundred years.

In marketing the Air Native N7, Nike says it will be re-investing all profits from the sale of the show into health programs on tribal lands where problems with obesity, diabetes, and related conditions are near epidemic levels in some tribes. Whoa! What a concept, especially for a premiere company with shoes that are often far out of cost range of many low income Americans.

Nike said the wholesale cost of the N7 will be $42.80, and is expecting to sell 10,000 pairs. If the company hits that sales number, it will generate around $200,000 that will be re-invested into the Native tribal programs, such as the "Let Me Play" programs.

According to Nike, the Air Native N7 represents less of a financial opportunity for the company than it does in creating a goodwill and branding effort.

In designing the shoe, Nike designers and researchers looked at the feet of more than 200 people from more than 70 tribes nationwide. The designers and researchers found, in general, that American Indians have a much wider and taller foot than the average shoe manufactured and sold for the general population.

I made that argument for years, yet everyone laughed me off. From as far back as I can remember, I’ve always had problems finding shows that fit my feet. When I did find shoes that fit the width of my foot, they were often two or three sizes too too big in the toe. When I suffered and force my foot into shoes that should fit the size of my foot, heel-to-toe, the shoe over squeezed my foot like it was a wringer-washer, literally trying to squeeze the lifeblood out of my foot.

According to Nike’s information, the average shoe width of men and women measured was three width sizes larger than the standard Nike shoe.

As a result, the Air Native is wider with a larger toe box. The shoe has fewer seams for irritation and a thicker sock liner for comfort.

Based on that, I think I may have just found my next pair of shoes. Perhaps I’ve found many pairs of shoes.

I have a call in to McCracken, as I have other questions about Nike’s Air Native N7 that I’d like to ask.

Right now, though, I am on a quest to try to find a pair of the N7’s now — so I can do, well, a review, I suppose, of these shoes. I am the target population, so who better to give a neutral review of a product being target marketed than someone in that target market that is a particular target?

________________
Technorati Tags: Nike, Nike shoes, Nike Air, Nike Air Native N7, Air Native N7, Native N7, N7, American Indians, Native Americans, injuns, Sioux, Cherokee, Lakota, Chippewa, Blackfoot, Cree, Let Me Play program, Native tribal health programs, marketing, target marketing, health and wellness issues, Native American communities, tribes, tribal lands, reservations, Qualla Boundary, diabetes, obesity, seventh generation, shoe sizes, neuropathy, neuropathic pain, philosphy, seventh generation philosophy, 7th generation philosophy, Indian Health Centers, overweight, inactivity, Indian Health Services, Native American market