COMNground #005
May 2026 Newsletter
From Innovation Labs to the Himalayas
From athlete testing in Atlanta, to embedded innovation incubators, to leadership expeditions deep in the Himalayas…
the last few months have reinforced a similar idea again and again:
The best insights rarely come from staying inside the familiar.
Inside this newsletter:
Leadership development in the Himalayas
Exploring the future of AI and human-centered insight with The North Face
Athlete testing and biomechanical research with On
A 6-month embedded innovation incubator with New Balance and Laceless
Different projects. Different environments. Different outcomes.
But across all of them, the same thing kept showing up:
The strongest ideas, relationships, and transformations happen when people step outside the usual rooms, routines, and ways of thinking.
Below is a look into some of the work, conversations, and experiences that shaped our start to 2026.
Why We’re Taking Leadership Development Outside the Boardroom
Mike and I just returned from leading 13 corporate leaders and entrepreneurs through the Himalayas on a transformational leadership expedition around Mt Manaslu, one of the world’s highest peaks.
Over two weeks of remote villages, freezing mountain passes, high altitude, long trekking days, and unfamiliar ways of living, one thing became clear:
New perspective rarely comes from staying inside the same routines.
Across the journey together we explored:
Presence through breathwork, meditation, and reflection
Vulnerability through honest conversations and circles
Curiosity through new cultures and perspectives
Perseverance through discomfort and challenge
The deeper takeaway for us as leaders was simple:
The qualities that create stronger expeditions often create stronger businesses, teams, and relationships too.
1 | Curiosity creates connection
2 | Presence builds trust
3 | Vulnerability deepens relationships
And in a world moving faster and faster, those qualities matter more than ever.
This kind of work has become an increasingly important part of what we do at COMN.
Over years of research and innovation, we’ve realized something simple:
Bringing the voice of the athlete or consumer to leadership teams is powerful.
But immersing leaders in those experiences themselves can be transformational.
Alongside research, innovation, and concept testing, we’ve facilitated leadership retreats, team offsites, and development experiences for partners including FILA, On, The North Face and Lululemon — everywhere from Italy and New York City to Palm Springs and our own Portland-based wellness and creative space.
With FILA, that work ranged from leadership development and team experiences to immersing leaders directly into research, new markets, and sport culture as part of broader innovation and testing work.
Watching the organization become more human-led and athlete-centered through the process was one of the most meaningful transformations we’ve been a part of. You can learn more about the breadth of that work here.
More recently, this work has also expanded into more focused 1:1 coaching with founders, executives, and creative leaders where we:
A | Blend the outer work of leadership
(strategy, systems, decision-making)
B | With the inner work of the leader themselves
(pressure, clarity, regulation, and identity)
And we do this through strategy sessions, mindset coaching, and therapeutic breathwork.
Whether it’s a leadership offsite, innovation sprint, or expedition in the Himalayas, the goal remains similar:
Helping people step outside the familiar long enough to see differently.
If you’re interested in leadership development, immersive team experiences, innovation offsites, or building stronger human connection inside your team and culture — we’d love to connect and you can learn more about 1:1 coaching here.
Anddd you can follow our whole journey through the Himalayas 👉🏼 here
Exploring the Future of Insights with The North Face
That same tension between speed and depth also carried into work we’ve been supporting with The North Face around the future of insights and AI.
The work explored questions like:
How do brands embrace the speed and power of AI without losing the human depth that creates truly meaningful insight?
Themes that repeatedly surfaced included:
Optimization vs creative inspiration
Speed vs emotional depth and empathy
Synthetic understanding vs real raw lived experience
One idea that particularly stuck with us:
AI can summarize emotions.
But it cannot feel them.
And when it comes to creativity, storytelling, and innovation — that distinction definitely matters.
A huge shout out to the TNF team for continuing to champion deep qualitative work, lived experience, and human-led understanding in a world increasingly optimized for speed.
And to be clear, our perspective isn’t anti-AI. Far from it.
We believe the future belongs to teams who know when to accelerate with this technology — and perhaps even more importantly — when to slow down enough to stay deeply human.
If you’re interested in exploring this tension further, check out an earlier piece we wrote on AI and the future of human-centered insight back in 2023 — or better yet, let’s grab a matcha and chat about it.
Supporting Innovation with On in Atlanta
While Mike and I were in Nepal, Anton, Jamie, and Khloe were on the ground in Atlanta supporting the innovation team at On as they explored a new running concept with athletes in the field.
The work combined blind fit testing, real-world running sessions, biomechanical testing, and athlete immersion to understand how the concept actually performed beyond first impressions — especially in the heart of the US market and culture.
As always, the goal wasn’t simply feedback.
It was understanding the real moments of truth:
First reactions
First fit
First run
The deeper emotional response in comparison to the biomechanical differences
The gap between performance claims and the actual lived experience
The best innovation work rarely happens in isolation.
It happens when brands step directly into the environments, conversations, and realities of the people they’re building for.
Shout out to the always inspiring innovation team at On for their ongoing humility to keep immersing and learning — and that spark to keep creating and dreaming.
The Best Ideas Often Come From Outside the Room
That same belief also sat at the center of a recent embedded 6-month innovation incubator we partnered on with Laceless and New Balance.
The goal wasn’t just to create new concepts.
It was to rethink who gets invited into the innovation process altogether.
Over six months, we brought together athletes deeply rooted in the culture of sport alongside street artists, textile designers, mechanical engineers, filmmakers, architects, and makers from completely different industries.
People who would rarely — if ever — find themselves inside the same innovation room.
And that was the point.
Instead of operating through a traditional agency model, we built an embedded incubator-style team directly alongside the brand.
Athletes sat beside engineers.
Filmmakers brainstormed with footwear designers.
Architects built on the thinking of performance creatives.
Everyone shaping the process together in real time.
The sprint moved from deep cultural and athlete insight into ideation, co-creation workshops, and eventually physical prototypes and wear-testable builds.
What emerged wasn’t just new product thinking.
It was a different way of innovating.
One grounded in culture.
Built through collaboration.
And shaped by people closer to the edge of sport, creativity, and making.
At COMN, we believe the future of sport innovation won’t come from staying inside the same rooms with the same people.
It comes from embedding deeper into culture.
Inviting unexpected voices into the process.
And building alongside the people shaping the future of sport in real time.
Massive shout out to our friends at New Balance for championing this new approach — and we can’t wait to keep building this with you.
If you’re a sport brand exploring new ways of innovating, building closer to culture, or bringing more unexpected voices into the room — let’s talk.
