Water and Sole

We’re not talking about spiritual revival, but rather two hot companies looking to change the way we look at our health through beverages and footwear. The New Hampshire High Technology Council’s Entrepreneur Forum’s last event featured Doug Clark, CEO of New England Footwear Manufacturing and Derek Hopkins, CEO of Liquid Health Labs speaking to a packed house. Their products both have IP that innovate traditional approaches to two age-old markets – drinking water and shoes.

New England Footwear Manufacturing’s goal is to disrupt the paradigm in manufacturing and materials through their lean manufacturing process that uses no cement and results in a light, breathable, durable product. The best part? Made in America. Contrast that with 98 percent of athletic footware today, which is made in Asia using the cut, cement, stitch method creating significant waste. Design-wise, the mass manufactured athletic shoes lack New England Footwear’s secret sauce: “Surface 3D.”
CEO Doug Clark defined Surface 3D as directly applying (molding) material to the exterior of the shoe using a low pressure, low temperature process. How lean is it? According to Doug, ten times more productive versus cut, cement & stitch. And, he should know. Doug was the Chief Innovation Officer at Timberland and has 30 years experience designing footwear at global leaders like Nike, and Reebok. His partner and president, Jim Sciabarrasi was the former vice president of sourcing, logistics & quality at New Balance and is a lean manufacturing supply chain expert. Surface 3D is like having your skeleton on the outside of your body, instead of on the inside. Their designs are sleek and modern.

Our distinguished panel consisted of Frank Allen, Senior Vice President of Global Sales for Saucony, Dr. Mark Hecox, Professor of Sports Management, Southern New Hampshire University, and Kevin Hynes, Senior Vice President of Product Development of Collective Brands. One brilliant idea that came from the panel was to change the future model by selling the Surface 3D process in a B2B model rather than selling shoes in the current B2C model. Other recommendations were to focus on an application market such as medical footwear or the diabetic market. In the company’s favor is the reported 15-18% cost increase in China and uncontrollable annual cost creep (cost of petroleum). The good news is keeping things in America helps. Currently, the preeminent design trend is “minimization,” like the guys seen running barefoot or in five finger shoes. If New England Footwear Manufacturing can trend toward taking more out of the shoe to make it even lighter and more flexible going forward, then they can better race neck-to-neck with leading brands…fewer bones, more sole!

Next we heard from Derek Hopkins, President of Liquid Health Labs, who is about to change the way we drink bottled water. His proprietary technology, PowerCap® is in a category called dosing cap delivery systems. Take the water bottle on your desk, screw off the plastic top, and screw on PowerCap infusing a vitamin, immune support, or flavor mix, shake, and drink. PowerCap can be applied to the sports beverage, Pharma/OTC, veterinarian, and cosmetic industries.

One scenario for PowerCap is hangovers. Check out their brand, appropriately called “Last Shot.” What causes the feeling of a hangover and how does Last Shot help protect you? Toxins, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalance, of course. Other applications are premeasured medicine doses for over-the-counter drugs, veterinary meds, and instant health and beauty elixirs. How about cleaning products? With their three styles of caps, you can decide if the PowerCap push, twist, or universal cap works best for your application. Also, storing the active ingredient in the cap keeps it fresh whereas water mixes can lose their effectiveness during shelf life. Plus the caps are 100% recyclable.

Our esteemed panel included Gerry Martin, Vice President of Marketing for Polar Beverages, Bob Wilkins, Founder of Freepricealerts.com, and Ned Desmond, Senior Beverage and Food Consultant. Not surprisingly, the unanimous advice was licensing over branding. Focus on the technology rather than trying to compete with large national brands. Let them figure out what to do with the caps and remarket them either alone in an end-cap, no pun, strategy or as part of a new beverage. According to Mr. Martin, it takes over $1 million to get a new consumer beverage off the ground, Red Bull being the exception. No one mentioned a Red Bull, Grey Goose, Last Shot bundle – now we might be onto something.

Like all of our Entrepreneur Forum events, we all walk away a bit smarter with principals we can apply to our own businesses. And in this case, with a new start on good health and a bit of sole!

Onward, Indeed...

Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul


I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Schultz speak at Harvard Business School during the Onward book tour. What an amazing man! He commands respect, both for making tough decisions but for "doing right by doing good".

One of my favorite excepts was from his friend #BONO, who he as partnered with on the RED, the Global Fun for Aids:

"The great companies will be the ones that find a way to have and hold on to their values while chasing their profits, and brand value will converge to create a new business model that unites commerce and compassion. The heart and the wallet...The great companies of this century will be sharp to success and at the same time sensitive to the idea that you can't measure success on a spreadsheet -" @bonovox_

And finally from Howard Schultz himself:
"Grow with discipline.
Balance intuition with rigor.
Innovate around the core.
Don't embrace the status quo.
Find new ways to see.
Never expect a silver bullet.
Get your hands dirty.
Listen with empathy and over communicate with transparency.
Tell your story, refusing to let others define you.
Use authentic experiences to inspire.
Stick to your values, they are your foundation.
Hold people accountable, but give them the tools to succeed.
Make the tough choices, it's how you execute that counts.
Be decisive in times of crisis.
Be nimble.
Find truth in trials and lessons in mistakes.
Be responsible for what you hear, see, and do.
Believe."

Onward!
#starbucks