bplusd

In the early 1990’s my uncle invented the first successful plastic cleat for golf shoes. Softspikes changed the golf shoe industry as courses across the world started banning metal spikes. Today, plastic spikes are the industry standard, and metal spikes really only show up on the tour.

In the mid-nineties, Softspikes was looking for new product ideas, and I suggested developing custom sports cleats - shoes where you could adjust the kind of cleat depending on the use. I had baseball in mind, where infield, outfield, and batting place different demands on the players and their footwear. My uncle turned down the idea, and life went on. Custom cleats didn’t come to mind very often in the subsequent decade.

Yesterday, I read about Adidas’ new line of TUNiT custom cleats for soccer, and flashed back to that mid-nineties suggestion. It’s interesting to have an idea validated.

But I realized that my uncle was right to turn down the idea. Softspikes didn’t have the support from their innovation ecosystem to move from making accessories for shoes to making a complete system. They didn’t have the suppliers, the partners, or the customers for such a complex undertaking, and my uncle recognized that. For innovators who have a great idea, make sure that the ecosystem for that idea supports your innovation. In the April 2006 issue of Harvard Business Review, Ron Adner offers insights on how to assess the risk of bringing new innovations to market in the article Match your innovation strategy to your innovation ecosystem. (This is a summary, but it captures the main ideas).

This entry was posted on Friday, April 28th, 2006 at 8:17 am and is filed under , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.