Why are Nike Volts neon green, and what makes Pele's black-and-yellow Pumas memorable?

When you go for ice-cream, you choose the flavour based on your mood. It’s a little more complicated for sneaker companies when they decide what colours to use in their product.

According to a report, shoe companies are increasingly using the concept of colour theory in their manufacturing. It deals with the psychological effects of colours on humans.

The theory is not new and is used by several industries – including ice-cream making - in their products, packaging or advertising. What is interesting and recent, however, is the depth of research that companies conduct, especially as more people shop online, and how specific the goals of the research are.

We did a complete technology innovation study about how color showed up on HDTV and sports tracks.

- Martha Moore, Nike vice president and creative director.

The key insight, for example, into Nike’s neon lime green Volt shoe was that the colour was the first thing a person’s optical receptors noticed.

“That was an intellectual and scientific choice for Nike,” Bryan Cioffi, Reebok’s vice president for footwear design, told NYT. “The first colour you read in your optical receptors is that super-bright lime. It’s possibly an evolutionary take from poisonous animals and signals danger. A physical thing happens when you see it. Nike triangulated that and repeated it forever.”

Speaking about the homework that went into the Volt, Martha Moore, a Nike vice president and creative director, said, “We did a complete technology innovation study about how color showed up on HDTV and sports tracks. We were studying the idea of speed and what color complemented that in the vibration of the human eye. Volt is emotional.”

Certain colours have a subconscious connection with an icon, as with yellow Pumas and Pele. At times, the association is stated, as with Reebok’s ‘Ghostbusters’ collaboration in 2020.

“We use a yellow that is forever connected to the footballer Pele,” Melissa Tvirbutas, the global head of colour and material design at Puma, told NYT. “And it doesn’t matter how old you are. If you’re a football fan, you’ll encounter his (Pele’s) history with two or three clicks, so younger people still get the reference.”

Brazil's national football team, 1970 Fifa World Cup. (Photo: El Gráfico via Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Reebok’s Cioffi said that for the Ghostbusters collaboration, “we went deep to find the exact colors used onscreen to be hyper-authentic.”

Next up for the company is a release linked to a ’90s superhero TV show.

“Our team watched 1,000 episodes, taking copious notes like I’ve never seen before,” Cioffi said. “They looked into the materials used by the dye house that worked on the costumes at the time of production.”

At least no one is launching a shoe inspired by a Balaji soap yet. Imagine watching a 1,000 episodes of that.