Watch the full conversation between Adam and Ryan Goldston and Fashionista’s Editor in Chief Dhani Mau on The Fashionista Network.

When Athletic Propulsion Labs (APL) co-founder Ryan Goldston pitched his business plan for the shoe brand during a college competition, his professor told him it’d be a massive failure. That didn’t stop him, and his twin brother Adam, from launching the label anyway in 2009. They were adamant they’d discovered an untapped niche in the shoe market, which was creating luxury basketball shoes with technology that makes wearers jump higher, and selling them direct-to-consumer.

Contrary to the professor’s opinion, APL became a massive success, and it didn’t take long.

Business really took off in 2010, after the National Basketball League (NBA) banned its players from wearing APL’s innovative shoes because they provided an unfair competitive advantage. “There were over a million articles posted in 10 days,” Ryan Goldston recalled to Dhani on The Fashionista Network. (Watch it here!) “We sold nine months of inventory in three days. That really was the genesis for what we created.”

This opened a door for the brothers to expand their business from just basketball shoes and into the wider performance footwear market. The fashion industry quickly took notice: Luxury retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue, Selfridges, Net-a-Porter and Mr. Porter flocked to stock with the label; in 2016, APL became the first athletic brand inducted into Council of Fashion Designers in America (CFDA). As it’s expanded its retail footprint (including opening its own stores), the company has remained fully independent.

In the full interview, the brother duo discussed why, in hindsight, the NBA banning their brand was “the best thing to ever happen to them,” their retail strategy, their thoughts on the current state of brick-and-mortar and their plans for scaling. Plus, hear their advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. 

Watch the full interview here.

This conversation was hosted on The Fashionista Network powered by interactive media platform Fireside, where viewers get the chance to participate and speak directly with industry figures. Learn more about The Fashionista Network here.

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