如何让寒冷的冬季夜跑变得更容易？耐克有办法

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Hal is the ideal Nike employee: strong and silent.
    That’s how Barry Spiering, director of applied apparel research at Nike’s Sport Research Lab, describes his colleague. For the record, “Hal” is a tech-savvy mannequin that Nike NKE -1.42% uses to test products. Lately, Hal has been busy assessing how well apparel can keep an athlete warm and how well it allows sweat to evaporate.
    Nike uses Hal, as well as elite athletes like New York Giants football player Victor Cruz, to figure out how its clothes can best perform. Another key tool is environmental chambers, which are rooms with treadmills where Nike can control temperature, humidity, wind speed, and heat.
    Nike then takes its gear outside for a test run. For the cold-weather gear on sale this year, its research team went out for runs in Norway, Poland, and Denmark to get a good sense of how the apparel should be conceptualized for a variety of cold-weather environments.
    The company is hoping its arsenal of tools can give it the edge it needs to stand out in a crowded athletic field that has established competitors like Adidas and fast-growing rivals like Under Armour UA -1.91% .
    Spiering says his team’s hard work has resulted in product developments consumers are seeing in stores this fall. They include AeroReact, yarn that is engineered to adapt to changes in a runner’s temperature, and Therma-Sphere Max, raised-node technology that traps warm air close to the body in the same way a wetsuit holds water.

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Seeing the light   
When Nike set out to design its latest winter line, it found inspiration in the Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights.
    The natural light display was a key inspirational element behind Nike’s holiday collection, which features colored reflective properties for the first time. Traditionally, the reflective gear Nike sold was only a silvery white. This year, purple, blue, and orange appear in its reflective apparel and shoes, matching the color palate of Nike’s broader collection.
    “As a runner, you want to make sure you get the attention of the driver,” says Luke Hammer, Nike’s senior designer for running apparel. “We hear more and more, ‘I want to get out there and run, but feel safe.”

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Hammer points to the increasing interest by Nike’s runners to use the gear at night. Reflective properties are especially critical in the winter months, when daylight is in short supply.
    Nike has been in the business of making gear with reflective features since at least the early 1980s. The idea is to incorporate small glass beads that can reflect light into the clothes. Nike also aspires to ensure those beads are durable for machine washing but also aren’t too stiff to hinder performance. The reflective elements are purposely added to key joints—ankles, knees, and wrists.
    “It needs to be in places where the eye thinks ‘That’s a human’ and not a sign or another animal,” says Hammer.

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The athleisure movement
    Nike asserts its gear is rooted in performance. “Everything has a function,” promises Taryn Thogerson, product line manager for Nike Training. Each fabric choice, zipper, or hoodie is meant to help an athlete perform better, she says, while color and print selections are used to match fashion trends.
    But there is no denying that Nike is also capitalizing on the “athleisure” movement—a consumer trend to increasingly wear athletic gear not just for exercise, but also while headed to the grocery store, brunch, errands, or just about anywhere.
    “Yes, they make technical product for an athlete, to make an athlete better,” says Christopher Svezia, an analyst for Susquehanna Financial Group. “But the big driver to their business is really to make product for the average consumer whether they are an athlete or not.”
    Still, it should be noted that Nike has also built the third-largest design patent portfolio in the U.S. over the past 25 years.
    “We’re constantly being pushed or inspired by the athlete to create something new, something new and better,” Nike president and CEO Mark Parker said during an investor presentation earlier this month in Beaverton, Ore. It was there that Nike vowed to hit $50 billion in annual revenue by fiscal 2020. The company sees the running category—where its reflective technology is a key innovation component—becoming a $7.5 billion business by 2020.

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哈尔是一名理想的耐克员工：身体健壮，沉默寡言。

    耐克运动研究实验室的应用服装研究主任巴里·施皮林如此形容他的同事。实际上，“哈尔”是一个高科技的人体模型，专为耐克公司测试产品。最近，哈尔一直忙于评测服装如何为运动员保暖，如何增强透汗性。

    耐克通过哈尔，以及诸如纽约巨人队橄榄球运动员维克多·科鲁兹这类体育明星，来研究如何实现服装的最佳性能。另外一项重要工具是配有跑步机的环境模拟室——耐克可自由控制房间的温度、湿度、风速和热度。

    然后，耐克会将它的设备带到户外，进行一次试跑。为了研制今年上市的防寒装备，耐克研究团队特意赶赴挪威、波兰和丹麦，希望更好地了解如何根据不同寒冷环境设计服装。

    公司希望凭借各种工具，在竞争激烈的运动市场占据领先优势。目前，这个市场既有老牌竞争对手阿迪达斯，也有许多发展迅速的新对手，如Under Armour。

    施皮林表示，他们努力的成果便是消费者今年秋天在商店看到的那些产品。其中包括AeroReact，这款产品据说可适应跑步者体温的变化。另外一款产品Therma-Sphere Max，采用凸起节点技术，可吸收靠近身体的温暖空气，与防寒泳衣保持水分的原理类似。

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点亮黑夜

    在设计最新冬季产品时，耐克从北极光中找到了灵感。

    这种自然光正是耐克节日系列的一个重要灵感源泉。今年的节日系列首次推出彩色反光元素。传统的耐克反光装备只有一种银白色。今年的反光服装和跑鞋则增加了紫色、蓝色和橘色，以搭配耐克公司种类丰富的新品颜色。

    耐克资深跑步服装设计师卢克·哈默说道：“跑步者都希望能够引起司机的注意。我们经常听到人们说：‘我想去跑步，但首先要保证安全。’”

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哈默提到，耐克跑步者在夜间使用装备的兴趣日益增加。在冬天，日照时间缩短，反光元素变得非常关键。

    耐克至少从上世纪80年代开始，便一直在设计具有反光特性的服装。此次的创意是在服装中采用小反光玻璃珠。耐克也在努力确保这些珠子可耐机洗，并且不会过于生硬，影响总体性能。设计者在主要关节部分增加了反光元素——脚踝、膝盖和手腕。

    哈默说道：“反光元素的位置必须确保看到它们的人认为：‘那是一个人，而不是一个标志或一种动物。’”

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运动休闲风潮

    耐克声称，性能是耐克设备的立身之本。耐克训练产品经理泰伦·滕格森承诺：“每一处设计都有特定的功能。”她表示，每一种布料的选择、拉链或连帽运动衫，都是为了帮助运动员取得更好的表现，而颜色和印花则是为了跟随时尚趋势。

    但不可否认的是，耐克公司也从运动休闲风潮中获得了好处——越来越多的消费者不仅在运动时穿运动服装，也会穿着它们去购物、吃早午餐、外出办事或者去任何地方。

    Susquehanna金融集团分析师克里斯托弗·西维亚表示：“是的，他们一直在为运动员设计高科技产品，帮助运动员提高表现。但耐克公司业务增长的一个重要推动力，则是为普通消费者生产产品，不论他们是不是运动员。”

    需要注意的是，耐克公司在过去25年间积累的设计专利数量，在美国位居第三位。

    本月早些时候，耐克公司总裁兼CEO马克·帕克在俄勒冈州比弗顿召开的投资者报告会上表示：“我们不断受到运动员的激励和启发，去创造更新、更好的产品。”在这次报告会上，耐克公司宣称，到2020财年，公司将实现年收入500亿美元的目标，跑步类产品的营收规模届时将达到75亿美元。而反光技术正是这类产品的最大创新。（