UA’s Footwear Designer Reggie Wilson Shares What Went Into Designing Joel Embiid’s First Signature Shoe
Source: Interview with UA Embiid One Designer Reggie Wilson
I don’t work for Under Armour so I get to discuss the difficult aspects of launching a new signature model from the outside. What do I mean by difficult? Let me backtrack and then move forward. Sneaker design has beseem equally as important as the sport and athlete the shoe is designed for. Both adidas and Nike have made it a point for sneaker enthusiasts to know the people who develop and create the shoes that generate interest in the world of kicks. The story of Tinker Hatfield remains the gateway to design and ankle stories. People who don’t know anything else about sneaker construction, know Tinker.
Last year I had the pleasure of discovering information on Leon Gu, the designer of the Curry 7. I had never heard of him, but my excitement drove me to write the post below. In that post I explained that Under Armour had finally cortez over to understanding the importance of storytelling. Unfortunately, the one item of content on Leon, was just that… one item of content. What I hoped for was a series or more info on Leon and the process of the creation.
What happened instead was the one article on Leon. This didn’t help the Curry 7. Curry’s injury didn’t help the Curry 7 either; which is important. In the post on Leon Gu I explained my concept E.N.D.E.A.R.S. Those 7 letters are a guideline to releasing 7 items of content on a sneaker release. Under Armour did an incomplete job of rolling out according to that concept. (They didn’t know about it, lol, but just keep reading. I’m getting back to Reggie.) Without reinforcing the initial concept, the Curry 7 relied on the athlete solely; and when he was injured the shoe stumbled although it was a nice looking shoe.
When I wrote the Leon post, I didn’t go back to the HOVR Havoc basketball shoe. Leon was utilized in that video. It released on August 27, 2018. Today, 9-1-20, the video has only 318 views. By comparison, I released 4 videos on 4 different shoes on August 28, 2018. Those videos have a combined 7000 views. My videos were no-nonsense, basic, poorly shot videos using a garbage webcam. This year is the first year that I started really caring about my YouTube. Under Armour is a billion dollar corporation, someone inside should know that one video accomplishes very little. (Under Armour has ramped up content during the quarantine. That’s a good thing.) I knew the reach and influence of YouTube, but I was in the midst of selling a ton of sneakers in 2018. YouTube was not my focus. It should be one of UA’s primary options in marketing.
What does any of this have to do with Reggie’s design of the Embiid 1?
- If Under Armour fails to create any more content around this shoe, it will fail.
- Unfortunately, it will probably fail because Embiid, contrary to what I once thought, is not a good option to engage the consumer. He is too damn tall and big and the 76ers “Process” is on the verge of collapsing. China, where basketball is king, the people like dynamic guard play. In the U.S. people like winners… or dynamic highlights. Embiid isn’t either of those. Originally, he was a very good on social media, but after two seasons of being bounced from the playoffs, a fired head coach and a roster full of bloated contracts, his team is not looking good.
- Embiid has an amazing story and Reggie killed it with the storytelling of the shoe, but the model lacks any off-court potential. That’s the problem of designing for a big man. The shoes require so many different technical aspects, that it limits styling options. Big men are also not very fashionable.
Embiid doesn’t play like a traditional big man. He does have guard elements to his game, but because he’s so big the design of his shoe requires considerable “cage” qualities for containment. In the picture above the wing element rising at the midfoot allows for stability, but diminishes the lines of the shoe which would allow for the possibility of using traditional materials (leather, suede) that would give the shoe a simpler less performance centered look.
Wilson has been giving the difficult task of being the man behind the Embiid 1 and if Under Armour follows suit with releasing one piece of content for the model, I’m afraid that the lack of storytelling, combined with Embiid’s poor performance in the NBA bubble and the difficulties around his franchise’s decision making, have made Reggie’s job infinitely more difficult in a shoe that is two years removed from the quirky, funny, RiRi nike free run 3 womens mint.
I really hope I’m wrong, but I’m not wrong often. UA could make me wrong though if they take the time to keep content simple. It’s not a glammed up Havoc video like the one with Leon in it above, that’s needed. UA needs to get grimy. Giving YouTubers pairs of the kicks to do unboxings or workouts, ain’t it. Pretty pictures isn’t enough. You know what is a good start though? A video interview with Reggie. A video of his process of make. A real video series on what has to be done when the “Process” is done.