fbpx

Athletic Propulsion Labs founders, Adam and Ryan Goldston, aren’t known for following the rules. Since launching APL back in 2010 they’ve raked in a strong celebrity following, invented revolutionary technology to improve athletic performance, and even became the first and only sneaker banned in NBA history. For these L.A natives, this is just a warm up, we sat down with the brothers to discuss their growing company’s success and what’s in store for their brands future.

 

Here at Hip & Healthy, we’re always on the lookout for brands working to intersect style and performance and APL certainly do that! What were the priorities for your brand when it came to both style and performance?
For us, at the core of everything we do is performance. We start by focusing on creating product that can absolutely perform at the highest level. With that being said, we don’t believe you need to sacrifice aesthetics to create products that can perform at the highest levels. As a brand, we have always said that we sit at the intersection of where performance and fashion meet.

 

As business partners and brothers, working together must have its challenges and rewards, what are your favourite aspects of working together?
The fact that we are brothers (and twins) has been a huge advantage for us. We know that regardless of the situation, we have the same ultimate goals and truly have each others best interests at heart.

 

APL has a very specific aesthetic with its sleek and modern designs. Was this influenced through your LA roots?
I think more than anything it speaks to the transitional culture that exists in LA and at this rate, most cities. People are looking for products that they can be comfortable, fashionable, and can work for them in any setting that they’re in. We don’t use big emblazoned logos, we let the colours, materials, design, and technologies tell the story. Cody, our design director, was our first employee, so collectively we’ve built our design language together.

 

APL made headlines when your company became the first ever sneaker banned in NBA history – how did being branded the rule-breakers of the sneaker industry affect how you run APL?
This was a huge catalyst for the brand, as we were just beginning and on October 19, 2010
when it was banned, it became the #1 news story in the world, the #2, 3, and 17 most searched
terms on Google, there were over 1 million articles posted about the company and ban in 10
days. It was this amazing moment and while we had all the biomechanic testing to substantiate
the claim that our shoes instantly make you jump higher, there is no bigger or better authority in
basketball than the NBA and their exact wording was that our shoes “provide an undue
competitive advantage” which essentially means we make the world’s greatest performance
basketball shoe.

 

You have said that athleisure is not a trend but a cultural shift, how do you expect your brand to keep breaking boundaries and stay on the forefront in the years to come?
We believe that we were and continue to be at the forefront of the movement and we maintain
focused on creating products that we love and see a need in the market for. We’ve got some
fantastic innovations coming through the pipeline, so the future is really bright.

Shop our range of APL now available online below! 

APL

SHARE THIS STORY