TRAINER 1 UNLEASHED LAUNCHES ON NIKEiD

words_Nick DePaula
images_Zac Dubasik

Ever since NIKEiD was first launched into the digital world way back in November of 1999, the goal was pretty straightforward: Allow the customer the opportunity to build their own shoe exactly how they want to. Never straying from that mission, the team has since offered up an endless rotation of models—both seasonally in-line and historically iconic—to be styled up. As the years passed, we watched with increasing interest as the website grew to include more categories of footwear, more colorway and material options, and even long-living icons like the Dunk and Air Force 1 for seasons at a time. As accessories and apparel were soon added to the catalog of options, NIKEiD became the go-to Internet portal for all of your custom needs in less than a decade. This year, one of the biggest models to hit NIKEiD is none other than the Trainer 1.

With the thoughtful “fat end of the marker” design language from Eric Avar helping provide a whole flurry of colorblocking options, the Trainer 1 was an easy choice for the NIKEiD team. “It’s an incredible-looking shoe, right? It also lended itself really well to customization,” says Matt Kelley, NIKEiD Product Line Manager. “The goal was: Lead with performance, moving into: How can we make it street worthy as well?” By launching with the goal of offering materials that would work best for the athlete eager to train, the NIKEiD team is also serving up an entirely different execution than the in-line group right from the start with a lasered quarter panel. “We took a look at what in-line was doing in mass production, and we saw a premium version with the laser etching and the quarter. We said, ‘What if we put a two-tone substrate beneath that and we allow that color to pop out?’” explains Kelley. “Then, we took a few material plays and not only added this premium synthetic leather throughout the rest of the shoe, but also a premium nubuck option for both the vamp and collar and quarter as well.” While the nubucks and laser accenting are for the most part unique to the NIKEiD version of the Trainer 1, another element that the team chose to highlight was the shoe’s lateral strap overlay, available in a gleaming, yet sturdy anodized patent in a possible 12 colors. “This is really the performance feature, so we want to show it off,” Kelley reveals.

After launching the shoe in early summer of last year, the team has already been able to look at buying trends and the colorways that consumers are most often using. Despite having six color options of the vamp and collar, and 13 options for the toe tip rand, they’re still seeing a consistent reliance on team colorways over the more rainbow-like styles we came to know around 2006. “It’s actually been selling quite well, and the team colors are stacking up first, and people are really connecting with their team or their high school or their college,” explains Max Doblie, NIKEiD Developer. “The materials we chose—you can spin them in a team light or you can spin them in a lifestyle light, but they all perform.” By adding the smooth, synthetic nubuck and synthetic leather options to the body of the shoe, that means that most of the color hits on the pairs that have been ordered are being seen atop the shoe’s prominent midsole rim and lateral strap. “It’s very balanced; consumers are expressing themselves with color much more,” reveals Kelley. “You’re always going to get White/Black, right? But, as they come through with the varsity reds and the varsity maize, the purple, the greens and the orange, those are coming up higher in our statistics, and it’s just great seeing consumers play with color and really put the shoes out there to be unique.”

While the materials and colors they would offer were a huge emphasis for the team, there has been a noticeable evolution of the personal iD for the first time, with more than just the traditional letters and number system being fair game. “We wanted to just really enhance the way that the consumer could put their name or their identity or their message on this product,” says Doblie. As a result, you can now add a dollar sign, “@” symbol or “+” sign to the heel of the shoe. Have a nickname that for some unexplainable reason involves a dollar sign? You’re good to go. Or, if you feel like advertising your Twitter screen name across your heel to gain more followers, there’s that option, too. While most NIKEiD shoes in the past have had room for up to eight letters, the Trainer 1’s spacious heel counter has allowed for 10 letters, and each shoe can feature a unique message. More importantly, the size of the actual font has been increased, so it’s larger than normal, too. “We said, ‘Hey, people want to be loud and proud about their affiliation,’ so the PID on the back is big and bold,” explains Doblie. “It was all about this consumer, and they’re either going to want to connect and they’re going to want to tell their message, or they’re not. If they’re not, they get the Nike font. But, if they want to connect, it’s big and bold.”

Having an endless array of material and personal NIKEiD options might have been the main reasons for people shopping on NIKEiD a few years ago, but now the team is looking for ways to take the program even further into the realm of customization. “What we’ve come to with our line in the Innovation Kitchen in the category is what we call an ‘Unleashed’ approach to this shoe,” Matt Kelley says. The idea to further customize was first made available in the Pegasus 25, with both Trail and traditional toolings as well as with varying widths. The Trainer 1 Unleashed includes a family of options for the shoe that go beyond simple colorways. In the Trainer 1, we’ll be seeing the most options ever on NIKEiD, as there will be 32 combinations of the shoe that can be customized, not even including all of the colors you can splash onto the shoe. You can select between a mid- or low-cut, the original Free current Diamond Flex version or an Air Max 360 version, a forefoot strap or no strap, and you can even select between the lasered nubuck two-tone synthetic quarter or a Flywire panel instead.

Never before has the team offered such a vastly spanning group of choices in a single shoe, and the Trainer 1 Unleashed is available now on NIKEiD. Along with the hodgepodge of upper materials and cushioning platforms to choose from, the shoe will also be available in a wider option. So far, the general release colorways of the Trainer 1 have yet to include a strap, but for both Matt and Max, it was a performance element they couldn’t go without. “You’re taking a little bit of history, because the original Trainer had a very similar sort of strap, but it’s all in modern day performance,” says Kelley. “You’ve got low-profile Velcro there, better materials and a better D-ring. If your training requires a lot of lateral movements and you need your foot absolutely locked down to the midsole, go for the strap option with a sipped midsole. If you’re the type of consumer whose training includes more running, while still doing some training, lifting weights and stuff, but maybe not as many lateral movements, maybe you don’t want a forefoot strap; go for the Air Max 360 version without the strap.” The inspiration to offer so many options in both color and construction simply came from the versatility of the sport itself, according to Kelley. “You customize your training regimen to what you need to do, and now you’re going to be able to customize your footwear to that same thing.”

The NIKEiD team, Matt Kelley and Max Doblie.

The Trainer 1 Unleashed, fully loaded.

The Trainer 1 Unleashed, with nubuck quarter and without strap.

The Trainer 1 iD, in anodized patent with Flywire.