Sole of an Idea: What's a sneaker?

True story.

“What’s a sneaker?” I said. It sounded obvious⎯ in fact, a bit too obvious. That’s the question I asked when I was handed a new sneaker by the CEO of this one company. A bit indignant, he retorted, “What do you mean, what’s a sneaker? Hm.”

Cut to later that night at dinner: Quite a bit more indignant, that same CEO leaned across the table, over his spicy calamari appetizer, looked me in the eye and said (I am paraphrasing here) “I have been doing this for 15-plus years. I know my business. I know what a sneaker is.”

There was this long pause. Finally, he continued, “We’re going to do this… this thing you do, Concept Modeling™, because of your reputation. But if you feed me back what I just fed you today, well… Hm! (pause) I know my business.”

Calmly I said, “I understand.” I watched him as he bit into his spicy calamari.

The fact is, he didn’t know. None of us know. If we did, we would have created Nike.

The “sneaker” has changed over the years. To be more accurate, I should say that the concept of a sneaker has changed. At one time sneakers were just for sports. Now they are fashion. Think of it this way: The idea of a sneaker hasn’t changed, it is still a type of shoe, but the concept behind it has changed.

Sometimes, if you change the concept behind an idea, you change the idea ⎯ sometimes forever. Yes, I know it sounds obvious. Hm!

True story.

(Its from some Concept Modeling™ work I did in 2006. Of course, some names/terms have been changed to protect, well me. Hm!)