Nike Air Zoom Pulse - Shoes for nurses and healthcare professionals - Atlas All Access 95

Rich Smith: On this episode, we talk all about nurse shoes. It's going to be super interesting. All Access starts now... All right. Corey Anderson.

Corey Anderson: Morning.

Rich Smith: Welcome back.

Corey Anderson: Thank you.

Rich Smith: It's been a while since you've been on with us.

Corey Anderson: True story.

Rich Smith: You brought this up about a week ago.

Corey Anderson: Yep.

Rich Smith: And then it hit the internet like crazy.

Corey Anderson: About a half hour after I went to you guys.

Rich Smith: Absolutely.

Corey Anderson: Yep.

Rich Smith: Yeah. And I was super proud when you called me. I'm like, "Oh, this is something new," or whatever. And then, yeah, seriously-

Corey Anderson: Now, it's not new anymore.

Rich Smith: ... like half an hour later. No, it's not new. So, Nike announced the Air Zoom Pulse. So, there's got to be a whole department at Nike that just comes up with names.

Corey Anderson: Oh, I'm sure.

Rich Smith: Oh, let's see. What about nursing profession, healthcare travelers. Oh, Paul set's important... Heartbeat. Should we do heartbeat? No.

Corey Anderson: They probably have a heartbeat model.

Rich Smith: Maybe. Maybe. So, an athletic shoe designed specifically for people in the medical profession.

Corey Anderson: Yep.

Rich Smith: So, I guess, let's talk first, why do you think it took so long?

Corey Anderson: I don't know. It's absurd. They're special shoes for literally everything in this country.

Rich Smith: Everything. And I've got a list here. So, there are traditional shoes, there are shoes that nurses, healthcare professionals, would wear. Right?

Corey Anderson: Yep.

Rich Smith: And we'll talk about that a little bit, but this is... And maybe it's all just a marketing ploy.

Corey Anderson: I'm sure there's some of that in there.

Rich Smith: Absolutely. Well, it's Nike. I mean, they're built on marketing gimmicks. That's their thing, and you know what you're going to get when you go into a Nike product or commercial or whatever.

Corey Anderson: For sure.

Rich Smith: But it has taken a while for us to get a shoe specifically for, let's say, a nurse or-

Corey Anderson: It didn't strike me as crazy until I read the article. It's like, "Why is this now just a thing?"

Rich Smith: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Corey Anderson: Yeah.

Rich Smith: Why is this, all of a sudden, is this... And why did it take so long to get to this point? So, I guess the second question that I have for you is, do you think it's a gimmick or do you think that... Now, they designed these with the children's hospital in Portland, Oregon, so they did some studies. I'm sure they put stuff in people's shoes as they were walking and everything.

Corey Anderson: Sounds like they had test subjects and went about it the right way, so hopefully we'll see. Hopefully we'll find out more if we get some of these into some people's hands.

Rich Smith: I know that there are, outside of scrubs and stethoscopes and things like that, there's equipment specific to traveling healthcare professionals that they take with them on the road that's important to what they do day to day, that they own rather than maybe is issued by a hospital or something like that. Do you believe that this is going to be, that the Nike Air Zoom Pulse will just become one of those two?

Corey Anderson: I guess maybe you'd hope. Hopefully it's a good enough shoe that people have to have it because if it works great, that would sure be awesome.

Rich Smith: Yep.

Corey Anderson: You know?

Rich Smith: Yeah. And I suppose it's going to be, we have to... The jury's out, and we'll get some more of that later, but the jury is out on that. We need some test subjects. And so, we will get to the test subjects here soon enough. So, last question for you here before we talk about other shoes and things like that that have been around in the industry before is, do you think other shoe companies will follow now?

Corey Anderson: If it is successful and word travels, absolutely.

Rich Smith: I know Sketchers is on the list, and Sketchers comes to mind just because they're a comfortable shoe anyway. And as I've gotten older, I have traded... And you as well, right?

Corey Anderson: Yep.

Rich Smith: I have traded fashion and style for comfort.

Corey Anderson: Absolutely. Yep.

Rich Smith: And my feet cramp up very easily. My feet cramp up. If I'm walking for more than a couple of days in a row. TravCon, when we go to TravCon, I know that my feet are going to cramp up and it's going to hurt, and so I wear the absolute most comfortable shoes I can possibly get regardless of how ugly they are.

Corey Anderson: Correct. I'm very stingy, so I don't like to spend money. But when it comes to running shoes, you have to.

Rich Smith: Absolutely.

Corey Anderson: I ref basketball, has to be super... Not expensive. Well, they usually end up being expensive, but super comfortable shoes.

Rich Smith: But quality equals cost, right?

Corey Anderson: Correct.

Rich Smith: I mean, quality equals expense, right?

Corey Anderson: Yep.

