It looks like Im walking on Nerf darts.
Twenty-two foam nubs protrude from the bottom of this shoe. When I slide it on, it almost feels like Im walking on bubble tapeor like, with every step, an octopus tentacle is suctioning to my foot.
Even through a thick cotton sock and all that foam, I can feel textures underfoot. I sense the individual blades of grass on a soccer pitch, and dragging my sole along a textured running track feels a bit akin to licking the roof of my mouth.
Am I calmer? Perhaps. Im certainly more mindful. But I also wonder if Id notice this sensation in an hour.
This is Nike Mindthe companys first foray into apparel that puts your brain before your body, hacking your physiology to change your state of mind through applied neuroscience. Available January 2026 in two flavors (a slide called Mind 01 and a sneaker called Mind 02), the new line was designed to help amplify that dialogue between your brain and your feet, says Matthew Nurse, chief science officer at Nike.
[Photo: Nike]
But in fact, the possibilities behind Mind are much larger. For 45 years, Nike has been focused on tools to enhance physical performance. Now its considering how the things we wear can measurably change the way we feel.
[Image: Nike]
Using apparel to change how we think
Nurse calls the human body one big sensory antenna. Everything around us is stimuli that ultimately affects our brain, and designers are now taking a closer look at how we can apply the past 20 years of neuroscience (in a field often dubbed neuroaesthetics) to their work.
Nike is positioning Mind as a sensory intervention in an athletes pregame ritual, a way to calm down in the locker room before a big competition. What the designers have really done is create a sort of automated mindfulness that prompts you to get outside your own head and feel the world around you.
[Photo: Nike]
Theres a unique, specific utility for athletes, says Nurse. [But] if you just need some Zen on the way to work, if you just need something on the way home, we’re hoping this is going to work for you, too.
Seven years ago, the company began building its Mind Science team of neuroscientists that would have the specialization required to bring product to market.
First, the Nike team built a prototype: a sock with 40 pressure points pushing right into your foot. Why 40? The team felt that figure represented the ceiling of what your foot could perceive. It was a good proof of concept, but it wasnt really a shoe. So they kept iterating.
The effort that went into the nodes themselves is extraordinary. Nike used computer modeling to iterate and simulate different geometries that it then tested IRL with athletes and EEGs. The work sounds almost silly until you poke at one of these nodes with your finger and realize its not just a piston that runs up and down. It actually captures different angles, more like a video game controllers thumbstick. Thats what gives the sensation so much fidelity.
When Nike brought that Mind prototype to its manufacturers in Korea, they found their original design would take 41 steps (including gluing each node by hand) to turn into a shoetoo many steps for reasonable mass production. Over time, the team simplified the shoe to 22 nodes, and reconfigured the whole design so it could be produced in just two steps.
Seeing the Mind deconstructed reveals all of its industrial design efficiencies. The midsole looks like a chunk of foam honeycomb. Into it slip the nodes, which Nike figured out how to produce in just two molded pieces (it looks a lot like one of those reusable bubble tape fidgets that were so popular with the kids a few years ago).
The project also required Nike to reimagine the strobea thin fabric layer in the insole that helps make the shoe feel flexible. The problem, Nike found, was that it also absorbs the sensations of the ground (and one designer pointed out that this is even true for barefoot shoes like Vibram). So the team created a new, elastic version that wouldnt dampen sensation.
[Photo: Nike]
The shoes have now been tested on 2,000 athletes, doctors, nurses, and physical therapists for more than 100,000 hours on the job and in Nikes own research lab. In many cases, people were connected to EEGs to measure their brain patterns. Nike confirmed that the Mind boosts activity in the somatosensory cortex (which processes touch) and increases in alpha wave frequencies (the same signals in your brain that increase during meditation).
When I ask Nurse how much of a boost they see in alpha wavesand if the shoe reaches levels akin to meditationhe says it would still be too much to call the shoes meditation light. When I ask if the effects might wear off over time, as people are more habituated to the footwear, he agrees thats possible, but notes the shoes dont disappear from your senses like a pair of glasses on your face. Because those nodes have been designed to constantly fire as you shift, on and off.
What we hear from people is, if you’re standing a while, maybe you stop paying attention for a litle bit, but then [you move and] suddenly you’re aware, says Nurse. We also hear that even while people are sitting, they notice they’re just probing more. . . . You’re almost searching and exploring that feedback, because it’s new and novel.
[Photo: Nike]
The future of Nike Mind
Mind is a fascinating product. I found the slides, which I tried in an imperfect size, to be subtle enough that I almost didnt notice. But the full sneaker felt far more activating, and I would be tempted to try them without a sock. Whats certain is that these are early days for this field, and even Nurse admits that Nikes first Mind products are just a hint of whats possible.
Nurse calls Mind 01 and 02 chapter one of the feet. He notes that Nike has other chapters were interested in [beyond] the feet, with a most definite emphasis of whats possible across our skin. As for the experience of calm, its simply one sensation Nike designers are after, knowing that in different parts of your day, the goal is not always to be full Zen.
You can imagine where we’re headed, Nurse says. You start thinking about tapping into [all sorts of] sensory systems. . . . Youve got a whole body.
Even in the age of electric cars and AI generated everything, were still using the same three technologies to insulate most of our clothing. And they work mostly the same way.
Wool, down, and most recently, Primaloft (aka synthetic down) are all used to create lofta fluffy substance that traps pockets of air. Its that air thats ultimately creating a barrier between you and the outside cold to keep you warm.
But now, Nike is taking this premise to its ultimate conclusion, and launching its first coats that are insulated by nothing but air. And to tweak their warmth, you can even pump them up and deflate them as you like.
The technology will debut in the ThermaFIT Air Milano Jacket, which will be worn by medal winners standing on the podium at the Winter Olympics this February. Nike calls the jacket four jackets in one. Deflated, it’s supposed to feel like a windbreaker. Inflated, its somewhere close to a midweight puffer.
After trying on the jacket earlier this month at Nike HQ, Id say thats precisely rightand even more so, it feels luxuriously soft to the touch. But more on the wear test in a minute.
[Image: Nike]
Cracking the code of inflatable outwear
Nike has been designing inflatable jackets for nearly 20 years, since it first started putting air bladders in a coat for Nike ACG, its outdoor performance line. When the design team shared early experiments from its archives, I noted that all have that waterproof windbreaker lookand each uses different inflatable mechanisms, ranging from a blow straw, to a hand pump, to an iPhone and an app.
But Air Milano isnt a jacket that contains some Nike air bladders inside. Instead, the entire jacket is inflatable. How is that possible? Years of iteration. First, Nike sourced a fabric that feels somewhere between a cotton comforter and a swim shirt. It somehow feels naturally soft and synthetically stretchy at the same time.
[Photo: Nike]
Nike takes two pieces of this fabric, and then welds them together at the seams, while adding a pattern of dotted welds in between to create baffling (think of baffling as architecture that channels air). Whereas most insulated jackets have to be constructed to keep insulation in place, with latitudinal structures that give them a ribbed look, Air Milan is created from computationally designed patterns that ensure air flow through the garment.
Eighty percent of these patterns were tested in software simulations and never built. As I walk around a display of Nike’s early material tests, Im taken by the array of patterns Nike did attempt. Some baffling looks like the fine scaling of reptiles, while others look like marshmallow quilts. Some have sharp geometric diamonds, some burst radially in a way that almost feels floral.
Nike ultimately went with a baffling pattern inspired by the ACG logoas this jacket will be Nikes first attempt to bring the ACG brand info the greater public consciousness. Nike CEO Elliott Hill estimates that the outdoor segment represents a $130 billion market, and Nike would like to take a bigger chunk.
