What it is
SQAIRZ is a golf footwear brand. At the time of this work it was already in pickleball: its first pickleball shoe was in market and its second was in development. It had good technology stories, clean visuals, partnerships and athlete relationships, and a pickleball shoe carrying a paddle partner's name beside its own. What it did not have, by its own website, was a settled target consumer or a stated brand voice. The competitive set was crowded and established, and the first thing a buyer has to be taught is why a pickleball shoe at all, rather than a tennis shoe.
The role Khounlavong set for the work was to make the line plan more robust, make the footwear brand relevant, and bring lifestyle elements to it where they could be earned. The work ran through Lip Loi Creative and is recorded in two documents: a two-page scope of work dated June 10, 2025, and a 23-slide Keynote diagnostic built June 9 to 27, 2025 and presented in June 2025. Khounlavong presented the scope and the diagnostic to SQAIRZ as a proposal. It was not engaged.
What Khounlavong did
- Wrote the scope of work in four pillars, dated June 10, 2025. Consumer and marketplace insights: determine the target consumer and why, whether they align across categories, the size of market and its breakdown, the competitive landscape. Product creation: product insights, design inspiration, innovation pillars, a product design audit, a profitability assessment and a tiered pricing strategy. Merchandising principles: assortment development, line plan optimization, go-to-market strategy, revenue targets, a launch calendar and product flow, planned sell-through and obsolescence. Brand strategy: technology branding, a consumer synergized across categories, a holistic brand identity, demand creation, seasonal storytelling, and grass roots, seeding and marketing rollout. The same four pillars sit in the sidebar of every slide of the deck.
- Set the research framework, in four groups of questions: what SQAIRZ stands for (innovation or lifestyle, the technology or the brand, premium or mass market, and the binding principles with Pro XR and Paddletek); the storytelling (why SQAIRZ is necessary, why the customer should care, what pain point it remedies); the branding (purpose, archetype, voice and the significance of the name); and who SQAIRZ is serving, overall and by category, and what the data says. Set three types of research against them: independent, consumer and market.
- Built the pickleball market snapshot from published figures cited on the slide: men are 59.1% of all players; the avid player, who plays at least once a month, averages 34.8 years old; 18 to 44 year olds are 70% of all players; 25 to 34 year olds are the fastest growing group and 86% of avid players, by the Association of Pickleball Professionals in March 2023; the 65 and over core is 1.3M and the most obsessed, by The Dink in August 2024; and 25 to 34 year old participation is 2.3M, the largest group, by Pickleheads in February 2025. The deck's takeaway: the average player skews younger than presumed, and 25 to 34 year olds are the target market with the greatest potential. A separate slide carries 2024 footwear buying trends by generation from Simon-Kucher.
- Ran the website SWOT. Strengths: good technology stories, clean visuals, easy navigation, valuable partnerships, athlete relationships. Weaknesses: fragmented target consumers, no stated personality or brand voice. Opportunities: be bolder and make a declaration, celebrate the technology on the product, compel through brand messaging, sell the feeling and not just a product, a broader assortment in price points and colors. Threats: a crowded and established competitive landscape, educating the consumer on why a pickleball shoe rather than a tennis shoe, price point pushback.
- Laid out the website consumer journey in three stages, first impression, lasting memory and subjective opinion, and sorted what the brand controls from what it does not. Reference sites in the deck are Hoka, Rolex, Aston Martin and On Cloud.
- Gave the branding feedback in the order a brand is built: substance (purpose, vision, mission, values, positioning, target audience, difference maker), strategic expression (personality, archetype, voice) and visual expression (identity and presence). The deck's own observations are on the slide: the pickleball shoe carries dual branding, and the deck asks why; and the deck asks what the significance of air is in the name.