Rich Smith: You're not just buying shoes at the-

Corey Anderson: In certain aspects. Yes. I think you can waste money on some shoes that aren't worth it, but-

Rich Smith: That's true. Do a little research and then-

Corey Anderson: Correct.

Rich Smith: Right. Okay. So, if you had to guess, and this was all part of that study, too, if you had to guess, and I'm sure a lot of the nurses could vouch for this, traveling healthcare professionals could vouch for this, how many miles per day would that person walk during a 12 hour shift? Not per day, in a 12 hour shift.

Corey Anderson: Right. Got to be honest, I just saw this through my readings about this stuff, I think it's four to five miles a day.

Rich Smith: Four to five miles per day.

Corey Anderson: That's so much.

Rich Smith: So, then average Joe, like me and you in an office like right now, how many miles do you think we walk per day?

Corey Anderson: Half a mile.

Rich Smith: Well, you're a little light there. I think maybe if you're sitting at a desk or whatever for the majority of the day, maybe half a mile to a mile is average. They're saying 2.5 miles per day, average person walking 2.5 miles per day. So-

Corey Anderson: Suppose if we have the tall desks here, so you tend to wander a little bit more, but-

Rich Smith: Yeah, you stand up or whatever, and it's a long ways from my desk back to the bathroom and then back up to my desk and then back to the the chips or whatever, in my very healthy diet.

Corey Anderson: Regardless, it's a fraction of what these healthcare folks go through.

Rich Smith: Absolutely. And if my feet hurt at the end of the day, I can only imagine what-

Corey Anderson: Right. And we get to sit down whenever we want.

Rich Smith: Yeah.

Corey Anderson: That option isn't there.

Rich Smith: That isn't there at all.

Corey Anderson: Maybe a 30 minute lunch if they're lucky.

Rich Smith: No. So, I think this will be a fun exercise to go through. There are three or four or five different other brands that I found out there that have shoes, maybe not designed or marketed necessarily for the nurse, but for traveling healthcare professionals in general.

Corey Anderson: Sure.

Rich Smith: Let's see if you recognize any of these. First of all, do you know what a clog is?

Corey Anderson: A closed toed, open heeled shoe of some sort. Yeah ish.

Rich Smith: I wouldn't think that's comfortable. I wouldn't think that's comfortable at all. That's Dansko, D-A-N-S-K-O professional clog, is the number one shoe for nurses right now.

Corey Anderson: It's interesting. I'd like to try one on.

Rich Smith: Clog. Any clog? Jamie, do you wear clogs? Is that a-

Jamie: No.

Rich Smith: No.

Jamie: D-N-K-O, is that what you were saying?

Rich Smith: D-A-N-S-K-O Dansko brand.

Jamie: No, I was thinking of like a '90 brand.

Rich Smith: No. Okay. Sketchers.

Corey Anderson: Yep.

Rich Smith: All right. Alegria, not the stuff that you use for allergies.

Corey Anderson: Allergies, right?

Rich Smith: Yes. The Alegria women's Keli professional slip resistant work shoe.

Corey Anderson: Not familiar with that.

Rich Smith: See, the one thing that kept coming up over and over again is slip resistant, and I know in some of the studies that they did with a children's hospital in Portland, they designed the toe box, which I guess is the front of the shoe where I guess you would get steel toe and stuff for people that are working on work sites and stuff like that. The toe box is coated and easy to clean, which I get it. I've seen the stories. Oh, boy. But that probably has to be one of the things is slip resistant and easy to clean.

Corey Anderson: If you're spending money on a decent shoe, you don't want to go out and get it wrecked day one.

Rich Smith: Right. Because someone pees on it.

Corey Anderson: Right. Or worse.

Rich Smith: Or worse. That happens.

Corey Anderson: Yep.

Rich Smith: Okay. God bless you. Okay. Crocs? I've seen it more often than I want, and my personal opinion of Crocs is irrelevant. My youngest daughter wears them, loves them. I don't understand it at all.

Corey Anderson: Me neither.

Rich Smith: I don't get it.

Corey Anderson: Never had them on, but they are ridiculous.

Rich Smith: And maybe you don't want to wear them because you might realize that they're super comfortable.

Corey Anderson: Maybe I'm scared. Maybe deep down that's the deal.

Rich Smith: Maybe. Klogs USA. Klogs with a K.

Corey Anderson: No.

Rich Smith: No.

Corey Anderson: That's a new one.

Rich Smith: It was the Klogs USA Naple Mule. Mule? What is a Mule? Anyone? Does it-

Corey Anderson: I don't know if I want to attach that name to that shoe really.

Rich Smith: A shoe. Now, the only reason why I know Mule is because it came up on one of our favorite shows, King of Queens. Carrie goes shopping at one point and buys some sort of Mule and for a super cheap price. The episode is irrelevant, but you know which one I'm talking about.

