With its sleek designs and innovative technology, Athletic Propulsion Labs (APL) has become a force to be reckoned with in just over a decade. Identical twins Adam and Ryan Goldston were just 22 years old when they founded their company. Since then, they have introduced proprietary technology to nearly every area of their footwear and built a brand with a devoted following thanks to their purity of design and dedication to excellence.
Ryan and Adam Goldston, founders of APL, in the new HySpeed shoes they developed with … [+]
APL
The brand favors quiet luxury, with minimal logos and branding in designs that blend form and function. How functional? Well, his first shoe, the Concept 1, was the first and only shoe banned by the NBA for providing an unfair competitive advantage. Simply put, the shoes helped players jump even higher thanks to their patented Load ‘N Launch technology. “It’s a compression spring base system that sits in the forefoot socket. You press it, it compresses it, you jump, it releases it and it propels you up like a trampoline,” Adam explains. “The average athlete gets 1 to 3.5 inches of instant gain in vertical jump.”
When the shoe was banned, it was bad for NBA players, but great for the APL. “It was crazy. That day, it was the number one news story in the world,” says Ryan. “We sold nine months of inventory in three days. We are truly the brand we are today because of that. basketball. In general, the holy grail is to create shoes that make you jump higher and run faster instantly. The fact that this happened was an incredible moment, and it was right at the beginning of the company. It’s kind of a story of origin and the genesis of the brand. It was unreal.”
Over the years, APL has continued to innovate and has a number of other innovations and patents. But for the brothers it was important to keep the shoes accessible and understandable for customers. “We wanted, for lack of better terms, to hide it within the beauty of the shoe,” says Adam. “We wanted him to be present, but not necessarily front and center. We feel that lends itself well to quiet luxury. So we can have all these amazing innovations inside our footwear where we’re the only one to do it on the market, but it’s not blatant and in your face. It is more to go with you during the whole trip”. Some of their customers just want the shoes because they like the look and the innovative technology is just a bonus. Others want the most technically advanced shoes they can find and are thrilled that they are really stylish. “We don’t use big stamped logos. We let the materials, color, technology and design speak for themselves,” says Ryan.
APL is known for its neutral color palette
APL
APL has a carefully curated selection of shoes and it can take years before they develop each silhouette. “We have the luxury of being able to spend time designing the product the way we think, not just the way we see fit, but to the highest possible level,” says Adam. He points out that many sportswear companies strive to be first to market and produce as many products as possible, but one of the key pillars of his brand is time. “We can never say, ‘Okay, this is good enough.’ It has to be the best it can be. The reason I think our shoes are the most comfortable, work the best and look the best is that we really put a lot of time into creating the product and we don’t release it until we say it’s done, not finished. . I think there is a difference between the two,” says Adam. “It is designed the way we set out to create it. If we finish it fast, we finish it fast. If it takes us three or four years to create it, we’re going to spend three or four years creating it.”
The brothers credit this focus on discipline and design as one of the keys to their success. They know where they want to take their company and are prepared to make tough decisions now, knowing they will pay off in the future. “When we think of discipline, that’s really what it’s all about: making tough decisions and being excited about what you don’t want to do,” says Adam. He points out that they are also disciplined in their designs. “We don’t have a huge variety of silhouettes because we spend a lot of time designing, refining, designing, and creating what we think are our hero silhouettes,” he says. Colors may come and go with the seasons, but they strive to create silhouettes that are timeless and designed to last. They do not find this commitment to be disciplined suffocating. “We always say that discipline gives you freedom,” says Ryan. By having their anchors, they can push themselves creatively within that framework, allowing them to innovate at the highest level.
The brothers draw inspiration from their travels, including some rather unexpected sources: The Streamline midsole was inspired by Japanese pancakes they ate during a trip to Tokyo. “It’s these thick, soft, fluffy, light pancakes. They just have this amazing texture. We had these pancakes, we were walking around and I said to Adam, ‘We need to do a midsole inspired by these pancakes,'” says Ryan. “It has a thicker sole, but the shoe itself is super light.” The back has lines that mimic a stack of pancakes, but actually have an aerodynamic function. After all, it is a performance running shoe.