[Photo: Nike]
From prototype to finished product
Developing the jacket to functionally work was a long, difficult process. Early versions took up to seven minutes to inflate. Theyd stay inflated 30 minutes max. (The design team would actually inflate the jacket only moments before presenting its progress to executives, so that it would stay puffy for the full meeting.)
Now, the jacket comes with a small electronic pump that fits in your hand. You plug it into a port near your waste, and it inflates in about 15 seconds. Im told it will stay inflated, should you like, for weeks or even months.
[Photo: Nike]
The sensation of the jacket filling on your body is trippy. Your arms feel it first, as they Popeye outwards and begin to constrict your skin like a soft blood pressure cuff. Then you see your chest and stomach being filled as well. Once inflated, it took only a minute before I felt the heat. I started feeling a bit steamy, and I realized that the jacket doesnt breathe (yes, Nike has some ideas to fix thatlike adding small ports that, like Gortex, can keep heat in but allow moisture out).
It was just as wild to deflate it. All you have to do is pull another tab, and poooshhhhhhhhh, the jacket deflates back to where you started.
Nike built this jacket as a one-off product for the Winter Olympics, and it will not be coming to market in this form. But the jacket also demonstrates what Nike does best: It creates performance innovations that advertise themselves in an irresistible way. The jacket simply looks like it works differently than any jacket youve ever worn. And the Air Milano is really gorgeous to behold in person, as the baffling catches light and shadow, you can appreciate the technical efforts and high level of taste that went into the garment.
Jannett Nichol, VP, Apparel & Advanced Digital Creation Studio Innovation, confirmed that whenever Nikes inflatable technologycomes to the wider market, it wont be cheap. Instead, the company sees the future of the ACG brand as the pinnacle expression of Nike. And as a material, that inflatable Therma-FIT surface could make its way out of clothing into outdoor gear as well.
Wherever Therma-FIT goes next, Im glad to see Nike working on it. Few companies have the R&D resources and experimental know-how to really impact what the future of performance garments can be. And longer term, there is simply no way that down is a more sustainable option to insulation than pure air.
Besides, its just mind-bending to consider just how warm you can feel with a little fabric and a hand pump.
Elliott Hill spent his entire career at Nike. But he spent a full year as its CEO before giving his first media interview in the role. In mid-October, the company invited a select group of global journalists to Beaverton, Oregon, to see the latest in Nike innovations.
We tried a slew of ambitious products that will hit the market over the next year plus: mind-altering footwear, exoskeleton sneakers, and a jacket that inflates to keep you warm. And a few of us got to speak with Hill.
Hill is the third Nike CEO Ive interviewed for Fast Company. Hes not as introspective or soft-spoken as the design leader Mark Parker. Hes not as unapologetic or headstrong as the bean counter John Donahoe. Truth be told, after our brief chat, Im still wrapping my head around who he is. But something about his mannerquick speech, a lean-forward posture, and a penchant for hitting you in the knee to make a pointthat makes it hard to avoid the obvious sports metaphor.
As he discusses reshaping his team and fixing Nikes culture, Hill sounds a lot like Nikes head coach.
For a full tour of Nike, dont miss my deep dive on the 48 hours I spent on campus. Below are my most pressing questions since Hill took over the company last year.
And if theres any single takeaway, its that Hill doesnt like talking about structure (despite deeply restructuring the company to drive innovation again). Instead, he wants to talk about wholesalers, sport, culture, expanding the brand, and the greater possibilities lying ahead, as the company works under a new mantra developed by his new chief innovation, design, and product officer, Phil McCartney: Make epic shit. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I think this is my fourth trip to Nike over the past 13 years. I would say, though, the energy feels really good on campus right nowwhether thats staged or not!
By the way, that’s not by accident, right? If I may respond to that, I know that wasn’t really a question, it was a statement. But one of the first things that I, and we as a leadership team, wanted to do was to win back the locker room. You had to get back to a strong sense of purpose and culture. Because ultimatelyand it’s not just Nike, I think it’s any businessI’m a firm believer that if you have the best strategy in place and the right structure and the processes but you don’t have the right culture, you’re not going to have the success that you expect, and certainly won’t meet your full potential.
So I’m glad that you at least see it and feel it. We’ve put a lot of time, energy, and effort into it.
Culture is a nebulous term.
It is.
It’s one of those words like love, which means a little bit too much, and it means something different to everyone you talk to.
No question, it does. We’re close to 80,000 employees, which is why I think its important to try to define the type of culture that we want and expect. And we’ve spent a lot of time doing that . . . through how we communicate, through all employee meetings, through written communication, and just how you show up day to day.
We have a book. I don’t know if you’ve seen our maxims; it’s what we believe in. There are five maxims. And then each of those maxims has three to four actions. What can I and we collectively do to help bring those maxims to life? And I know it sounds, again, pretty textbook, but if you live them and breathe them, it does start to come to life and help to define what you want the culture to be. And, more importantly, you start to see it come to life.
I am curious about structure. You completely restructured development teams when you returned to Nike. And they look like they did before [John] Donahoe, right? It seems like it’s a rewind to that structure, which was clearly proven at Nike for a long time. Is your plan fundamentally different than that?
Here’s what I would say: I’m a big believer in having clarity of purpose and strategy, and then that drives structure and processes. All of them have to work together to help deliver the type of results that we want to try to drive.
And so the first thing we wanted to do is get back to strategy. Why do we exist? And our sense of purpose is that We exist to serve the athlete. It’s about inspiration and innovation. For all 8 billion consumers in the world, if you have a body, you’re an athlete. And the whole idea is, if we can invite consumers, more and more athletes, into the world of sport, fitness, and lifestyle, we grow the overall marketplace. So that really anchors in sport.
Then we said, Okay, what [is] important? We’re a consumer products company. People buy stuff from us. So we have to have the most beautiful, innovative, and coveted product, first and foremost.
And then weve got to tell emotional, inspiring stories. And finally, weve got to pay it off in a marketplace where consumers shop. Not everybody shops Nikedirect.com or Nike digital commerce. And so that was the fourth action. We had lost how we connected with consumers down in cities that create influence. And again, whether it was cultural icons in those cities or sports icons, we lost some of that connectivity.
So those are the actions we put in place. And then you started to think, Oh, how do you do that across Mens, Womens, Kids [introduced by Donahoe], and its kind of hard to do! So we then decided, lets shift. Let’s take the $45 billion-plus of revenue, and let’s break it down by brand: Nike, Jordan, Converse. What are the sports that are most important? Let’s [have] small, cross-functional teams with a general manager who are empowered to run and move at the speed of the consumer.
This is what Im sayingthats classic Nike structure, no? You organized the company by sport rather than the Mens, Womens, Kids teams that Donahoe adopted.
Yeah thats classic Nike structure. But what is different is, the whole idea is it makes us more responsive with consumers and athletes, and more competitive.
Let me just say, when I reported the last feature, when Donahoe was here, the criticism I heard from people internally at Nike was We left the structure that works.
Its not about structure! Everybody keeps going back to it. What is it [really] about? It’s about sports. Its Nike running. Its Nike basketball. It’s Nike training. It’s Nike football, soccer.
Because the consumers who play those sports are very different. There are some who cross over, but the elite consumer who runs, or the everyday runner, could be very diferent than the elite footballer, soccer player, and/or the everyday soccer player. So they want and need different things from us, from a product perspective and a storytelling perspective.
And oh, by the way, the competition in both of those sports is very different as well. So being structured by sport gives you the sharpness and crispness on the athlete or consumer that we’re serving, but it also gives us a sharpness and crispness against the competitive set as well.
And you empower [these teams]. You let them run.
Okay, what has changed then?
First of all, what I have done is flatten my organization, so I have 15 direct reports now; 11 of them are new roles. I’m really excited about the talent that we have in the roles from the experience that they bring, the depth of knowledge in the industry, people from outside the industry who joined usthat helps round us out.
