THE PROMISE OF SELF-LACING SHOES REALIZED
The Puma Innovation ethos was “A Culture of Firsts”. With AutoDisc that was most certainly delivered.
PUMA AUTODISC
Auto Disc as a concept was one that was staring us in the face. You didn’t even have to see Marty McFly’s shoe in “Back To The Future” to know that Puma was headed here. After all we invented the cable closure system. And a decade earlier Puma put the first smart shoe on the market with the RS Computer Shoe. And with the rise of digital products in the sports industry the equation became simple and obvious.
I CONVERTED The idea for a shoe with motorised fit into an innovation brief. the working NAME WAS “servodisc”. CREATING A BRIEF WITH CLARITY OF VISION KNOWING THAT IT WILL BE MEANINGFUL is nearly as satisfying as the end result. To connect the dots and create A pathway to do something entirely new is invigorating; one could say cathartic even.
Puma was not the KIND OF place that just haD a shop where WE COULD build bespoke motors for shoes. We worked out of Randolph Mausner’s workshop located in A VILLAGE one hour south of Nuremberg.
In retrospect I am convinced that no other group of people could have come together to accomplish what we did with AutoDisc. Randolph Mausner, Markus Bock and Ray Horacek were the best of the best when it comes to collaboration partners.
IN LINE WITH THE PROLIFERATION OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN SPORTS WE BROUGHT AN APP INTO THE EQUATION WHICH ALLOWED “HANDSFREE” CONTROL OF FIT.
The unique concept that AutoDisc was meant it had to have unique packaging. It was after all going to be offered to the puma elite.
the bolt unboxing
As the concept gained momentum we decided to develop a second edition that we would share with even more people. IT GOT EXACTLY THE KIND OF ATTENTION WE HAD HOPED FOR.
Innovation in the sports industry is always a race against the clock. On the one hand we had confidence that we would live up to Puma’s legacy of being the first to introduce many new technologies to sports. We were the first to bring Velcro™ to footwear, the first get inside Formula One cars with our shoes, the first to put a computer inside a shoe, the first to collaborate with a fashion designer (Jil Sander) and the first to introduce alternative closure with the Disc System. Still the competition was steep and a major competitor had set the stage for shoes that laced themselves. In the end we made it out of the gates first and won the race.