How ProvenComfort® Makes Building Shoes Easy

Everyone in the footwear business knows that building a unique, compelling product requires lots of foresight. Tight deadlines, changing trends, and brand positioning can make-or-break how a shoe will be received by the market.

But getting the right data to build a good product can be tricky. Many footwear brands lack in-house biomechanics testing that can help them predict how customers will feel in their shoes. This can either slow down the product release, or force a hasty go-to-market strategy for a less-than-optimal product.

Enter INSITE® ProvenComfort® product testing, designed on the science of biomechanics to help you make data-driven decisions about your footwear cushioning.

Last month, we talked about how ProvenComfort® testing works and what kind of data each test delivers. In this blog, we’ll talk about how ProvenComfort addresses pain points in your development process for a better, more efficient product cycle all around.

The Problem: You Need a Biomechanics Lab – Now

Limited lab access presents a particular challenge for any footwear brand trying to innovate their products for better foot health.

In the past, a footwear developer had to jump through hoops to get into a biomechanics lab. For mid-size brands, this meant partnering directly with an academic or custom orthotics lab, which might exceed the scope of their project.

Even large brands with in-house biomechanics labs can get booked out quickly, leaving some of their own development teams on a long waiting list.

The Solution

The INSITE Research and Design Lab in Los Angeles, CA is a full-service biomechanics facility, available to any brand using INSITE cushioning for their footwear build. The lab gives you access to testing similar to what you’d find in an academic or custom orthotics lab. This lets you capture, analyze, and iterate on the data points that are most relevant to your customers’ mobility and comfort.

The Problem: You Need to Predict How Your Customers Will Feel

At the end of the day, while innovation matters, the consumer experience is the most important target. If too many people feel that a shoe contributes to pain while running, for example, then it doesn’t matter how much work went into the product design—that is not a successful shoe. Footwear developers must be able to predict how consumers will respond to a shoe before it hits the market.

The Solution

Our comfort perception testing methods provide direct customer feedback during the development process. We use surveys, blind testing, and more to quantify what your target demographic will experience in your shoe. In addition to lab testing, we also test on sport-relevant surfaces (for example, basketball shoes on actual basketball courts) outside the lab, so the feedback is directly related to how a shoe is actually intended to be used.

Our testing empowers brands and consumers to work together to create quality footwear before the shoes debut in-store.