So Im excited about my leadership structure. The challenge that I’ve given that structure is two things: It’s pretty simple, individually and collectively. Individually, each one of us should be inspiring and aspirational. People should look up and be inspired by and aspire to be us, individually and collectively. That’s our challenge as a leadership team.
What then is differentand I’ll just jump into product: We have three brand presidents, and we have one leader over innovation, design, footwear, apparel, and accessory. The craft of making product that cuts across all three brands will enable us to leverage what I believe is one of our strongest core competencies, and that’s product management.
If we choose to add other brands, we can do that, so that then sets us up for the future. Once we get the machine running, generating the cash and the revenue that we all expect, it allows us then to leverage some of our core competencies for the future.
You just touched on something that’s been on my mind, which is this idea of Nike being such a big brand. Wall Street or analysts can criticize Nike’s growth, but it’s a gargantuan company. It is profitable, right? And it’s touching a lot of the world all the time. I guess my my curiosity is
and not all one percents of revenue are created equal! There’s a quote for you. Think about that. You know, no one really thinks about it: 1% of growth for us is $400 million to $500 million. Thats a company. We grow the size of a company annually!
Scaling a company your size is daunting. You bring up this possibility of introducing different brands. I wonder if there can be a sort of monolithic brand like Nike, or even two or three others like Jordan and Converse. I feel like you need even more sub brands to reach more people.
I think that might be a part of the conversation, and it’s our responsibility to set the structure up and our capabilities up, that if we choose to do that, we can do thatwe can use the balance sheet to go acquire brands if we choose to. Here’s what I would say: I still think there’s tremendous opportunity in the core of our business.
I didnt even mean acquire. I meant spin off.
Of course. Spin off and create. And we have some that we’re already starting to see, Nike ACG being one of them, going after the outdoor industry that I think is roughly $130 billion total addressable market, going at it through trail. Very unique Nike way and point of view.
Skims is another interesting opportunity. But even beyond that, we believe there’s tremendous growth still in the core. Because if you think about sport, it exists in every country, and we’re doing business in almost 190 countries. When we get down to countries, we’re not meeting our full potential.
In some of these countries, we haven’t been able to make the investments that we believe we need to make to inspire and attract the consumers in those countries as a truly global company. I could go through the list: Southeast Asia is a tremendous opportunity for us. Pick a country there, whether Malaysia, Indoyou pick it. We have tremendous opportunity to still grow there, when we run our offense, and we’re still in the process of getting our offense in place. Not only from a product creation perspective, but out into the marketplace, where we truly connect with consumers.
And the last thing I’d say, the sports industry is growing 3% to 5% a year. It’s about growing the overall marketplace versus getting worried about market share. And when we grow the marketplace, I like our chances of growing. Its a pretty intellectual sort of conversation, but I’ve seen it work, and I believe in it.
When Trumps tariffs were announced, I remember being like, Does Nike have to pull a lot of manufacturing out of Vietnam? Obviously, we learned in the last quarter how much tariffs are cutting into profit.
Its significant. $1.5 billion.
How are you responding to that right now? And how much is that affecting your strategy? Is it worth shifting manufacturing internationally? Can you even get ahead of tariffs, given the changing rules week to week, given that a lot of other countries are being affected with really high tariffs, too?
[Its] clearly making an impact. We talked about how we’ll offset it. The good news is we do have a sourcing base that we’ve built up over 50 years. Its global, and it’s expansive, and we’re pulling each of the levers to try to offset the tariffs at a super high level, working with our manufacturing partners to share in some of those costs, our retail partners. And then ultimately we have to, as a company, share in some of that. Were looking for efficiencies here, inside of our business and our own P and L to help offset that. So that’s what we’re doing, short term.
Longer termyou know, we can build factories anywhere. Setting up a factory and building lines, we know how to do. The challenge is, in our industry, we have tens of thousands of materials.
Yeah, exactly that. It’s the supply chain.
Its the material sourcing that is the bottleneck. And so that is what we’re working on right now. The simple idea there, conceptually, is to go: Well, just make fewer materials. But then you change choice, and you put designers and innovators and creatives in a box. That’s what we’re working through right now. Were trying to figure out, Okay, can we, should we, and where should our manufacturing base be for the future? And it’s definitely something that’s top of mind.
Near term, I’m just telling our team, let a few of us deal with that, and you control what you can control. And that gets back to making beautiful products and telling stories and making sure our brand looks the way it should look at retail. Because that’s how we drive sell-through. So control what you control. Let a few of us deal with the tacticaland it is some tacticalmoves that we have to make around tariffs while also thinking strategically about what does the supply chain of the future look like?
I haven’t checked out your new Project Amplify powered footwear yet, but I’m anxious to. I’ve used a couple of exoskeletons. I’m really bullish on these assistive technologies. And I’m curious: How key is that more electronic, or mechanical, innovation to Nike’s innovation pipeline of the future? Is it a really big growth category for you?
We’ve yet to put a number on it in terms of growth. We’re still working through what webelieve it can be. We do think it’s, without question, a big part of positioning our brand as an innovative thought leader thats willing to think outside the box. I think the biggest [idea] we keep using as an example . . . If you look at the sales of mountain bikes versus e-bikesif you look at the growth curvemountain bike growth has slowed. And then e-bikes are [growing] because people want to go further faster. We think theres an insight there. How big [Nike exoskeletons] will become, I think the consumer is ultimately going to decide.
I don’t know how Henri Cartier-Bresson would have reacted to Leica replacing the optical viewfinder on his camera with an artificial display. Perhaps the French photographer and cofounder of Magnum Photos wouldn’t have cared one bit about it. Or maybe hea profound humanistwould have disliked the idea of it almost as much as I do.
Cartier-Bresson once famously said that his Leica became the extension of [his] eye, prowling the streets all day, feeling very strung up and ready to pounce, determined to trap lifeto preserve life in the act of living. Thats a little harder to accomplish with Leicas new camera. Today, Leica is launching the M EV1. Its the first M camera with a digital viewfinder, meaning the Ms most distinct assetits beautiful optical viewfinderis no more.
Henri Cartier-Bresson during the 1968 Paris riots.[Photo: Alain Nogues/Sygma/Sygma/Getty Images]
What is the new Leica M EV1?
Before we get to the new camera, it’s important to understand what came before. For the last seven decades, the soul of the Leica M has been its optical rangefinder viewfinder. For those not obsessed with cameras, this is a beautiful, entirely mechanical system of mirrors and prisms. When you look through it, you see the world directly, as if through a window, but with a ghostly double image in the center. To focus, you turn a ring on the lens, and this second image moves. When it perfectly overlaps with the main image, your subject is in focus. It’s a method that is precise, completely free of electronic lag, and creates a unique, unfiltered connection to the world.
This system, first pioneered by Leica, made the M camera the tool that defined 20th-century photojournalism. Its compact, quiet, and discreet nature allowed photographers like Robert Capa to get closer to their subjects than ever before, capturing history as it unfolded without intrusion. The M was more than a camera; it was a philosophy of seeing, demanding a manual, deliberate approach that became synonymous with the craft of photography itself.
At first glance, the M EV1 is undeniably an M. It has the same satisfying density, the same minimalist silhouette carved from magnesium and aluminum. But then you notice the changes. The front is cleaner, almost sterile, without its iconic rangefinder windows. The top plate is also different; the traditional ISO dial is gone, sacrificed to make room for the new electronic viewfinder’s housing. The camera is also noticeably lighter46 grams less than its rangefinder cousins, a direct result of removing the complex optical and mechanical guts of the rangefinder system.
Inside, the M EV1 is built on the same foundation as the stellar M11 series. It uses the same 60-megapixel full-frame BSI CMOS sensor, a chip renowned for its incredible detail, 15 stops of dynamic range, and superb performance in low light. That sensor is paired with the company’s Maestro III processor. The company says that this combination makes the camera extremely responsive and quick. The camera also includes 64GB of internal memory, a practical feature for anyone who has ever filled a memory card at a critical moment.
