Super Heroic’s mission is to help every child unlock their superpowers through footwear and apparel designed especially for kids and made for all day play.
Source: Best Sneakers for Kids – Active Play | Super Heroic
Unlike most parents, I’m in the sneaker biz so I constantly have access to shoes for my kids. This is important because kids are constantly changing. One summer my son went from a size 8 to a size 10. At 16 he wears a size 12.5. My daughter at 10 years old is in a size 7. I have tall kids and with that arises issues with the cost of shoes; which isn’t an issue for me, but for other parents it’s a serious, expensive, problem. While there are many low cost alternatives for parents to choose from in buying shoes for kids those shoes are often horrible for the development of foot structure. Very often kids don’t even know they need another pair of shoes. Kids can end up with orthopedic issues from bunions, in grown toenails, to foot fungus and damaged foot structure…all because of their shoes. This is the high school basketball coach speaking, kids don’t want to work out and can’t work out because their parents simply can’t afford a pair of shoes.
When I see a new footwear company I’m excited and afraid. I discovered Super Heroic last year, but I hadn’t written anything about the company. Not because I didn’t have anything to write, but because there has been so much news about brands that it continuously skipped my thoughts. Today is a Saturday morning which used to mean Saturday Morning Kung Fu Theater, cartoons and then hours of street basketball on a milk crate when I was little. Today it means kids on the Kindle/iPad/Computer sitting in a dark house failing to move. Saturday morning cartoons are all but dead and since kids can stream whatever, whenever, there isn’t a routine anymore. Kids are more sedentary. Childhood diabetes is a thing now along with childhood obesity. Kids can’t play school sports because budgets are being trimmed and organized sport is now professionalized.
Play is in jeopardy.
Enter Super Heroic… a footwear brand inspired by play and informed through a technical process by a designer that brought us shoes made for the greatest athletes in the world. Jason Mayden tells the story of why he left a safe, but incredible career in shoe design to launch this brand. The video below gives insight and information into the process and the amazing thing is the fear that I typically have for a new footwear company is somewhat removed because in Jason’s corner is the greatest player who played in the NBA, Magic Johnson (yep I said this MJ is the GOAT). Check out the video and then of course this wouldn’t be ARCH if I didn’t layout the difficulties I see ahead for the brand.
The Story Behind Super Heroic from Super Heroic on Vimeo.
Super Heroic is a brand that is timely and arrives at a moment in footwear where the emphasis is being placed on women and athletes. This leaves kids in a position where their footwear is simply a smaller version of adult shoes. There is an inherent problem with this. A child’s foot is more flexible which gives children a completely different gait than an adult. Kids are more suited for natural motion shoes that allow the toes to splay correctly which develops good foot structure. Super Heroic is testing and building shoes with this in mind. The best element of the shoe is the seamless interior. I can’t tell you the amount of times my daughter has complained about the multitude of shoes she owns. Her pinky toe gets caught on material inside of the shoe. The shoe slips on the pedal when she’s riding her bike. Super Heroic has taken the time to build a shoe that alleviates many of these issues.
The packaging and detail given is incredible, but there are things that the brand will encounter as any company entering a field where there are dominant players.
- The established footwear brands do a ton of marketing and peer pressure happens even at the youngest of ages. Super Heroic will have to overcome the perception of the shoes as “not Nike/adidas”.
- I know how difficult it is to acquire customers. Super Heroic is utilizing social to its advantage, but social is fleeting and doesn’t sustain. To market and reach the audience the brand will have to target parents who are also on social and always looking for opportunities for their kids. The brand currently uses Vimeo as its video platform. Vimeo allows for beautiful videos, but YouTube should be the home for the brand. Although the audience there may only stay for a minute and a half, when the content is good they stay in the rabbit hole for hours. The Super Heroic channel should use that to their benefit with two minute household workouts and in front of the house two minute workouts on video.
- To strengthen their ‘marketing’ they have done something smart in creating a blog… unfortunately there are two posts there. What’s even worse is that the blog is on Medium removing the customer from the site creating a situation where the customer leaves the platform. The blog should be hosted natively. The blog should be updated 3-5 times per week. A connection to fitness and camp coordinators can be created. To serve the kids, truly serve the kids. Become the source of information for camp coordinators who need help delivering information. The site should host a number of things via the blog and all blog posts should move visitors towards Super Heroic products organically.
- I love the idea of play and being Guardians of Creative Youth. While it is an expense an alignment with Ninja Warrior places Super Heroic in an area where kids now are excited about going. This generation doesn’t care as much about Kobe and MJ, they care about Flip Rodriguez and Captain NBC. They know who Megan is but have no idea who Allyson Felix is. The brand has a chance to create a Key Cities approach and to extend that approach to elementary schools.
When I was little Pepsi would come to the hood and do these shooting clinics. I won a Big O award when I was a kid for making free throws. Pepsi was branding through play. Community centers are gone and these opportunities aren’t there. Super Heroic should be building a narrative and creating a system of play. Simply producing a product that is both beautiful and functional isn’t enough. A brand has to be integrated into the culture and community. Super Heroic has a chance to be special and it should be. It’s an important brand.