Unlock the MINDSET of Innovation (a Nike Case Study)

BLAME IT ON TECH HYPE, but most of us don’t identify as innovators. It’s beyond us, we think.

Innovation is reserved for the elite few with specialized research, technical, or engineering skills.

They're siloed away in their R&D department doing the cool stuff. Right?

But what about the rest of us, is innovation truly beyond our reach?

No way. Innovation is for everyone.

It’s the bedrock of a culture of innovation. Further, organizations that ignore this fade from leadership.

Yet most companies get this wrong; it lives as a mindset.

It’s this simple: you are an innovator if you influence or implement new thinking.

Most innovation consists of small actions that lead to incremental progress.

These steps improve processes, products, or services. AND they influence much larger breakthroughs.

But, innovation begins with your mindset.

Or these three traits: you are open, insanely curious, and love to experiment.

Moreover, these habits are yours to develop. This case study illustrates how.

Think of Nike innovation, and you likely think of NikeAir, Flyknit, or Zoom VaporFly. Something important.

But our case study is humble—a football receiver’s glove.

Gloves are essential for a football player. As important as their choice of cleats. Their sticky palms can make or break a critical play.

Yet, within Nike culture, gloves were small potatoes, lost in the shadows of the footwear and apparel business. 

They were hardly worth considering, let alone worthy of innovation.

This is limiting.

That is until we shattered this belief—and shifted our mindset.

Open Mindset:

“Make shit that makes them care.”

That was the glove brief from our product leader.

It was short and simple. Vague even. But, it did something powerful: it flipped our framework. It broke the limiting status quo.

Instead of merely improving function, could we offer more? Perhaps even an emotional advantage?

Our focus shifted beyond the advantages of a functional sticky palm.

We opened to new ideas. And greater impact.

Curious Mindset:

A glove’s palm is coated with a sticky coating for ball control. This process narrowed us to solid-color palms and stymied further product differentiation.

But we had a new trick up our sleeve.

We invented a proprietary coating process that enabled palm graphics, a first in the market.

We debuted these new gloves at the NCAA championships featuring team-inspired palm patterns.

During the postgame celebration, a Florida player flashed a hand signal. He brought his hands together into a triangle shape, palms forward.

Hmmm, we thought. What’s going on here?

It was Jay-Z’s ‘The Roc’ symbol. A flash of identity.

It caught our attention and sparked curiosity.

Let’s push into this further, we thought.

What if we printed a team logo—half on each palm? Then, bring your hands together and flash your teamidentity!

It felt like a big idea.

Experiment Mindset:

But, will the NCAA accept it? College brand departments fiercely protect their brands.

Surely they’ll reject splitting their logo into two glove palms.

Let’s try it anyway. The worst they can say is no.

We submitted our first batch of four schools for approval. Each sailed through! We were gobsmacked.

But, the real magic happened at the NCAA championships the following season.

It took only one touchdown.

The instant Alabama’s Marc Ingram scored, he rushed to the camera flashing his palm logos. The image went viral.

Demand from other Nike NCAA teams surged. High school teams demanded theirs too.

It became a Nike Football exclusive. Intellectual property.

Eventually, Nike secured an expansive NFL contract to outfit every team with apparel, footwear, and fan gear. 

Offering the newly-patented gloves played a big role in securing the NFL deal.

See what happened here?

A simple shift in mindset leads to a novel innovation for a minor product. Which spreads to create greater functional, cultural, and business value.

And it initiates from the ground up—no top-down initiative, skunkworks team, or investment required.

We are all capable of this. But our approach must be different.

Challenge your mindset: you are an innovator. And your results can be exponential.

Now, go make shit that makes them care!