Asics Project

Project & Brief

A project conducted during exchange studies in ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, United States. Created in the context of a product designed course centered around using storytelling to highlight unique qualities of sports brands.
*this product is not an actual product of ASICS*

Designed a narrative-driven transformation for ASICS catered towards elite athletes. By distilling the brand’s ethos into a 6-word story, we conceptualized a self-calibrating recovery gear system for Australian soccer star Ellie Carpenter. The solution transforms athelete's vulnerability into strength, enabling them to recover dynamically while staying connected to their sport. The brand story is fragmented. A unifying narrative must emerge from a clear, focused problem space that ties product, purpose, and identity together.

Year

2023

Timeline

4 months

Core role

Product Designer

Contributors

Rosela Hinojosa

The ASICS brand

ASICS is a brand rich in heritage, and formerly a top dog in the footwear category.

It is centered around uplifting morale through sports and fostering a ‘sound mind in a sound body’ (the direct translation of their slogan)

Yet it has lost its popularity, and is now seen as more of a reliable brand or a dad shoe , lacking the aspirational edge associated with high-performance sport.

Black and white pictures of the asics history and their old shoes and marketing material

A picture of Asics being the cover shoe of a youtube video talking about most comfortable shoes

A picture of a golden soccerball above mountain Fuji symbolizing the rise of soccer as a sport

The Core Challenge

"Transform ASICS from dependable to desirable & craft a brand that fuels aspiration as much as performance."
With ASICS's long history of innovation, the narrative and product need to stay authentic to the brand.

Discovery Direction Big picture Executing Outcomes

ACT1: Discovery

Storytelling as a way to approach the design process

The Design Process in this project was guided not by the classic double-diamond or similar, but rather by a long narrative throughline that allowed us to diverge and converge in our design work.
Narrative-guided meant distilling the brand down to a short story, something in literature called flash fiction.
Flash Fiction is a brief fictional narrative that still offers character and plot development. This is a very effective way of capturing the audiences attention quickly and directly, especially in an age of short attention spans. The Brand-Athlete-Sport trio has to be expertly chosen and almost self-evident, and drives the entire narrative and product design.
The narrative design process involves essentially a funnel of rapid decisions and problem formations.

Ideation boards

Ideation board mapping out the different potential images and words for the 6 word story

Inspiration board for all aspects of soccer

And thus, a short / flash / story is born:

The six words and the story around them, simplified

ACT2: Directions to Product

What-if questions

The storytelling process continues through analyzing our 6 word story with What if questions.
We relate these directly relate to the words and images.
So what if vulnerability could unveil potential - just like how Ellie, our athlete, overcame her injury (her vulnerability) through a focus on recovery and balance.

A picture of the how could question and the themes that emerge from it

How the How Could We question relates to our story

What if question: What if vulnerability unveiled potential?

Athlete user journey & ACL injuries

Through analyzing Ellie's yearly, weekly and daily season schedule, I was able to pinpoint to the fact that soccer athletes are simply not getting enough recovery.
I reimagined the daily season schedule, placing the focus on maximized recovery outside of training/game time.

The yearly season for a professional soccer athlete, with the fact that they only have 1 month of break per year highlighted

The daily in-season schedule of a professional soccer athlete and the reimagined schedule using our new product line

The weekly schedule of a professional soccer athlete

ACT3: Big Picture Thinking

Technical understanding

Searching WGSN (one of the biggest trend forecasting services in the world), MIT Technology Review (bimonthly tech-forecasting magazine from MIT) & academic articles, we found a plethora of technologies related to our What if and How could we questions.
Below is our collection of research, which we further dissected, related to four keywords. Included are also the mindmaps for each keyword.
Vulnerability (purple)
Progress & Excellence (yellow)
Potential (orange)
Unveiling (blue)

A picture of the ideation board from WGSN website related to materials

A picture of the ideation board from WGSN website related to responsiveness

A picture of the ideation board from WGSN website related to computation

Biomechanics research

Studied why women have up to 9x more ACL injuries than men.
Out of the three possible ways to combat ACL injuries, chose to focus on the two that were related to muscle recovery, which is how the two final products came about.
Recovery pants : to improve blood flow to the hamstrings and massage the legs
‍ Recovery shoes: to improve blood flow in the arch of the foot and thus prevent injuries from unsafe landings

Illustration of the reasons why female soccer players are more likely to suffer ACL injury

Illustration of the three ways we can prevent ACL injuries

Initial sketches of the pants and shoes indicating where recovery should targer

First Biometrics Sketches

Color & Form

In the storytelling process, everything ties back together. We see this even with the color, as the 6 words and images story informs and inspires the color palette.
The trend and biomechanics research then inspires our first form and tech sketches.
Outside of that, we looked into Color trends from WGSN & form inspiration from Japanese samurai wear.

Picture of how the 6 word story images create the colorway for the final shoe

Colors from 6 Word Story

A large board of all the sketches done by Rosela for the final shoe

Sketches by Rosela

A large board of all the sketches done by Radovan for the final shoe

Sketches by Me

ACT4: Executing

Core insights from research

Towards the end of our research phase, made the following decisions moving forward:
Technical Research
Using heat-reactive compression fabrics, could target specific areas of focus.
Biomechanics Research
Focus on reactive recovery, or how gear could react to the body’s needs (as opposed to focus on training or in-game gear)
Form & Color
Colorway inspired by the 6 word story, form inspired by samurai & athletic taping
Then started working on the final products. I worked on the footwear , and Rosela worked on the garment. We kept working closely together, ensuring that both our products were sending the same message.

Initial concept sketches

More initial sketches of the flow of the shoe

Initial Sketches by Me

Sketches of the final shoe and the inspiration from the 6 word story that drove styling choices

More Sketches by Me

Digital sketches of different colorways for the final shoe

More Sketches and Colorways

Colors, materials and finishes inspiration board for the shoe

Physical prototyping

Pictures of the physical assembly process - 3D sketching, CNC and vacuum forming

Pictures of the other parts of the physical prototype creation - 3D printing, hand sewing and machine sewing

Picture of the steps for the final assembly of the physical prototype of the shoes

Picture of the printed pattern for the shoes and the pants in the ArtCenter sewing lab

Printed Pattern on Fabric

Outcomes showcase

The outcome is a pair of products centered around the concept of reactive recovery - wearable products that can react to the body’s specific needs in real-time.
1. Recovery Footwear
A self-optimizing footwear that can autonomously massage the arch and stimulate the feet in real-time based on the athlete’s gait, muscle fatigue, and injury history. Designed to reduce strain on vulnerable joints by redistributing pressure and forming a better mind connection between the foot and the athlete.
2. Recovery Modular Pants
‍ Adaptive compression leggings with embedded biometric sensors that detect muscle fatigue then apply targeted pressure/heat to stimulate the muscle and make it easier to relax. Calibrates to the athlete’s unique physiology, mirroring the body’s natural recovery rhythms.