The boutique in Los Angeles
APL
This dedication to fabulous yet understated design carries over to their outlets. APL’s flagship boutique in Los Angeles looks more like a fancy art gallery than a sneaker store. The space is narrow and long, with high ceilings. The brand wanted to pay homage to its home, the City of Angels, by creating an airy and heavenly space. They chose “timeless” materials, including travertine stone, noting that it was used in the Roman Colosseum, and the stone is still as fashionable today as it was centuries ago. The shoes are displayed in illuminated vignettes that line the long walls as if each were a work of art.
The new HySpeed
Getty Images for APL
The boutique draws from some of APL’s perennial sources of inspiration: fashion, sport, automotive and aviation. “When you think of fashion, you think of catwalks. People walk down the catwalk and back. It is a direct shot. When you think of sports and measuring the fastest woman in the world and the fastest man in the world, it’s a 100 meter race down the track. For the automotive industry, the fastest points on an F1 track are the straightaways, and for aviation, it’s the planes coming down a runway to take off,” says Ryan. “We wanted to create a space that had no turns, basically a straight hallway.”
Adam believes that this environment is the perfect way for customers to immerse themselves in the world of APL. “We wanted to make it so that you have to go through the entire space to find out. I couldn’t just walk around to get the full preview,” he says. “There is this discovery process from start to finish.” Visitors have to walk the length of the store to view the collection, which encourages them to linger and view the collection in its entirety.
The Luminous Neutrals collection includes striking pops of color.
APL
What is on display in these boutiques? APL recently introduced a new collection and a partnership with McLaren. The new collection, Luminous Neutrals, features the understated colors that APL is so well known for, along with some wild and unexpected colors in multiple silhouettes ranging from sandals to sneakers. “It’s really about the juxtaposition of these neutral color palettes that we’ve become known for as a brand and the bright touches that really pop and shine,” says Ryan. The response has been fantastic: Adam notes that one of Zipline’s seasonal colors has become his number one selling shoe.
The APL McLaren HySpeed took two years to develop
APL
The McLaren Collection also has these bold, neutral colors in five exclusive colourways, but also introduces a new silhouette: the trademark APL McLaren HySpeed inspired by McLaren supercars. The running shoe took two years to develop, and the brothers call it a true collaboration. “The HySpeed represents everything that APL and McLaren share: an appreciation for design, impeccable luxury, a unique attention to detail and the need for the beautiful product to perform at the highest level,” they say. “The silhouette was built from the ground up and inspired by McLaren supercars. From the dynamic architectural aerodynamics of the midsole to the internal heel cushioning inspired by the ultralight Senna seats, there was no shortage of creativity and engineering excellence used to bring HySpeed to life.” Goran Ozbolt, Acting Director of Design at McLaren Automotive, says: “It perfectly embodies the DNA and design philosophy of our own McLaren and APL. APL has developed new technologies specifically for this shoe, inspired by our innovative work with lightweight materials, which also maximizes comfort and wearer experience. Like getting into a McLaren, it’s about optimizing performance, agility and speed.”
Despite building APL into the second largest independent shoe company in a short time (the company launched in 2009), the brothers remain humble. They still get excited when they see people wearing their shoes in unexpected places. Ryan recalls a visit to La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the iconic temple designed by architect Antoni Gaudí, where they were recognized by a tourist wearing APL sneakers who praised their designs. It was a surreal moment for them to be recognized for their designs in a space so legendary that it has inspired them. “No matter what we do, the best feeling is to keep seeing people wearing the shoes,” says Ryan. Adam agrees: “There hasn’t been a day in probably four years that we haven’t seen someone using APL no matter where we were. That’s the best feeling in the world.”
And, despite the success of the company, they are not even close to being finished. “The ultimate vision is to own the luxury performance category on a global scale. We have created it. We were pioneers. We are pushing it forward. But really, we want to own it on a global scale,” says Ryan.
Source: www.forbes.com