Corey Anderson: It's phenomenal.

Rich Smith: Absolutely. The last one, Timberland PRO Women's Renova Slip-On.

Corey Anderson: I've heard of the brand.

Rich Smith: Yeah.

Corey Anderson: Of course. But not familiar with the shoe.

Rich Smith: Not familiar with the shoe.

Corey Anderson: Mm-mm (negative).

Rich Smith: I got to tell you, every one of these shoes that I looked at online is not attractive at all. They're just not attractive shoes. But every one of them is listed like comfort is the number one all the way down the list. Right?

Corey Anderson: Like we said, you trade in the looks for comfort for sure.

Rich Smith: Absolutely. So, I think just based on, if this shoe actually performs like it should, if it actually has that comfort, then they might be on to something.

Corey Anderson: Yeah.

Rich Smith: And I think it might influence a company like Sketchers, maybe, who already has that to a certain extent to just to branch out a little bit. Even though Sketcher was like, it was pretty plain and... Yeah [inaudible 00:09:54].

Corey Anderson: It's wild you don't see it marketed more. At all.

Rich Smith: No.

Corey Anderson: I guess. Maybe I don't... And we kind of run in that in this circle here, but-

Rich Smith: After 15 years of being in the industry and around traveling healthcare professionals, I would think we would see that sort of advertisement. I see scrub advertisements all the time. All the time. I get targeted on Facebook, they think I'm a nurse, too, so I don't know. I don't know. Yeah.

Corey Anderson: And I think proceeds go towards back to the children's hospital. Right?

Rich Smith: Yeah. So, the release date is December 7th, and they did six special ones that are going to sell. Sneaker heads are going to look for these, that type of thing, that were designed by kids, I think, in the children's hospital.

Corey Anderson: Okay. And that's the proceeds from those go back. Okay.

Rich Smith: Yes.

Corey Anderson: Gotcha.

Rich Smith: And then, as far as I understand from reading that, at a later date, like later in December maybe, the regular shoe release will happen.

Corey Anderson: Perfect.

Rich Smith: So, that leads into your idea. Talk through what you want to do here.

Corey Anderson: Yeah. So, when I saw this shoe, I approached you and I thought, "Man, we need to get these in the hands of people that could actually use them." And then, "Because I'm dying to know how comfortable they are and if they're going to be worth it." So, my idea was to run some sort of a little contest, and we'll get three pairs of these into the hands of some current Atlas travelers and maybe have them wear them for a month, something like that. And then, do either a written or a quick video chat review and spread the word about their thoughts on them.

Rich Smith: Yeah. Because I think that'd be interesting is, let's get them in the hospital, let's get them in the professional setting, and put them through the paces for a month and see how it works.

Corey Anderson: Correct.

Rich Smith: I'm super interested to see how that may pan out.

Corey Anderson: Me too.

Rich Smith: So, what we'll do is, in the comments section of this video here, we will put a link to your email address, and then Cory's going to post it on his page, as well, there on Facebook. So, just respond with your shoe size. If you are interested in doing this, if you want to give it a shot... Now, there'll be some followup. We're going to work through some followup. We're going to give away three different pairs. We'll pick three different traveling healthcare professionals that respond within the first week and give it a week.

Corey Anderson: I think we decided maybe two, but we'll see.

Rich Smith: Okay.

Corey Anderson: We'll put the dates on there.

Rich Smith: Now, I want to put a big asterisk on here because I don't know about availability on this. These could be super limited, and we're not obviously going to give away the ones that the... the early release ones but the regular release ones. They may be hard to get at first or it may take us a bit, but we will get three pairs somehow and get those in the hands of three of our travelers out there. So, watch for the comments in this video here. Watch for Cory's page. Comment on either one of those with your shoe size, and then we'll draw three and contact you at a later date once we have those shoes in our hands and get them out to you.

Corey Anderson: Looking forward to it.

Rich Smith: I think this is going to be fun.

Corey Anderson: Yeah.

Rich Smith: Field research.

Corey Anderson: Absolutely.

Rich Smith: Who would have thought? All right.

Corey Anderson: Look at us.

Rich Smith: Corey Anderson. Thank you so much.

Corey Anderson: Thank you.

Rich Smith: We'll put his contact information down here, too, if you want to get in touch with him. Corey is a recruiter with Atlas. Been here for the better part of four years?

Corey Anderson: Almost four and a half, five, something like that.

Rich Smith: Wow. And in the industry for-

Corey Anderson: Six. Six-ish.

Rich Smith: Ish.

Corey Anderson: Yep.

Rich Smith: All right. Thanks for being on with this, buddy.

Corey Anderson: Appreciate it.

Rich Smith: We'll see you next week.