Super Heroic

Imagine a company that was cool, because YOU were the one wearing it. Super Heroic is a new children’s shoe brand that is rethinking the branding game and putting heart and soul back into the products they are creating.

The kids and I were recently invited to preview the new line of Super Heroic x Nerf line in the Hollywood Hills. The event was as kid centered and kid focused as their products. We walked into a castle that seemed from out of a story or comic book. We were met with staff from Kids Footlocker that made my kids feel like they were the most important kids in the world. They played with them and listened to their every whim. Meanwhile, I sat down with the co-founder and CEO of Super Heroic and, fellow parent, Jason Mayden to get some insight on this revolutionary brand.

First, I had to be honest, I had never heard of Super Heroic, but I was immediately taken by the very obvious kid centered, “super hero” notion. Jason, tell us about Super Heroic and what you’re setting out to do with it. “We’re trying to dismantle a system that’s driven through hyper masculinism, this whole notion that if you’re going to be active, it’s only for boys and that girls are meant to be passive. So, our company is gender neutral. We advocate for physical movement and play for boys AND girls. We believe kids can see themselves as the main protagonist… To me, it’s a dream come true. I was a hospital kid, I was an art kid, I was a math and science kid, I never really had role models beyond athletes. So I found my role model in Lucius Fox, a comic book character. He was the guy that made gadgets for batman. He was black, he wore glasses he was an engineer, he was talented, he looked like me, and he gave me a sense that as long as I used my talents to help other people, then that was a job worth pursuing. So, that’s how I ended up in this industry.”

How awesome is it that now, YOU have become your own hero Lucius Fox! You make the gadgets that make kids protagonist and super heroes in their own lives! To which Mayden replied, “Yes! We need them to be! We need them to be the heroes that will undo a lot of the things that are happening unfortunately”

You should know, that Jason Mayden isn’t a newbie in the shoe industry. Mayden worked with Nike and was the designer behind a shoe brand you might recognize, Air Jordan. This guy knows about shoes, and the science behind making shoes functional for all the top athletes. I wanted to know, what makes these shoes more apt for play than any other sneaker?

“Super heroic focuses on three things, the contact to the environment that a kid exists in, our cushioning system and the way that it works with the foot. It’s an extension of the leg, not just a covering of the foot. And third, we work specifically with children, so we understand the mindset of play. It isn’t just a product that we’re slapping on their body, we are thinking of the psychology of how they are interact with the packaging. It comes with a comic book it comes with a cape. It’s a full system. It isn’t just an inanimate object. It is a piece of equipment so that they can complete their mission. The innovation and research that goes into this is led by a woman named Estelle Maranan, Senior Director of Product Development, she has a background in kinesiology and biomechanics. She and I worked on some of the world’s greatest athlete products together at Nike. Now we have a chance to do it for children. The amount of time and insight that we spent on this is tremendous. We’re just giant kids ourselves. Creativity and youthfulness, you can’t recreate that if you don’t have it. That’s really the difference in how we create our products. We think like kids, we move and interact in a world that most people are uncomfortable in, because you have to have a level of humility to think like a child, you have to have a beginner’s mindset. Every single day we wake up, we don’t assume we’re the greatest, we don’t assume we’re the best, we just assume we’re going to work the hardest, and that’s all you want your children to do.”

“…we work specifically with children, so we understand the mindset of play. It isn’t just a product that we’re slapping on their body” -Jason Mayden

All of this sounds incredible. But, as a parent and an educator, I have seen the effects of the hot product everyone wants. Kids are sometimes out-casted because they don’t have the hottest, the coolest, the newest… I want to know if these shoes also accessible for everybody. Mayden replied, “The way we price our product is actually below what you see competitors in the market. The level of technology that’s invested in this product, typically would be sold on the shelf from about 99 to about 125$. Our price point is in the 60’s and we are actually aggressively moving to a lower price point… I grew up without access to a lot of resources. I grew up on the south side of Chicago, I remember how it felt, being at a disadvantage, not only because of where I was living, but because I didn’t look like I had much value. So we put ourselves in a position with this company to, A. tell narratives where the kid, no matter what they look like, has value.  It’s not the product, our product does not make the kid more valuable, the KID makes our product valuable. So from a price point perspective, tone of voice, and positioning, we’re all about accessibility. And, we have to be. Because we are living in a world where, we can’t overlook the fact that parents are stressed, they are over leveraged. Most people, if they’re fortunate to have a two parent household, most parents are working. They are spending less time with their children, so we have to think about the emotional development of that child. By the time they get to middle school, there’s been so many things that have torn them down to make them feel that they are not included, that when we have them thankfully, in our ecosystem from ages 4 to 11, we are trying to build stronger children so that we don’t have to face broken adults later on in our lives. So it’s a very deliberate positioning and messaging and offering to give them value at every single touch point. Because if they can’t fit our product, if they’re too young, they can look at our narratives, if they grow out of our product, they can participate in our play experiences. All of those things ae completely free and accessible on our website…. It’s really fun to see how people interact with our brand, because even if they don’t transact with us, there’s things that they can do to make them feel included in the community, and that is the most important piece. It’s being involved in something knowing that someone cares about you, even if you don’t have the uniform of acceptability. So, that to me is my dream, is to have all children see themselves as heroes, regardless if they’re wearing our product or not.

R E V O L U T I O N A R Y. Imagine a product that values our children. That values their emotional well-being as well as their comfort during their most important work – PLAY. Imagine a brand that believes in your coolness so much, they are the ones that want to be on your feet, not the other way around. You don’t need to imagine it anymore. Super Heroic is here, and they are ready to play! Super Heroic is available now at all Kids Foot Locker and online. Their newest collaboration with Nerf is out in stores and it combines all of the classic color, fun and feel of the classic Nerf toys kids love. The equipment our kids need be the super heroes our world needs right now. You can check out Super Heroic for yourself here! Then, get out and play!

A big thank you to Super Heroic x Nerf for inviting us to check out the new line! Although we were hosted, all of the opinions expressed here are my own.