Nike's new app will use augmented reality to solve biggest problem with shoes

Your shoes probably don't fit; three out of five people, Nike says, are wandering around wearing the wrong size. It is, the company says, the biggest problem with wearing shoes, and bad fit leads to uncomfortable sneakers, worse performance, and people returning shoes or just simply not deciding to buy new ones. And now Nike says, that widespread problem – attested to by unworn shoes found around people's houses, and blisters and blood on people's feet – is fixed.

It says it has done so with the invention of a new app that will encourage people not to pick shoes by selecting a number, but instead scanning their feet. By using a phone's camera, the new app will gather a full picture of the size of your foot – and then use that to decide which shoe to send you.

Eventually, Nike thinks we might be able to do away with sizes entirely, with shoes instead turning up at your door without a number or gender written on them, and instead with just your name. But for now, the company wants to change how you get to that size.

While shoes have changed in a variety of unrecognisable ways, the fundamental way that they're fitted to your feet hasn't altered much since the 14th century. Back then, cobblers would grab hold of a piece of equipment called a last, built to represent a foot, and sew up the material to make the shoe around it so that it would fit to people's feet.

Those shoes eventually formed into a standard size, which remains in place as the numbers used across the world today. That all happened so long ago that they are based on the dimensions of a kernel of barleycorn.


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15 of the most talked about fashion moments of 2018

We know what you’re thinking. Can 2018 really be over already? The answer to that question, dear reader, is well… yes – and tbh, we’re not exactly sure what happened either. One thing we do know, though, is that it was a pretty massive year for fashion.

Between endless games of musical chairs, as the likes of Kim, Virgil, and Riccardo swapped and switched from house to house, there was a series of huge debuts, provocative moments of protest both on the runway and off, and more than a few viral moments that #broketheinternet (or at least came close to doing so).

We witnessed designers explore what the human race will look like 1000 years in the future, saw the dawn of a new age, as AI influencers and CGI models rose up and demanded to be noticed, and watched as the industry seemingly finally woke up to issues surrounding sustainability. 
With all that in mind, we’re here to remind you of some of the biggest moments of the last year. Who knows what 2019’s going to bring...

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How Nike became the biggest fashion brand in the world

Nike Off-White collaboration

Biblical rains have always represented new beginnings, so maybe the typhoon rolling into Tokyo wasn't the worst news for John Elliott. In 2016, Elliott was in the city working on an upcoming collection when the call came through: Fraser Cooke, Nike's senior director of influencer marketing, was in town and wanted to hang. That's when the rain started. The conversation was, unavoidably, intimate: they crammed together under a balcony the size of a double bed to avoid getting wet. This was the sort of informal interview that Elliott, who used to draw sneaker designs and send them to Nike as a kid, had been waiting a lifetime for. He and Cooke talked about everything: different subcultures, music they were into, cities they love to visit, how their life paths lead to the drenched table they were sitting at. And, of course: Nike. The meeting went on like this for four hours, pausing every once in a while when the patter of rain could no longer be ignored. Elliott was an hour late for an epic sushi dinner at Kyubey Ginza. His dinner mates were mad, and instead of legendary sushi, Elliott got food from a convenience store that night. "But I made the right choice," he says. "Would make the same call one million out of one million times."

He'd been in touch with Nike before—the brand gave him some sneakers for runway shows. But after that meeting, Elliott finally got to give his take on the Nike Vandal, a sneaker that Elliott skated in as a kid. After practically a lifetime of patience, his first shoe sold out in only a couple seconds. He's not alone.

Today, designer Nikes like Elliott's are everywhere. If there is a connective tissue to fashion week in 2018, it's the omnipresent Swooshed sneakers and apparel. Nike's World Cup collections were spearheaded by Virgil Abloh and Kim Jones. And now, fashionable Nike gear is starting to seep onto the court, too through Elliott's collection with LeBron James and Serena Williams's U.S. open uniform designed by Off-White. At Paris Fashion Week this summer, there they were at Undercover, Sacai, Craig Green, Off-White, and Alyx. Fashion week is where brands and designers unveil their new collections, but it's also increasingly where they flex their hottest new Nikes. Where What are those? takes on a frantic and literal tenor among those in the audience. The strategy stands out from other sneaker companies, who chase down entertainers like Hollywood agents or appoint them brand creative director.

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Burberry, H&M and Nike destroy unsold merchandise. An expert explains why

The British luxury brand Burberry brought in $3.6 billion in revenue last year — and destroyed $36.8 million worth of its own merchandise.

In July 2018, the brand admitted in its annual report that demolishing goods was just part of its strategy to preserve its reputation of exclusivity.

Shoppers did not react well to this news. People vowed to boycott Burberry over its wastefulness, while members of Parliament demanded the British government crack down on the practice. The outrage worked: Burberry announced two weeks ago it would no longer destroy its excess product, effective immediately.

Yet Burberry is hardly the only company to use this practice; it runs high to low, from Louis Vuitton to Nike. Brands destroy product as a way to maintain exclusivity through scarcity, but the precise details of who is doing it and why are not commonly publicized. Every now and then, though, bits of information will trickle out. Last year, for example, a Danish TV station revealed that the fast-fashion retailer H&M had burned 60 tons of new and unsold clothes since 2013.

In May 2018, Richemont, the owner of the jewelry and watch brands Cartier, Piaget, and Baume & Mercier, admitted that in an effort to keep its products out of the hands of unauthorized sellers, it had destroyed about $563 million worth of watches over the past two years. Whistleblowing sales associates and eagle-eyed shoppers have pointed out how this practice happens at Urban Outfitters, Walmart, Eddie Bauer, Michael Kors, Victoria’s Secret, and J.C. Penny.

The fashion industry is often cited as one of the world’s worst polluters — but destroying perfectly usable merchandise in an effort to maintain prestige is perhaps the dirtiest secret of them all. To find out why this practice is so widespread and what conservation-minded shoppers can do to fight back, I spoke with Timo Rissanen, an associate dean at Parsons School of Design and a professor of fashion design and sustainability at the school’s Tishman Environment and Design Center. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

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