Hyping the Hyperboot
The CEO of Hyperice tells us how teaming up with Nike for a boot that boosts warm-up and recovery is only the start of the potential of the burgeoning category.
Creating a novel category in any field takes inspiration, determination and hard work, generally sprinkled with some good fortune, a combination Anthony Katz leveraged when he was searching for a way to boost recovery as a former athlete. At the time, around 2000, he says most athletes were cooling their muscles and joints with packs of ice in plastic bags, a process that was cumbersome and awkward. Even in the training rooms of the US National Basketball Association, recovery machines were more akin to post-operation devices in hospitals; they were expensive and needed specialist operatives. “I wanted to democratise this technology,” explains Anthony Katz, “making it smaller, easy to use, and fit into athletes’ lifestyles.”
Good fortune came in the guise of a former school friend training NBA basketballer Kobe Bryant, who challenged Katz to create a product he could wear courtside. Katz created the first Hyperice product, a cooling shoulder sling from neoprene and fed Bryant’s suggestions into subsequent designs, sparking a business strategy to give free products to as many professional athletes as possible. Their feedback, combined with learnings from physios and access to high-level training sessions, inspired new iterations while also working as an advertising platform.
Through the early 2010s, Hyperice launched heating pads and wraps, vibrating balls and massagers. In 2018, the company bought Normatec, a maker of recovery compression boots, to round out its offering and capitalise on a renewed focus on health that was driven by the covid pandemic.
Athlete-focused synergy
Hyperice’s focus on the athlete resonated with Nike, and the teams approached each other to research how their expertise could complement one another for new products, leading to the launch of the Hyperboot.
“The collaboration with Nike represented a unique moment in our product development history,” Jim Huether, Hyperice CEO, tells Footwearbiz. “We’ve long drawn inspiration from Nike's approach to athlete-centred innovation, so this partnership felt like a natural evolution of our mission. We were essentially taking our proven Normatec technology and integrating it into the most constrained space we’ve worked with.”
The primary technology in the Hyperboot is the dynamic air compression from the Normatec and the heat technology from the Venom. A system of dual-air Normatec bladders bonded to warming elements evenly distributes heat throughout the upper and helps drive heat deep into the muscle and tissue in the feet and ankles and then up through the calf and into the leg. “Nike’s expertise in materials science and pattern-making was crucial to our success. Their deep knowledge of how fabrics behave, how to construct durable footwear and their advanced manufacturing capabilities allowed us to reimagine our Normatec bladders in ways we couldn't have achieved alone,” adds Huether.
Involving athletes in the testing stage also was fundamental to the success of the design. Tobie Hatfield, the senior director of athlete innovation at Nike, brought on a roster of professionals including golfer Tom Kim, American footballer Jayden Daniels and gold medallist sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson. “The Hyperboot has some of the most consistent wording from the feedback of any product I’ve worked on: that their ankles feel light and loose,” he comments. “One of the other advantages was you can walk in it. We increased the toe spring and the heel spring, so that when athletes do walk in it, they feel even lighter.”
Expanded potential
Testing during the 2024 Paris Olympics brought some ‘illuminating’ results. “While we expected athletes to use the Hyperboot for pre-competition warm-up – which was highly visible to the public – and we were thrilled to see how extensively they adopted it for travel and transit recovery,” explains Huether. “USA Basketball players were using the boots during the roughly two-and-a-half hour trips to and from venues outside Paris. This ‘dead time’ utilisation became a major use case. Athletes were turning previously unproductive travel time into active recovery sessions. Sha'Carri Richardson specifically mentioned the mental component as well – the feeling that she was already ahead of her usual preparation process.”
The breadth of use cases beyond elite sports is also great to see, he adds. Early feedback suggests significant interest from occupational users who spend long hours on their feet, which expanded Hyperice’s view of the total addressable market.
Their strategy appears to be working. Multiple athletes are not only involved in testing products but are also investors, creating incentives for promotion. Hyperice doubled revenues in 2024 and the company says it is only at the start of a growing market for wearable tech in clothing and footwear. Working on the Hyperboot also taught them new approaches to miniaturisation and integration that they are already applying to future product development, and there are more products in the pipeline with Nike. “The Hyperboot represents just the beginning of what we see as a new category in wearable recovery technology,” he concludes. “The partnership with Nike has opened new possibilities for athlete-focused innovations. Long-term, we see the Hyperboot as establishing a new standard for how athletes think about preparation and recovery – not as stationary activities, but as integrated parts of their mobile, active lifestyles.”
The Nike x Hyperice boots have been available in North America since May this year. The shoe hits the global markets at the start of the festive season 2025.
The heat and compression can be adjusted by a button on the shoe; wearers can choose from three levels.
All Credits: Nike/ Hyperice
