My marketing class - Back to the Future

With the launch of Nike's HyperAdapt adaptive lacing running shoes, I had a little fun thinking back to an MBA-level marketing class I taught a couple of years ago for University of Phoenix. One of the class assignments, pretty typical for a class of this type, was to come up with a product idea and development a marketing plan for up to and including product roll-out.

One of our teams came up with none other than the self-lacing, self-tying shoe. The acknowledged it was "not quite" an original idea, with a nod to the 1985 movie, Back to the Future, and as I remember it, the team's definition of target markets (it had several) included Baby Boomers, who were having a harder and harder time bending over to tie their shoes. It couldn't have been the influence of their boomer professor, right?

Anyway, hat's off to Nike for their ongoing innovation, and happy memories of a fun student project. It's the icing on the cake, indicative of many of the reasons I enjoy my teaching so much!


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