Zoom Fly and Vaporfly 4%: the North America energy launch plan

What it is

The Vaporfly 4% and the Zoom Fly led the story Nike Running called Fast for fiscal 2017 and 2018. Nike's global plan for the pair ran in four phases: ignite in summer 2017, sustain in fall, dimensionalize in holiday, then scale and energize in spring 2018. Both shoes reached the North America launch calendar on June 8, 2017, in two colors each, alongside the Pegasus 34 in matching colors.

Khounlavong's pricing read of 2017 marked the top price band Amplify, and named the Vaporfly 4% as the way to lead in innovation. The North America forecast file carried a maximum capacity on each special version.

In his framework, energy product was product planned to sell through in 14 days.

What Khounlavong did

• Developed the Zoom Fly energy launch strategy. His fiscal 2018 results page lists it in those words under North America Running.
• Wrote the journey deck and built the North America plan for both shoes across fiscal 2018, dated June 26, 2017. It ran in three tiers: NikeLab, the top tier doors Nike calls Tier Zero, and the inline line for men and women.
• Staged the inline Zoom Fly by month in that journey: a first color on July 1, black and white on August 1, crimson on September 1, royal on November 1 and black on December 1.
• Placed the NikeLab Zoom Fly SP in between: white on August 3, then three more colors on October 1, November 1 and December 1.
• Tied the special versions to races. The North America forecast file set launches for the Friday before the Chicago Marathon and the Friday before the New York City Marathon. A New York version of the Zoom Fly was open to North America only, with a maximum of 5,000 pairs.
• Split the North America forecast by channel: direct to consumer, running specialty, sporting goods, athletic specialty, city specialty, and contract and marathons. The file was first dated April 19, 2017 and reached version 5 on June 26.
• Asked for Zoom Fly color in spring 2018 to drive energy in boutiques: three colors in street relevant materials. The color add was sized at $190K.
• Asked for a fall 2018 Zoom Fly pack of three products for boutique and city distribution, in black, red and silver with reflective material, and a Pegasus 35 pack to pay it off.
• Set the sell-through windows in his fall 2018 framework. Vaporfly 4% essentials were planned at 6 months. The Zoom Fly SP was planned at 2 weeks, in city specialty and boutiques only.

Results

• No sell-through or revenue result for either shoe is in the documents. Khounlavong left the category in July 2017, the month after the first launch.
• The journey he left covered every launch through summer 2018, by date, tier and product code.
• One color was dropped from the North America forecast when its allocation moved to another color.

At a glance