And then theres the entire raison dtre for this camera: the electronic viewfinder (EVF). It’s a high-resolution, 5.76-million-dot screen, which, according to Leicas claims, offers a “what you see is what you get” experience. It is, like I said, a fundamental departure from the rangefinder’s optical approximation.
[Photo: Leica]
The Eye of Sauron
For the first time in an M, the photographer doesnt see real reality. It doesnt see kids crying, running from a napalm strike in Vietnam. It doesnt see Muhammad Alis fist. It doesnt see a sailor kissing a nurse in New Yorks Time Square. Or any of the photos taken with rangefinders that have arguably defined the 20th century. Út, Hoepker, or Eisenstaedt wouldnt have seen those scenes through their own eyes but through the filter of a display that, rather than reality itself, shows a direct feed from the sensor, showing exactly how the final image will look in terms of exposure, depth of field, and color. Not the world, but the final photograph.
While showing me the new camera, Nathan Kellum-Pathe, Trade Marketing Product Communications manager at Leica USA, admitted that taking this step was a significant topic of discussion within the company. A decision that was ultimately justified by looking at the brand’s history and its current strategic goals. Read that as sell more cameras to a new public who want an easier-to-use experience.
He also noted that there was historical precedent, as not every M had a rangefinder inside of it. He believes it is a good time to do it, pointing at the 70th anniversary of the M system as the right moment to show the market that Leica is open to changing what the M is defined by.
This will likely rankle purists like myself (Im writing this under embargo, so there are no public reactions at this time). Kellum-Pathe insisted that the Leica M EV1 doesnt mean they were going to kill the traditional M. We’ve had 70 years of the M with the rangefinder, he says. “We will continue to have the M with the rangefinder.
[Photo: Leica]
[Image: Leica]
[Photo: Leica]
Kellum-Pathe points out that a digital viewfinder has practical advantages. It makes using wide-angle or telephoto lenses much easier, as the EVF shows the lens’s true field of view, unlike a traditional rangefinder, which is limited in its perspective. It also makes focusing with fast, shallow-depth-of-field lenses like Leica’s own Noctilux much simpler, thanks to digital tools like focus peaking (which highlights sharp areas in color) and magnification.
Even the frame-line selector lever on the front of the camera has been repurposed into a customizable function button to toggle these aids without taking your eye from the viewfinder. And heck, for photographers who wear glasses, a built-in diopter adjustment wheel is a nice convenience compared to the screw-on lenses required for optical viewfinders.
Its all really cool. But it is an artificial pixel wall between a photographers retina and the real world. A screen is a layer of interpretation of reality, no matter how technologically good it can be. It is not a keyhole to the real world, as the optical rangefinder is. The direct human connection to the moment gets lost. In the middle of this AI clusterfrak, the last thing I need is for yet another analog instrument to become digital. But I get it. According to Kellum-Pathe, this move is a direct response to customer demand.
The market has asked for it for quite some time, he told me, explaining that many love the idea of the compact M body and its legendary lenses but are intimidated by the steep learning curve of the manual rangefinder system. The M EV1 is designed to be a bridge. It creates a new, third pillar in the M lineup, sitting alongside the analog and digital rangefinder models, offering an easier entry point into the Leica ecosystem, he argues.
Next Gen Leica
Priced at $8,995, the camera is also about $850 less than its rangefinder sibling, a price difference Kellum-Pathe is the result of eliminating the very object that forever defined the M: The complexity of the hand-assembled optical mechanics versus a digital panel. Much like cars getting rid of analog controls in the name of a money savings and alleged consumer demand, Leica is betting that this new model will attract a new generation of users without taking away from the purists who will always have the traditional M waiting for them. “For those who prefer the rangefinder experience, thats never going to go away,” he insists. Well, good. I sure hope so.
And yes, of course the M EV1 will be a better camera for most people in most situations. The EVF is technically superior, more accurate, and more versatile than the 70-year-old optical rangefinder system it replaces. It makes the famously demanding process of shooting with an M camera significantly more accessible. It will probably sell like crazy (or as crazy as a $9K gadget can sell).
The analog Leica M6 [Photo: Leica]
But again, I just can’t shake the feeling that it misses the very essence of what makes the M the M. A magic that was never about technical perfection. It was about the direct, visceral connection between the photographer’s eye and the world, viewed through a bright, clear pane of glass.
The rangefinder, with all its quirks and limitations, forces a different kind of seeing. Its an active, mental process of aligning frames and focusing patches, a collaboration between mind and machine. Its a peephole, not a television screen. Looking through the M EV1’s brilliant little display, as sharp and clear as it is, will always feel like watching a broadcast of reality rather than witnessing it. The digital aids, while useful, add another layer of interpretation, of noise, of things to distract you.
I think of Robert Capa on the beaches of Normandy and his vision narrowed to a small, glowing rectangle in a digital viewfinder with the chaos raging around him. And I keep coming to the idea that, while the new Leica M EV 1 is probably a perfect digital camera, while it may look and click like a regular Leica M, it will never have, by definition, the same take a look through the magic hole and let’s see what comes at the end of this je ne sais quoi. And for sure, it will never be the extension of Cartier-Bresson or anyone else’s eye.
Theres not a more fairy-tale story in business. Nike CEO Elliott Hill began as an intern. Worked about every job imaginable at the company. Was passed up as a fave for the CEO role in 2020 when John Donahoe was brought in from Bain. And then, finding himself retired, and charter member of a silver fox baseball league in Austin, the swoosh boomeranged in from the clouds and Hill hitched a ride back to Beaverton.
Now, after a year at the helm, Hills still dealing with Nikes COVID hangover, brought about (at least in part) by Donahoe, who bolstered profits by selling waves of retro sneakers to people at home, all while reorganizing the core innovation team structure that had made Nike successful for decades. When Hill showed up in 2024, Nike revenue was down 10% yoy. This year, its down 9.8%, and Trumps tariffs took a $1.5 billion bite out of Nikes net profits.
One point five billion, fires off Hills tongue as we sit together in the swank office at the top of Nikes Lebron James Innovation Center in Beaverton, ORa number I dont feel a need to say aloud thats clearly been imprinted in his psyche.
Following a year of Hills media quarantine, I was invited alongside a small group of global journalists to get a peek at what Hill has up his sleeveand let me be honest in admitting that it felt a little strange to be back so soon. I was just at Nike in March 2024 profiling Donahoes swansong when I wrote our Spring cover story.
The campus was a little dead back then; and more than one executive seemed to be biting their tongue. Keep in mind, most of Nike leadership is a collection of people whove been there for decades (often 20 and 30 years). They have an earned ownership of Nikes POV, like a family sharing kitchen cabinets.
And I dont think its just the endless buffets of salmon and vegan lox Nike plowed on the press talking: Campus did feel more energized. Interviews felt less guarded. But more so, Nikes new product lines are genuinely more exciting than about anything thats come out of Nike for years.
Nike didnt invite us here for a casual photo opp; it is quite intentionally seeding its own turnaround narrative. The company has something to prove to fans and shareholders alikenamely, that it can still innovate. But its making a strong case that it can. From its Project Amplify exoskeleton-in-a-shoe, to Nike Mind brain-hacking footwear, to a new inflatable jacket called Project Milano, to recycled fabrics known as Aero-FIT that are 2x more breathable, every big new idea out of Nike looks more promising than another Dunk colorway.
Here are my four big takeaways on what is going on at Nike, and where the company is going next.
