How Native Is Reimagining a 10-Year-Old Lifestyle Shoe to Reach New Consumers

Native Shoes is marking its 15th anniversary with a new shoe launch that caters to a new generation of consumers.

The brand best known for its lightweight EVA shoes and boots on Tuesday launched the Apollo 10, a new lifestyle sneaker for men and women. The shoe reimagines the brand’s original Apollo silhouette that launched in 2014 and infuses the style with modern design tastes and new comfort-focused technology.

“We respectfully refer to one of our muses as an ‘aging sneakerhead,'” Native chief executive officer Kyle Housman told FN in an interview, explaining the evolution of the 15-year old brand that later added a kid’s line. “While he or she may have found the brand as a somebody in their late 20s, now they’re 15 years older with young kids or a family.”

The Apollo 10 retails for $135 and is available in three colorways: bone white, quicksand brown and black. Like Native’s other products, the new shoe is designed with sustainability in mind. Its microfiber upper is made from 80 percent recycled content and the midsole is created with supercritical sugarlite, the brand’s new foaming process that uses fewer harmful chemicals.

“We’re using the technology that we’re seeing in the most advanced performance running shoes right now, but bringing them into the Apollo in a really recognizable and accessible way,” Housman said, explaining the comfort benefits of the new lightweight shoe.

Native will launch the Apollo 10 via it’s direct-to-consumer channels and will look to potentially expand with its retail partners once the launch gains steam. To market the new shoe, Native is partnering with professional skateboarder, artist and father Sebo Walker, who will be featured in the brand’s digital rollout attached to the Apollo 10 and in future projects as well.

“Sebo’s dimensionality really speaks to all of us as humans,” Housman said. “We all have angles to ourselves, whether it’s identifying as a parent or, in his case, as an artist and an athlete. I think he tells the story really well.”

Behind the launch

The Apollo silhouette that launched in 2014 during a limited run with Kith was one of Native’s first lifestyle shoes. Since then, it has consistently been one of the brand’s most-requested styles. Despite not being for sale anymore, the Apollo has also maintained a strong presence throughout Native’s home city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Housman noted.

At the same time, Native fielded a slew of feedback from adult consumers wanting their own version of the brand’s popular “Robbie” slip on for kids, Housman said. So as Native’s 15-year anniversary approached, the team weighed these insights in deciding to come out with Apollo 10.

“We looked at our historical catalog and said, ‘What’s the right product to speak now?'” Housman said. “The Apollo was a forward-looking vision of where we wanted to go, but we also felt like it really accurately spoke to parents and family.”

To Housman, the Apollo 10 comes a perfect time for consumers who may only know Native from its kid’s offerings. And for those new to the brand, the Apollo 10 is an ideal place to enter.

“There’s still a long way to go for the brand to get out into the world and build awareness,” Housman said. “And I do think this is one of those shoes that can provide an awesome footwear experience, but also an introduction to the brand.”