In an industry dominated by giants like Nike, Reebok and Adidas, Atlanta's Nfinity is a true underdog.
Observes owner Tate Chalk, "We certainly know what David felt like out on the battlefield."
But, thanks to its mission — developing shoes designed specifically for female athletes — and its initial focus on the competitive cheerleading market, the five-year-old company has success, and big plans.
This August, Nfinity rolls out its first shoes for women basketball and volleyball players, both with its trademark BioniQ technology, which the company says uniquely addresses the differences of a woman's anatomy.
If the venture works, it could help boost the company's current annual revenues from about $5 million to what Chalk says could be $50 million in the next four or five years.
The BioniQ design garnered Nfinity a nomination as a finalist for the 2009 Business Innovation of the Year award, to be given out next Monday as part of the American Business Awards in New York.
Expansion and attention are not the norm at Nfinity. The company has grown methodically and quietly under Chalk, with limited overhead, modest offices in Atlantic Station and only eight employees. Shoes are made in China and sold through a small network of online retailers.
"We've been very careful to stay focused," Chalk says.
The focus, going back to the company's founding, was on filling what Chalk says was an unmet need: producing performance athletic shoes engineered for women competing in team sports.
Before Nfinity, Chalk says, athletic footwear companies took men's shoes, minimally altered them, and sold them as women's.
"We addressed the physiological and weight differences," says Chalk. "For the big guys, these are basically fringe markets."
Nike spokeswoman Megan Saalfeld says Nike has been working with female athletes since the 1970s and "has been creating women-specific footwear for decades."
Nfinity says its new BioniQ technology is different. It addresses the Q Angle, the angle between the hip and knee. The more pronounced Q Angle in women can increase their chances of suffering anterior cruciate ligament injuries. The BioniQ design, Nfinity says, reduces stress on the knee.
Nfinity had success before BioniQ. Its Evolution model is the cheer market's top seller.
"They immediately took off because the kids were so excited about having such a light shoe," says Jamie Parrish, owner of the Georgia All Stars, a top coed cheerleading program for k-college competitors.
"It's a good niche. If you're a company like Nfinity, you can't be all things to all people like Nike," says Mike May, a spokesman for the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.
May says that while the cheer market is a tiny one in the athletic footwear industry, it's a way for a company to establish itself, much as Nike did in running in the 1960s before branching out into other sports.
Nfinity isn't talking about becoming the next Nike, but it is making inroads into women's basketball in a traditional way, by signing WNBA stars Tully Bevilaqua and Nikki Blue to endorsement contracts.
Bevilaqua calls Nfinity a "cutting-edge, women's-specific brand. The shoes are super-lightweight, make me feel springy and have more ankle support than the other shoes out there."
Chalk, a former competitive college cheerleader, cheer coach and cheer gym owner, learned the business working for a Canadian athletic shoe company. He was brought in by partners to help launch Nfinity in late 2003, then bought them out just over a year later. He used his Rolodex of cheer sport contacts to introduce his shoe and gradually build the business.
Being the little guy battling the giants, he says, makes for "a good story," but, he adds, it's no guarantee for future success. "The key," Chalk says, "is to execute."