[Photo: Nike]
Elliott Hill seems like the guy for this moment
Elliott Hills job is to get Nike growing again. (And you can read my full Q&A with Hill here.) But as Hill put it to me, not all one percents of revenue are created equal. And accomplishing just 1% growth for Nike, which is $500,000,000 by the way, means it has to essentially launch the equivalent of a new company every year. Will Nikes onslaught of new innovation help achieve this revenue growth? On that he hedges a bit. The lowest hanging fruit is still simply spreading the Nike gospel farther across the world. (Thats my sacrilege not his.)
Elliott Hill [Photo: Nike]
Sport exists in every country, and we’re doing business in almost 190 countries. And . . . we’re not meeting our full potential in some of these countries, says Hill, citing southeast Asia and Malaysia in particular. We have tremendous opportunity to still grow there, when we run our offense.
Keep in mind Hills earliest duties at the company involved hopping on the phone and pitching Nike products to shops, building its retailer network. The same network that Donahoe torched thousands of small retailer relationships by pivoting the company to direct-to-consumer.
Hills job has been a lot like the task ahead of whichever president follows Trumpreinstituting dismantled systems just to get the machine running again.
Hill has been repairing retailer relationships. Hes relaunched marketing under Just Do It. And hes also rewound the entire innovation engine of the company back to its old structure. Donahoe blew up about 40 years of Nike hierarchies when he reorganized all product development under Mens, Womens, and Kids. Hill put these teams back into sports like running and basketball.
Look, I talked to Hill for all of 17 minutes. He really feels like some platonic ideal of a Nike executive, with a penchant for slapping you in the knee when he makes a point. Theres a sort of wake up, stay focused energy to him.
Execs on Hills payroll have called him more trusting and unflinchingly supportive. Ive gotten to meet, and re-meet, a lot of Nike execs and designers over the last decade. And truly, they all have a new bounce in their step.
But I also appreciated how Jannett Nichol, a 32-year Nike veteran who is VP, Apparel & Advanced Digital Creation Studio Innovation, threw lukearm water on my question: Was all of the new product I was seeing the result of Hill taking charge with a more aggressive innovation strategy?
I mean, I think Elliot coming on has been fantastic. There’s no denying what he brings to the company . . . he’s always been that personality type, she says. But the work was in flight. And it was going to happen, whether it was Elliot or not.
[Photo: Nike]
The truth Nike wont tell you: Its a wellness company
One of Hills best decisions was promoting Matt Nurse to become Nikes chief science officer.
Nurse is a researcher who runs Nikes big athlete testing facility, the Nike Sports Research Lab.
(For some reason, whenever Im there, Nike has hired these fitness models to demonstrate sports, and the soccer players, seemingly carved from marble, always have their shirts off. Doesnt Nike sell shirts? NIKE DO YOU NEED ME TO LEND YOU A SHIRT?!?)
Anyway, Nurse has always seen Nike as something more than shoes. And thats important for Nike. Sneakers are increasingly commoditized. Even Nikes marathon-busting Vaporfly shoes were quickly copied by the entire footwear industry.
Nurse has to juggle a somewhat complicated narrative that underlies Nike. They are inspired by the elite athlete, and their dialogues with these superhumans is intimate and ongoingas evidenced when chief innovation officer Tony Bignell swiped through his own text message thread with Eliud Kipchoge to pull up a picture. But their other message is that, um, also, well if you have a body youre an athlete!
Nikes marketing and business model has a lot of ways to grow in this regard, and I think Nurses team sits at the fulcrum in making that work.
[Photo: Nike]
One of Nurses pet projects is the launch of Nike Mind, two new neurophysiological shoes that poke into your feet to measurably calm down your brain. I compare Nike Mind to Nintendos Brain Age moment, when with a single app, it expanded its premise and addressable market from gamers to anyone concerned about aging.
[Photo: Nike]
It starts with these shoes that essentially force mindfulness by connecting pressure points on your foot to textures on the ground. 22 foam nodes stick through the outsole, angling and resonating shapes and sensations straight into your foot. Theyre funky to walk in. You can feel blades of grass, even trough socks.
They increase alpha waves in your brain, just like meditation, though Nurse admits they dont reach the point of “meditation shoe. Cognitive neuroscience, and the way products and spaces measurably affect us, is the cutting edge of design right now. Two decades of worldwide academic research are just begging to be commercialized. And these Mind shoes are just a taste of what that could be as Nike neurosciences the hell out of the rest of your body.
[Image: Nike]
You can imagine where we’re headed, says Nurse. You start thinking about tapping into [our] sensory systems. The foot is one area . . . youve got a whole body . . . this whole canvas. He points out that we have all sorts of emotional states that we might want to activate, other than calm.
Another area where Nike is inherently thinking outside sport is in its Project Amplify exoskeleton, or a robotic Achilles tendon that clips onto the back of a shoe.
Cognitive neuroscience, and the way products and spaces measurably affect us, is the cutting edge of design right now.
Project Amplify isnt built for Lebron. Vaporfly broke marathoning with 4% energy return. Project Amplify will offer something more like a 20% boost in energy when it debuts mid-ish next year. At launch, Nike imagines a similar market to people who bought e-bikesathletes who want to adventure further, faster. But in my opinion, so much energy amplification offers a new opportunity for Nike to shift the narrative from just being faster to being more able-bodiedsomething that will resonate with the aging population in particular.
[Photo: Nike]
Thats not Be Like Mike stuff! But Nike has the potential to be the first and most aggressive to democratize the exoskeleton as a slip-on shoe, or an ebike for your feet as the company is positioning it. If all Amplify does is help you hike or run another few miles, its a failure. This is a training tool. A rehab tool. A healthcare tool. A way to keep boomers (and every generation that comes after them) walking consistently and healthily through their lives, not necessarily to dunk, but to buy groceries.
[Image: Nike]
Nurse gets this but is treading carefully.
“Maybe you just need to get around the city, he muses. We got you. It’s okay. You’re still moving. We’re going to help you.
The Apple Watch is now a $17 billion business for Apple and all it does is display texts and track some health metrics. Apple found a way to appeal to athletes and people worried about a fall. Nike needs to master that same balance to grow.
Quite simply: The global footwear industry is worth somewhere around $150 billion. The global wellness industry is worth $6.3 trillion. Hills revenue answer exists everywhere off the track, court, or pitch.
[Photo: Nike]
One of Nikes most important investments is architecture
Nike has invested about $1 billion in new architecture since 2017, and following my four visits over the last 14 years, I cant begin to emphasize how important these investments were.
[Photo: Nike]
With apologies to buildings named after Mia Hamm and Tiger Woods, so much of HQ feels like an office park stuck in the 90s. Meanwhile four new buildingsincluding the Lebron James Innovation Center (one giant staircase, designed to look fast, where athletes sweat in rooms straight out of Dragon Ball Z and a lot of the designers work) and the Serena building (a million square feet of undulating offices with a stunning events space on the roof)are both a pleasure to be in, and bring a sense of possibility.
These are modernist marvels set to a backdrop of Oregon forest. They exemplify the mix of nature and technology. Nike convincingly claims they have the best facilities to measure human performance on the planet, and they will become increasingly important as tools for Nikes teams to break out of their own silos. The Lebron building, for instance, is off limits for most Nike employees to visit, given the sensitivity of the designs inside. But Nikes new head of innovation, Tony Binell, has worked to shift development spaces up a level, and open the first flooran atrium celebrating Lebrons first 30,000 points thats ensconced by many meeting roomsto all 3,500 people on Nikes product creation teams, so that people who work on different sports can share ideas and mingle.
That’s how you get some of that sharing we sort of missed because I can’t be bothered to walk across campus, you know? says Binell. But actually, [it should be like] That shoelace is cool! We could use that shoelace!’
[Photo: Nike]
Nike ACG gets even hauter
To grow its business, one thing Nike wants to do is expand its brandsand Hill told me hes even open to acquiring the right companies to do so. But the entire technical and trail-inspired outdoor industry, ranging from The North Face to ArcTeryx, is one of its fastest growing categories in sport, worth around $130 billion a year by Nikes estimation. And as it happens, Nike has had a very respected, slightly underground (for Nike) label called ACG that plays in this space.