- Gave the product and merchandising feedback, the core of a more robust line plan: establish the pillars (stability or lightweight, power or quickness, breathable or protection, on court, off court or club house, driven by athlete insights); more price points and more colors; a launch calendar, a sell-through roadmap and a markdown strategy; and be prouder of the technology with overt design. For each technology, a way to show it: color blocking or branding on the square toe, a midfoot bar on the outsole or a medial clip for torsional rigidity, which the slide calls currently invisible, and the question of how foot splay and lockdown show themselves against standard reinforced heel cups.
- Brought the lifestyle question into the frame: innovation or lifestyle in the research framework, on court, off court and club house among the pillars, sell the feeling and not just a product in the SWOT, and a Slide beside the court shoes in the example line plan.
- Drew the tools as worked examples, labeled EXAMPLE on the slides. They are examples of what the scope would install, not product SQAIRZ shipped. A footwear visual line plan across SP'26, SU'26, FA'26 and HO'26, with a Power model, the XRZ 2, at $200, a Quickness model at $175, a 5-Tool model at $125 and a Slide at $50, each cell carrying a color count split between carry-over and new. An XRZ 2 launch calendar of 13 weeks with three colorways, sell-through windows of 11, 3 and 2 weeks, paddle collaboration markers, and the moments the drops sit against: Christmas, New Year's Eve, the Australian Open, Valentine's Day and the first day of spring. Two product pillars written out, Power ("Built for the bold") and Quickness ("Light on their feet, heavy on precision"), each with its technology list. A product insight execution, from the insight that top athletes use their entire foot to four solutions in the shoe.
- Set the functions and process side by side: product and merchandising, sales (direct to consumer and wholesale, with a channel partner strategy across sporting goods, mall, specialty and boutiques, and collaborations with Pro XR and Paddletek) and brand (define the muse, the strategic direction, the strategic expression and the avatar, and create the brand voice).
- Closed the deck on how to do it in four steps, get surgical on who we serve, create a line plan that solves their problems, build bold and innovative products, craft a brand identity that connects, and a six-month roadmap.
What it delivered
- A two-page scope of work in four pillars, June 10, 2025.
- A 23-slide diagnostic, June 2025: the research framework, the website SWOT, the branding feedback, the product and merchandising feedback, the market snapshot and its takeaway, the functions and process, the four steps and the six-month roadmap.
- The tools a footwear line runs on, drawn to SQAIRZ's own models and prices as examples: the visual line plan, the launch calendar, the product pillars and the product insight execution.
- Khounlavong's work ended at the proposal: the scope and the diagnostic, presented to SQAIRZ.
Sources
- Sqairz, Scope of Work, two pages, dated June 10, 2025. PDF exported from Keynote. `LLC's/Lip Loi - AZ/SQAIRZ/Sqairz - Scope of Work.pdf`.
- Sqairz, Scope of Work, 23-slide Keynote, built June 9 to 27, 2025 and presented in June 2025; minor edits July 2026 and October 2026. `LLC's/Lip Loi - AZ/SQAIRZ/Sqairz - Scope of Work.key`.
- Career archive sweep of September 28, 2026, Post-Nike findings, the Sqairz block and findings row 44. It records the work as a proposal.
- Khounlavong's rulings of October 1, 2026: SQAIRZ was already in pickleball with its first shoe in market and its second in development; he presented the scope himself as a proposal and it was not engaged; the role was to make the line plan more robust, make the footwear brand relevant and bring lifestyle elements to it.
At a glance
| Project type | Line plan and brand diagnostic, with a scope of work, presented as a proposal |
|---|---|
| Industry | Athletic footwear; golf and pickleball |
| Seat | Principal, Lip Loi Creative |
| Ran through | Lip Loi Creative |
| Worked with | Jesse Fowler, on the go-to-market. The scope, the diagnostic, the research framework, the line plan, the launch calendar and the product pillars are Khounlavong's work and his intellectual property |
| Dates | June 2025 |
| Location | Phoenix, Arizona, remote |
| Related pages | Jimmy Khounlavong, Lip Loi Creative |
| Principal | Jimmy Khounlavong |