Looking at ASICS, we see a brand that is rich in heritage, and formerly a top dog in the footwear category. It is centered around uplifting morale through sports and healthy balance of the mind and body. Yet it has lost its popularity, and is now seen as more of a reliable brand, lacking the aspirational edge associated with high-performance sport.
To craft a narrative around a player supported by ASICS. Ellie Carpenter, playing for the national Australian Soccer team, is a perfect candidate. We studied what truly defines her essence as a player, how to form a story around her and what technologies to utilize.
This is surprisingly not so unique, almost 20% of professional women soccer players suffer ACL tears. Lack of proper recovery and time for proper recovery is the root cause of a lot of these injuries.
However, for Ellie, the injury made her a better, more capable player and leader. She advocates for injury prevention, recovery and massages.
We created a set of garments that would collect data about the player and then react to that data to massage specific parts of the leg.
This product line is designed to work seamlessly during times that Ellie would usually be strategizing, eating or hanging out with her friends - times in which she is not recovering.
Bloom is an almost invisible way to recover your muscles without a need for sophisticated recovery beds or time spent doing static massages.
The outcome of Bloom // An Asics Project 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