ACG puts out some of the most experimental, hypebeastiest drops each year. And Nike is about to put it front-and-center on the podium at the Milan Winter Olympics. (RIP EVERYONE WHO LIKED ACG AS A PERSONALITY TRAIT.)
Their new Air Milano jacket reinterprets Nike Air as a haute, inflatable winter jacket. Its computationally quilted baffling catches the light in a captivating way. (Youd never know that pattern is actually an abstraction of the ACG logo.) And a handheld inflater puffs the jacket up in about 10 seconds, creating insulation on demand.
This coat is wild. Absurd. Beautiful. I love it.
[Image: Nike]
It also feels high-end. Nike intends to relaunch ACG around this moment, making the sub brand the pinnacle expression for an athlete, with the reemergence of ACG in a new premium way, according to Nichol.
“[Its the] most technical garment we’ve ever made that’s not going to space, Nichol says. In other words, its going to be expensive.
Consider: this probably means that Nike is selling air for more than down. Thats a somewhat wild possibility to comprehend! The ultimate margins are likely appealing on a balance sheet. But I do also worry that if Nike stays too premium with this tech, it’ll get Sketchersed or Sheined to death before it can own the space.
When I mention to Nichol that the jacket felt like it would make a great sleeping bag or tent, I asked, does stuff like that make sense for Nike?
I think through the lens of ACG it fits perfectly, she says.
Nike simply cannot look new while looking so old
Nike hit its low point in 2023 with the release of Ben Afflecks Air. A company that was about to get trounced for doing nothing more than rereleasing old shoes gave the whole company the Argo treatment. How do you ruin Michael Jordan? By making his story look old instead of timeless.
Look, Nike Air is from 1978. That shit is almost 50 years old. The last incredible, mainstream tech release was its Flyknit material in 2012. And the truth is, Nikes launched its last category-busting product almost a decade ago now, with its Alphafly shoes that returned 4% of someones stride and literally broke long distance running. This was 2017lifetimes agopre COVID and ChatGPT.
And lets be very honest: In this moment of massive technological advancement, consumers are naturally developing higher expectations as to what constitutes a breakthrough. Nobody beyond the most advanced athletes are interested in 4% margins anymore. This is the moment to reinvent how we live.
Nike has made billions off of its classic IPs, remixed with new colorways and design sensibilities. But its hard to see the sheer scale of modern collab culture as anything but late stage capitalism. Every designer I know is lamenting the thirst of the social/product feed. And through that lens, Nikes days of selling fancy foams feel numbered. But erase a few bad news cycles, and I challenge you to name a company more exciting than Nike right now in terms of sheer potential.
Consider that Nike is a UX company that doesnt really make software, and a technology company that doesnt touch phones. It builds products for the human bodythings to make us move faster, more comfortably, and more joyfully.
Im excited about Nike because slip-on exoskeletons and brain-activating apparel introduce the possibility to reshape our day-to-day lives. But most of all, Im hopeful that Nike seems to be recognizing that its potential is so much greater than what we stereotypically think of as footwear and apparelof that 1970s brown Argo filter fogging over the swoosh.
Nikes new tagline, born from its EVP and chief innovation, design & product officer, Phil McCartney, is Make epic shit. The remit really is both that hard and that simple.
The government shutdown has reopened debate on what has been a central issue for both major political parties in the last 15 years: the future of health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.Tax credits for people who get health insurance through the marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, expire at the end of the year.Democrats say they won’t vote to reopen the government until Republicans negotiate an extension of the expanded subsidies. Republicans say they won’t negotiate until Democrats vote to reopen the government. Lawmakers in both parties have been working on potential solutions behind the scenes, hoping that leaders will eventually start to talk, but it’s unclear if the two sides could find compromise.As Congress circles the issue, a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 6 in 10 Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about their health costs going up in the next year. Those worries extend across age groups and include people with and without health insurance, the poll found.A look at the subsidies that are expiring, the politics of the ACA and what Congress might do:
Enhanced premium help during the pandemic
Passed in 2010, the ACA was meant to decrease the number of uninsured people in the country and make coverage more affordable for those who don’t have private insurance. The law created state by state exchanges, some of which are run by the individual states, to try to increase the pool of the insured and bring down rates.In 2021, when Democrats controlled Congress and the White House during the COVID-19 pandemic, they expanded premium help that was already in the law. The changes included eliminating premiums for some lower-income enrollees, ensuring that higher earners paid no more than 8.5% of their income and expanding eligibility for middle-class earners.The expanded subsidies pushed enrollment to new levels and drove the rate of uninsured people to a historic low. This year, a record 24 million people have signed up for insurance coverage through the ACA, in large part because billions of dollars in subsidies have made the plans more affordable for many people.If the tax credits expire, annual out-of-pocket premiums are estimated to increase by 114% an average of $1,016 next year, according to an analysis from KFF.
Democrats push to extend subsidies
Democrats extended those tax credits in 2022 for another three years but were not able to make them permanent. The credits are set to expire Jan. 1, with Republicans now in full control.Lacking in power and sensing a political opportunity, Democrats used some of their only leverage and forced a government shutdown over the issue when federal funding ran out on Oct. 1. They say they won’t vote for a House-passed bill to reopen the government until Republicans give them some certainty that the subsidies will be extended.Democrats introduced legislation in September to permanently extend the premium tax credits, but they have suggested that they are open to a shorter period.“We need a serious negotiation,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has repeatedly said.
Republicans try to scale the ACA back, again
The Democratic demands on health care have reignited longstanding Republican complaints about the ACA, which they have campaigned against for years and tried and failed to repeal in 2017. Many in the party say that if Congress is going to act, they want to scrap the expanded subsidies and overhaul the entire law.The problem is not the expiring subsidies but “the cost of health care,” Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said Tuesday.In a virtual briefing Tuesday, the libertarian Cato Institute and the conservative Paragon Health Institute branded the subsidies as President Joe Biden’s “COVID credits” and claimed they’ve enabled fraudsters to sign people up for fully subsidized plans without their knowledge.Others have pitched more modest proposals that could potentially win over some Democrats. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has said he is open to extending the subsidies with changes, including lower income limits and a stop to auto-enrollment that may sign up people who don’t need the coverage.The ACA is “in desperate need of reform,” Thune has said.House Republicans are considering their own ideas for reforming the ACA, including proposals for phasing out the subsidies for new enrollees. And they have begun to discuss whether to combine health care reforms with a new government funding bill and send it to the Senate for consideration once they return to Washington.“We will probably negotiate some off-ramp” to ease the transition back to pre-COVID-19 levels, said Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, the head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, during a virtual town hall Tuesday.
Is compromise possible?
A number of Republicans want to extend the subsidies. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said most people who are using the exchanges created by the ACA “don’t really have another option, and it’s already really, really expensive. So I think there are things we can do to reform the program.”Hawley said he had been having conversations with other senators about what those changes could be, including proposals for income limits, which he said he sees as a “very reasonable.”Bipartisan groups of lawmakers have been discussing the income limits and other ideas, including making the lowest-income people pay very low premiums instead of nothing. Some Republicans have advocated for that change to ensure that all enrollees are aware they have coverage and need it. Other proposals would extend the subsidies for a year or two or slowly phase them out.It’s unclear if any of those ideas could gain traction on both sides or any interest from the White House, where President Donald Trump has remained mostly disengaged. Despite the public stalemate, though, lawmakers are feeling increased urgency to find a solution as the Nov. 1 open enrollment date approaches.Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire has been talking to lawmakers since the shutdown began, trying to find areas of compromise. On Tuesday, she suggested that Congress could also look at extending the enrollment dates for the ACA since Congress is stalled on the subsidies.“These costs are going to affect all of us, and it’s going to affect our health care system,” she said.
Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Joey Cappelletti in Washington and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press
Its been a wild 24 hours for the stock prices of Americas big four publicly traded quantum computing companies, which include D-Wave, IonQ, Quantum Computing Inc., and Rigetti.
Yesterday, all four quantum firms saw their stock prices fall significantly along with a broader market selloffmostly related to fears about a growing trade war with China and disappointing tech earnings.
But today, shares of the Quantum Four are up on the rumors that the Trump administration is interested in taking an equity stake in quantum computing firms. Heres what you need to know.
Commerce Department reportedly interested
Last night, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Commerce Department was in talks with several quantum computing companies over equity stakes in those firms in return for federal funding.
Specifically, the Journal said D-Wave, IonQ, and Rigetti were in discussions with the federal government about the matter. The report stated that Quantum Computing Inc. and the privately held Atom Computing were considering similar arrangements.
Fast Company has reached out to all the quantum firms named in the WSJs report. IonQ declined to comment. Others did not immediately reply.
The exact terms of any such deal are unknown. However, the report states that minimum federal government funding awards would be for $10 million each. It is unknown how much equity the U.S. government would want in exchange for funding, though the level of equity and the amount of funding will likely be correlated.
The funding would come from the Chips Research and Development Office, which is overseen by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The Commerce Department did not immediately reply for comment.
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The next frontier in computing
That the Trump administration is reportedly interested in an equity stake in Americas quantum computing firms is of little surprise. This past year alone, the administration has taken stakes in chipmaker Intel. and rare earths mining operator MP Materials.
The link between these two companies is that they produce products and materialsadvanced chips and rare earth elementsthat are seen as vital to Americas national security supply chain.
Intels chips power everything from navigation systems to military technology, and MP’s rare earths are needed to make the components that go into critical electronics used by the government and military.
Quantum computing differs in that, as of now, quantum computers dont play a critical role in powering the tools behind U.S. economic, military, or security power. But that is expected to change in the years ahead as quantum computers advance and have the potential to be more revolutionary than even AI.
Quantum computers are different than the classical computers we use today.
A classical computer operates using bits, where each bit of data can either be a one or a zero. However, a quantum computer utilizes qubits, where each unit of data can represent a one and a zeroor anything in betweenat the same time.
This means that quantum computers can carry out computation tasks in a matter of minutes or hours that would take a classical computer thousands of years or more to compute.
Given the potential for quantum computers to revolutionize everything from materials science to healthcare to communications and security, its no surprise that countries, including the United States and China, are deeply interested in the development of this technology.
Quantum Four stocks jump on Thursday
After the WSJ report broke, shares of the four publicly traded quantum computing companies spiked in premarket trading on Thursday morning. As of the time of this writing, all quantum four stocks are currently up significantly, including:
D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS): up 13%
IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ): up 12%
Quantum Computing Inc. (Nasdaq: QUBT): up 11%
Rigetti Computing, Inc. (Nasdaq: RGTI): up 9%
Todays price jump helps wipe out much of the losses that the Quantum Four experienced yesterday amid a broader market selloff. Yesterday, D-Wave closed 15% lower, IonQ closed down 6%, Quantum Computing Inc. lost 7%, and Rigetti lost 9%.
Over the past 12 months, the stock prices of the Quantum Four have surged. As of yesterdays close, D-Wave was up 2,174%, IonQ was up 269%, Quantum Computing Inc. was up 1,215%, and Rigetti was up 2,831%
In a companys early days, culture is forged through proximityshared desks, late nights, and the push-and-pull of turning ideas into reality. Decisions happen on the fly, and everyone knows each other by name. But as you scaleespecially as a remote-first organizationthat sense of connection can quietly fade. Suddenly, you realize you cant attend every onboarding, celebrate every milestone, or even recognize every face on a Zoom call.
That moment should give you pause. In fact, if it doesnt, youre missing a red flag.
At Appfire, weve gone from a small crew to nearly 800 people across multiple continents. Our remote-first approach lets people work where they wake up, but it also brings a new set of leadership challenges. In a world defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), the old playbook of hallway conversations and impromptu lunches doesnt cut it. Staying connectedand relevantrequires intentional, adaptable systems for communication, empathy, and trust.
Heres what Ive learned (often the hard way): what works for 50 people absolutely breaks at 800. Here are four principles I rely on to keep our culture intact as we growno matter how turbulent or complex the environment.
Communicate Consistently to Anchor Culture
When you cant rely on physical presence, communication from leadership becomes your presence. Within my first month at Appfire, I started recording biweekly Loom videosshort, informal updates on everything from board meeting takeaways to customer feedback, industry trends, and whats keeping me up at night. Theyre deliberately unpolished. The point is authenticity, not production value.
But its not just about me talking at people. Company-wide meetingsvirtual or otherwiseare vital for transparency and alignment. Switch up the format: one month, an unscripted Q&A; the next, a focused all-hands on product milestones or wins. Routine is good, but predictability can breed apathy. Variety keeps people engaged and shows that leadership is present, listening, and investedeven across time zones.
In VUCA environments, these touchpoints become cultural anchorssteadying the ship when the waters get rough.
Lead with EmpathyEspecially Through Change
Growth brings change: new processes, shifting priorities, new faces. This can breed friction, especially when people feel overlooked or misunderstood. Empathy isnt just a soft skillits table stakes for leadership, particularly in uncertain or ambiguous circumstances.
You dont need every answer, but you do need to listenreally listen. Ask questions. Make it clear youre aware of the daily realities people face, whether theyre your tenth hire or your 900th. Empathy creates psychological safety, unlocking collaboration and innovationeven as the ground shifts beneath us.
And in a globally distributed, remote-first workforce, empathy means honoring differences: work styles, time zones, communication preferences. Flexibility and inclusion arent perkstheyre strategic imperatives in a complex world.
Assume Positive Intentand Seek to Understand First
As companies scale, silos form. Communication happens over Slack, Zoom, or emaileasy recipes for misinterpretation. My default? Assume positive intent. When something doesnt make sense, I encourage teams to seek understanding first, not just to be understood.
This mindset is a buffer against the ambiguity that naturally creeps in as organizations grow and evolve. Its especially critical during moments of changenew tools, shifting strategies, re-orgs. Curiosity over judgment fosters better collaboration, healthier conflict, and ultimately, stronger relationships.
As a leader, you have to model this. It sets the tone for everyone else, especially when things get messy.
Focus on What You Can Control
Lets be honest: the world isnt getting any simpler. Markets swing, technologies disrupt, geopolitics intrude. In a volatile, complex landscape, the temptation is to hunker down or get distracted by what you cant control. Resist it.
We cant manage macroeconomics or global events. But we can control the quality of our products, the strength of our partnerships, the depth of our customer relationships, and the authenticity of our culture. We can prioritize creating real value over chasing hype. We can show up for each other. Grounding teams in whats controllable fosters resilience, clarity, and focuseven amid chaos.
Intention Over Scale
Scaling isnt about headcount. Its about evolving how you lead when the old rules no longer apply. CEOs of remote-first, high-growth companies cant lean on proximity or familiarity. We have to be intentionalabout communication, empathy, trust, and clarity. These arent nice-to-haves. In a VUCA world, theyre the infrastructure of sustainable growth.
At Appfire, I may never know every employee personallybut I want every employee to feel like they know me. Not through perfect videos, but through a cadence of authentic, consistent leadership. Staying connected isnt about scale. Its about deliberate intention in the face of complexity and uncertainty.
Thats how you build a culture that scalesand survivesin a remote, unpredictable world.
Research shows that an employees perception of what makes an authentic leader is the most significant predictor of job satisfaction and happiness at work. And I experienced this firsthand when my boss said three simple words that changed everything.
