Vidar Shoes is here to help recreational hoopers perform pro level crossovers

They don't call it "forward-thinking" for nothing. Most shoes nowadays are tailored to propel wearers forward in their movements. But, if you happen to be a basketball player, a shoe of this nature spells potential disaster as they cannot perform at such caliber. The need for a shoe that supports and allows lateral movement is great - enter Vidar Shoes.

Sunny Kim, a 28-year-old from Toronto, Canada, is making his vision a reality with his new venture, Vidar Shoes. An alumni of Seneca College's Accounting and Business Management programs, Kim is also an avid recreational basketball player, where he noticed a lack of adequate footwear that helped elevate guard-like play with quick dribble moves and crossovers. To answer this, Kim took it into his own hands by developing his Vidar brand that "challenges today's sneaker market with unique, exciting and innovative sneakers."

Sunny Kim hopes his Vidar Shoes can help other likeminded recreational hoopers perform crossovers at a high-level.

"There aren't a lot of shoes meant to help you move sideways... That's why I started this journey with Vidar. I wanted to create some unique and dope shoes that help athletes move sideways more efficiently. That's how I started Vidar."

- Sunny Kim, CEO of Vidar

You might be wondering what inspired the funky name, Vidar. Well, here's how Sunny Kim described the inspiration behind the name:

"Vidar is actually Thor's younger brother. And, what's special about Vidar is he's kind of the quiet one. He's the one that works behind the scenes kind of. And, what resonated with me with Vidar is.. Thor has his hammer, but Vidar has these like special shoes to like defeat his opponents. So, Vidar pretty much creates these shoes with special soles, midsoles kind of... And he uses them to stomp on this giant wolf's jaw. I took the name because I was inspired by that story."

- Sunny Kim

To jumpstart Vidar's hopeful journey within the sneaker market, they have an early-stage model at the forefront of their business plan, a shoe named the "Canine". The origins of the Canine name also draw from the story of Vidar, as the construction of said shoe implements a design on its medial and lateral sides with teeth/claw designs, à la the wolf stomped on by Vidar. As I noticed too, the Canine model seems to borrow silhouette elements from a Jordan 5, to which Sunny Kim jokingly answered:

"Honestly, the top lacing part, yes. But other than that no (laughs). Honestly, I'm kind of honored to hear that because the Jordan 5 is one of my top three sneakers and just to hear that is just... Wow! Thank you."

- Sunny Kim

Basketball shoes are a market that will always draw interest. But for a sneaker to tailor itself toward the recreational player, that's a whole other ball game in itself (pun intended). Vidar hopes to bring that pro feel for the novice hooper, and Sunny Kim expanded on this point by saying:

"For me, I dedicated so much time to playing basketball. Especially when I was a lot younger. I created the shoes specifically because I wanted to get better. I've been rocking the KD's [Kevin Durant shoes]. You know, they're very comfy, they're good for performance. But, it was so hard for me to do crossovers and that sort of stuff in those shoes. Sometimes they're too stiff, or sometimes my foot slides out of the midsole. That kind of encouraged me to create my own brand. Not a lot of shoes were focusing on lateral containment or focusing on crossovers and such... I noticed there's a huge market for this, and I'm probably not the only person experiencing this, so I made it."

- Sunny Kim

But it isn't as simple to just label the Vidar Canines with the promise of helping you perform crossovers. There needs to be a tangible piece of technology present in the sneakers that proves its claims. Enter the Throttle technology by Vidar and Sunny Kim. But it's not just through the sport of basketball where the Throttle at play is meant to help your performance, Sunny talked a bit about his hopes to expand into other sporting demographics.

"I've tested out these shoes. I just rock them on a daily. I'll try them out for badminton or volleyball. And they're surprisingly good! We're definitely going to be expanding into other sports as well, because at the moment we want to focus on basketball and see how we grow from that. Eventually, we'll get more help from volleyball players or someone from badminton or tennis even. See where we can kind of expand our brand from there."

- Sunny Kim

The manufacturing process doesn't come easy for a small business. It takes a fair bit of time, effort, and connections to source the correct labor and materials. Sunny explained how he pushed the Vidar vision to someone linked to the sneaker world in China:

"I have a shoe guy in China. I chose him specifically because there's so many factories, so many manufacturers in China. The main concern is there's a lot of people who copy each other or make reps. I've interviewed a couple of them, a lot of them gave me worrying vibes. My initial feelings were like "I couldn't trust them", like they don't seem trustworthy. But I chose my specific guy because he was in product development for one of the major brands for a long time. After just talking to him, understanding his vision about shoes... I was like "Ok, I found my guy". He was an introduction from one of my advisors, but yeah, everything just kicked off. "

- Sunny Kim

Drawing back to the practicality side of things regarding basketball shoes, there have been many instances where an improper shoe or malfunction significantly hampered a player's performance. Kevin Durant fell victim to injury after suffering a sneaker mishap, or how about when Zion Williamson suffered from an infamous exploding shoe during his time at Duke? Sunny explained the importance of a high-caliber shoe equipped to withstand the tasking game of basketball:

"Basketball players along with many other athletes put a lot of stress on their bodies. They generate a lot of torque like when they're driving in or going for a layup. When you're putting that much force and stress on your body, your shoes have to be willing to put up with that. And sometimes, even the best shoes or even like the best samples from the bigger brands, they're unable to keep up. Every year, each generation of athletes are getting more talented, more stronger. It's so important for us to develop a quality shoe for people to wear, that focuses on performance. "

- Sunny Kim

Sunny reverted back to explaining the importance of his Throttle system, conducting a case analysis with the Zion Williamson-Duke disaster shoe incident:

"Zion's shoes from his time in the NCAA when his foot blasted out of the shoe. That's a perfect example of what I meant by lateral containment. Our shoe is specifically designed to help you tilt your foot inwards a little. So most of the force is going on the lateral side of the shoe, it's actually trying to stay on the medial side of the shoe. That's our goal. We're trying to make some dope shoes that will help you with those specific types of movements. I can't say those shoes are terrible, but Zion is just a freak of nature. You can't really predict those things. "

- Sunny Kim

Aside from the cool name inspirations that Sunny Kim drew up, he also had a clever idea for the Vidar logo, as he explained in the interview:

"The logo is actually a quarter rest symbol, from like music notes. I chose that because Vidar [mythical being] is like the quiet one, well he's known as the quiet one. And that sort of resonated with me too because I'm also someone who's quiet and likes to work behind the scenes. I don't really like going out there and trying to be flashy. I'm sure there are other people that are like that too. "

- Sunny Kim

Concluding the interview, I asked Sunny Kim where he sees the Vidar brand and vision in five years time, to which he responded:

"I really want to create some awesome partnerships, get some dope a** people involved in this. I wanna have a great team to work with in the future and I kind of want to share the shoe, this invention, and this entire vision I have with Vidar to the world in five years. I don't want it to just be a North American thing. I wanna expand to China and Europe, that sort of thing. That would take some time and effort, but yeah. That's the hope!"

- Sunny Kim

For more on Sunny Kim's Vidar project, you can email him at info@vidar.ca for any inquiries and concerns.