A brewing footwear industry battle pits its two biggest rivals head to head once again. But the outcome isn’t over ceasing something relatively trivial like a season’s fad design look or even the look and feel of a cushioning system. Earlier this week, Nike received a German court injunction order against adidas which forces the 3-Stripes brand to temporarily stop manufacturing and selling its version of a knitted shoe. Nike further is looking for a permanent injunction. This is big.
To get an idea of how big, Brett Golliff’s primer on all the ways Flyknit helps Nike (and its profit margins) is a great start.
But a lot of industry watchers are asking another more basic question: Who created the knitted footwear first, Nike or adidas?
adidas tells us their Primeknit concept has been in development and is documented going 4 years back. Our reader comments and emails incoming to the site seem to match the tone of James Carnes in the interview, boiling down to the fact that knitted shoes is a “technique” and should be open to anyone to use. Nike is sure to argue and deploy materials to the contrary in court proceedings.
But in the battle for lightweight supremacy, who comes out on top? Nike Flyknit or adidas Primeknit?
Brett Golliff takes a look at the industry’s revolving employment of factory/supplier level info and ideas and creates a scenario where theoretically both companies could have started up concepts on “knit” footwear around the same time. Where do you fall on the issue?
Read Brett’s full thesis now over at BrettGolliff.com – The Battle For Lightweight Supremacy.