You see, as a journalist, I was always accustomed to someone checking, editing, and approving every piece before publication. So when I asked my new boss yet another question about a piece of content I was working on, his response shocked me. He turned around and said, I trust you.
I was blown away because it was a huge shift. For the first time, Someone is encouraging me to trust my own judgement instead of seeking approval. It was the complete opposite of everything perfectionism had reinforced in me. And while that was a breakthrough moment for me, Id realized just how much perfectionism had shaped me leading up to that moment.
Thriving from failure
Back in 2011, I was living my dream. I was on stage at the New York Comedy Club, about to deliver my first five-minute stand-up set in America. Id memorized and rehearsed and memorized every word. After I delivered my first joke, my mind went completely blank. Nothing. For 30 excruciating seconds, I stood frozen like a deer in headlights. When I looked down at my palm for my SOS backup notes, all I saw was a giant smudge mark. My nervous, sweaty hands totally smeared the ink. I looked around the room, locked eyes with a friend, and took a desperate breath. Eventually, my jokes came flooding back. But I replayed that freeze for years on loop in my mind.
That experience taught me that perfectionism isn’t protection at all. Far from it. It’s actually a trap. We think we’re safe when weve mapped everything out, but it’s actually the opposite. If we forget one tiny point, everything unravels quickly.
Research distinguishes between excellence-seeking perfectionism (driven by high standards) and failure-avoiding perfectionism (driven by fear and concerns). So many of us are trapped in the latter, with this fear disconnecting us from our authentic voice. This kind of perfectionism is sneaky because it disguises itself as high standards. And its also very, very convincing.
Trying to meet an impossible standard
I see this pattern constantly. One leader at a recent presentation skills workshop was convinced she needed to get everything right. But when I asked, According to who? she couldnt answer. We laughed, her shoulders dropped, and she smiled. Her entire presence shifted. Authentic leadership requires presence, vulnerability, honesty, and trust. But its rigidity that causes fear-driven perfectionism.
When youre trapped in perfectionism, youre chasing an impossible standard, instead of leading from a true place. And teams can feel that disconnect. After I froze on stage in New York, I made a decision. I would never memorize another performance. Instead, I learned to be present, trust myself, and adapt. And the result was always better performances and much deeper connections because I was finally in the room with my audience instead of being trapped in my head. The antidote to perfectionism isn’t lowering our standards. It’s raising authenticity.
Preventing perfectionism from getting in the way
Ive learned that below are the key steps to follow if you want to prevent perfectionism from getting in the way of your success:
Own your mistakes openly. When you admit your mistakes, you give others permission to stop hiding theirs and start learning from them instead.
Share what didnt work. I tell leaders about bombed pitches and lost rooms. Failure can build connections very quickly.
Say I dont know. When someone asks you something you haven’t considered or you dont have the answer to, admit it. This creates the space for honest connections.
Get comfortable with version #1. My comedy coach Judy Carter said, Get your ideas out there because you can always make them better. At the end of the day, done is way better than perfect.
When my boss said those three words to me, he gave me something powerful. And thats permission to trust myself. Sure, perfectionism might make you look good, but authentic leadership is what actually transforms people and is what allows you to build true connections and relationships that will last for years to come.
Headlines alternate between massive AI investments and reports of failed deployments. The pattern is consistent across industries: seemingly promising AI projects that work well in testing environments struggle or fail when deployed in real-world conditions.
It’s not insufficient computing power, inadequate talent, or immature algorithms. Ive worked with over 250 enterprises deploying visual AIfrom Fortune 10 manufacturers to emerging unicornsand the pattern is unmistakable: the companies that succeed train their models on what actually breaks them, while the ones that fail optimize for what works in controlled environments.
The Hidden Economics of AI Failure
When Amazon quietly rolled back its “Just Walk Out” technology from most U.S. grocery stores in 2024, the media focused on the obvious: customers were confused, technology wasn’t ready, labor costs weren’t eliminated as promised.
But the real lesson was subtler and more valuable. Amazon’s visual AI could accurately identify a shopper picking up a Coke in ideal conditionswell-lit aisles, single shoppers, products in their designated spots. The system failed on the edge cases that define real-world retail: crowded aisles, group shopping, items returned to wrong shelves, inventory that constantly shifts.
The core issue wasn’t technological sophisticationit was data strategy. Amazon had trained their models on millions of hours of video, but the wrong millions of hours. They optimized for the common scenarios while underweighting the chaos that drives real-world retail.
Amazon continues to refine the technologya strategy that highlights the core challenge with visual AI deployment. The issue wasn’t insufficient computing power or algorithmic sophistication. The models needed more comprehensive training data that captured the full spectrum of customer behaviors, not just the most common scenarios.
This is the billion dollar blind spot: Most enterprises are solving the wrong data problem.
Focusing on the right data, not just more data
Enterprises often assume that simply scaling datacollecting millions more images or video hourswill close the performance gap. But visual AI doesnt fail because of too little data; it fails because of the wrong data.
The companies that consistently succeed have learned to curate their datasets with the same rigor they apply to their models. They deliberately seek out and label the hard cases: the scratches that barely register on a part, the rare disease presentation in a medical image, the one-in-a-thousand lighting condition on a production line, or the pedestrian darting out from between parked cars at dusk. These are the cases that break models in deploymentand the cases that separate an adequate system from a production-ready one.
This is why data quality is quickly becoming the real competitive advantage in visual AI. Smart companies arent chasing sheer volume; theyre investing in tools to measure, curate, and continuously improve their datasets.
First-hand experience
As the CEO of a visual AI startupVoxel51these challenges are something Ive lived first-hand. My co-founder and I started the company after seeing how bad data derails AI projects. In 2017, while working with the city of Baltimore to deploy vision systems on its CitiWatch camera network to aid first responders, we experienced the pain of creating datasets, training models, and diagnosing failures without the right tools. That work inspired us to build our own platform, which became FiftyOnenow the most widely adopted open source toolkit for visual AI with more than three million installs. Today, more than 250 enterprises, including Berkshire Grey, Google, Bosch, and Porsche, use it to put data quality at the center of their AI strategy. Here are just a few outcomes:
Allstate improved data quality in vehicle damage inspection by automating the pipelinesegmenting parts, detecting damages, and matching repair costsreducing hours of manual effort while ensuring consistent results.
Raytheon Technologies Research Center organized and filtered large research datasets to surface meaningful patterns in complex image attributes, turning noisy data into usable insights.
A Fortune 500 agriculture tech company curated training data from harvesters to improve grain segmentation, capturing edge cases like unhusked and sprouting kernels for more robust models.
A Fortune 500 company curated visual data to detect defective screens before shipment, preventing costly recalls and customer returns.
SafelyYou shows the impact of this approach. The companys system helps care delivery in senior care facilities with models that help reduce fall-related ER visits by 80%. The key wasnt just massive scale60 million minutes of videobut the ability to curate variations in how seniors actually fall: different lighting, speeds, body types, and obstacles. By automating checks for annotation mistakes and model blind spots, they cut manual review by 77%, boosted precision scores by 10%, and saved up to 80 developer hours each month.
The Path Forward
For executives evaluating visual AI investments, the lesson is clear: success is driven not by bigger models or more compute, but by treating data as the foundation. Organizations that prioritize data quality consistently outperform those that focus primarily on technology infrastructure or talent acquisition.
Investments in data collection, curation, and management systems are the levers that truly move the needle. By embedding scenario analysis into data strategymodeling how different data quality, diversity, or labeling scenarios impact performancecompanies can anticipate risks, optimize resource allocation, and make more informed AI investments.
Ultimately, the most successful visual AI initiatives are those that integrate rigorous data practices with forward-looking scenario planning, ensuring that models deliver reliable performance across a range of real-world conditions.
