Luxury Performance Footwear Brand, Athletic Propulsion Labs, Steps Up its Ecommerce Results with AI-Powered True Fit Guidance to Increase Revenue and Reduce Returns

Based in Los Angeles, APL was founded in 2009 by former collegiate athletes and twin brothers Adam and Ryan Goldston. Today, APL is globally recognized as the pioneer and innovator of the “luxury performance” category in men’s and women’s athletic footwear. Rooted in technology and innovation, APL revolutionized the footwear industry by offering the finest footwear that sits at the intersection of luxury and performance. Offering comfort and style, APL’s trainers are perfect for the gym, travel, and an active lifestyle including its Concept X and SuperFuture basketball shoes with the brand’s groundbreaking Load ‘N Launch^® technology banned by the NBA for performance enhancement reasons to the wearer to its bestselling TechLoom Zipline shoes with APL FutureFoam^® running midsole for its unsurpassed cushioning and comfort.

With its world-class patented technologies and its unique, innovative designs, APL has become a celebrity and influencer favorite of sneakerheads and is now stocked in over 300 luxury retailers including Nordstrom, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Matches Fashion, Net-A-Porter and Mr. Porter.

In 2019, APL first began its partnership with True Fit as it scaled its Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) business, with the goal of offering its shoppers fit guidance to build confidence into their buying journeys. APL leverages True Fit’s Fashion Genome™, the broadest and richest global connected AI fit platform, to provide best-in-class fit recommendations powered by the demographics, fit preferences and buying behaviors of millions of global shoppers, and then enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI). This data delivers high-fidelity size and fit guidance to 100% of traffic, from zero click product size guidance for all traffic to highly personalized fit recommendations to shoppers who register and create a True Fit profile. APL put data privacy protection at the core of its decision process. In selecting a trusted partner, not leveraging personally identifiable information (PII) to make fit recommendations was important. The True Fit platform met these requirements as part of its key value proposition to every consumer.

The partnership with True Fit increased conversions resulting in a 2% uptick in site-wide revenue. APL has also significantly reduced returns, with a 15% reduction in returns from shoppers leveraging True Fit.

NJ Falk, Managing Partner at APL, commented: “We know from the data that finding the right fit drives consumer loyalty and increases customer conversion. We choose True Fit because consumers have a trust level with the brand. It gives them confidence during the buying process as sizing can often seem complicated in the virtual world. True Fit takes the guesswork out of the process making it easy for the consumer to determine their true size while reducing the likelihood of a consumer ordering and returning multiple sizes. We’ve also been impressed with how True Fit is always at the forefront of the digital fitting room by continuously innovating and inviting APL to partner early and often as part of the True Fit inner circle and family. It helps us keep pace with consumer expectations.”

William R. Adler, co-founder and CEO at True Fit commented: “Our latest research shows that behind jeans, footwear is one of the most difficult items to shop for online due to fit uncertainty.  Because APL is broadly sought after by many different types of customers – from sports performance athletes at one end to luxury shoppers at the other — fit guidance is very helpful.  By using the Fashion Genome and APL customer data, we’re able to leverage powerful AI to connect APL shoppers to the incredible APL styles, in many cases creating APL customers for life. The APL team is top notch and it’s our true privilege to be their trusted partner and part of their extraordinary story.”

ABOUT ATHLETIC PROPULSION LABS (APL)

Athletic Propulsion Labs (APL) is globally recognized as a world leader in Men’s and Women’s athletic footwear. Rooted in technology and innovation, APL has been at the forefront of performance footwear since the introduction of the Concept 1 basketball shoe featuring groundbreaking Load N’ Launch^® technology, designed to instantly increase vertical leap. As a result, the Concept 1 became the first shoe banned by the NBA for performance enhancement reasons to the wearer. Beginning in June 2014 the company pioneered the “luxury performance segment” of the athletic footwear market in connection with the launch of its running and training shoe collections for men and women. The combination of APL’s world-class patented technologies and its unique, innovative design vision has enabled APL to be carried in the finest luxury retailers in the world from Nordstrom, Selfridges Net-A-Porter, Mr. Porter, ShopBop.com, East Dane, Lane Crawford, Level Shoes to Harvey Nichols. Most recently, APL debuted its first All-Terrain style, the Defender, along with its newest running silhouettes, the Streamline and the TechLoom Zipline which won the SELF Sneaker Awards in 2022 and the Men’s Health Sneaker Awards 2022 for both the Streamline and TechLoom Zipline. At the end of the 2020, APL introduced two new basketball shoes, the APL SUPERFUTURE and the APL CONCEPT X that garnered worldwide press. The brand’s award-winning designs include a long list of accolades from the TechLoom Tracer training shoe which was awarded the 2021 Women’s Health Fitness Award, Men’s Health Sneaker Awards and the 2022 Women’ Health Sneaker Awards for the TechLoom Tracer and the Ascend. APL’s other key styles include the TechLoom Wave, TechLoom Bliss, winner of the Women’s Health Sneaker Awards 2023, TechLoom Breeze, a PopSugar Fitness Awards 2023 winner, TechLoom Chelsea, TechLoom Phantom which is a 2021 winner of the Men’s Health Sneaker Awards, the iconic TechLoom Pro which was awarded the Best Shoe for Studio Workouts as part of the 2021 Women’s Health Awards and ) the Esquire Editorial Awards Editors Pick 2023, and the APL McLaren HySpeed which just won the2023 Gear Patrol Editor’s Best Gym Shoe Award, while the brand’s iconic Lusso slide was selected to be part of the Oprah’s Favorite Things list in 2021 – the brand’s fourth time being on the list, all alongside the APL Kids line which is sold online and in store at APL’s flagship retail store at The Grove in Los Angeles. APL has also recently launched its global partnership with the Oracle Red Bull Racing team and is opening its newest Flagship Store on 75 Prince Street In New York City this Fall.  For more information and to see the latest products, please visit https://www.athleticpropulsionlabs.com/

ABOUT TRUE FIT

True Fit is the leading AI platform apparel and footwear brands leverage to decode size and fit for consumers, driving conversion, return reduction and loyalty for brands. Its expert fit recommendations are powered by fashion’s largest dataset to deliver accuracy across the broadest assortment of demographics and product categories including menswear, womenswear, childrenswear, intimates, swim and footwear. For more information, visit https://www.truefit.com/business

SOURCE TRUE FIT