‘Nike: Type Follows Movement’ surveys 50 years of the Swoosh’s era-defining design

Roughly 48 hours after British athlete Keely Hodgkinson secured her first Olympic victory, within the girls’s 800m closing at Paris 2024, Nike was already celebrating in full bloom at its London flagship retailer, Nike City, on buzzy Oxford Avenue. I witnessed it firsthand: a glass vitrine paraded a duplicate of Hodgkinson’s successful sneaker (signed by herself), full with the time stamp of her gold-worthy race and an aerial shot of the end line – let’s not neglect the sprawling pink and black LED display column reminding us that ‘all-time greats don’t cease at gold’.

Are we even shocked? In fact not. Nike is each the grasp and scholar in the case of its unrelenting encouragement to ‘Simply do it’. Over the previous 50 years, the sportswear large’s evolutionary and revolutionary artistic telescope rests in a easy reality: ‘to ask everyone – and each physique – to expertise sport for themselves’. For the grassroots startup turned world phenomenon (valued at just below 30 billion USD as of 2024), if in case you have a physique, then you definately’re an athlete, and it’s by way of an unwavering dedication to design that the model embraces the countless pursuit of athletic betterment in all its types; no garment or sneaker comes out from pure intuition.

From the battered Air Pressure 1 kicks most youngsters put on to high school to the Nike Zoom Victory 2 silhouette through which Hodgkinson received Olympic gold, each Nike product arises from years of ‘tinkering, adjusting, testing and refining’. As cited within the firm’s 2023 design manifesto, No End Line: ‘Every successive product charts a brand new level on a endless journey ahead.’ This was the ethos its co-founder and College of Oregon monitor coach Invoice Bowerman pushed ahead from the early days – he notably developed the label’s fabled Waffle sole utilizing a kitchen iron at residence.

Tour ‘Nike: Type Follows Movement’ on the Vitra Design Museum

Throughout know-how, efficiency, sports activities and popular culture, Nike’s presence is so ubiquitous that the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, internet hosting the primary main exhibition devoted to the American behemoth might come as a shock. Mateo Kries, director of the Vitra Design Museum, tells Wallpaper*: ‘It’s a basic phenomenon that design matters have taken very lengthy to enter the museum world. Through the previous decade, there have been main exhibitions about some main trend homes, however to make an exhibition a few model like Nike is one more stage. The model’s design archive is an unimaginable treasure trove; we have been fortunate to return throughout it.’

‘Nike: Type Follows Movement’ traces 5 many years of the model’s tradition of design and innovation by means of the lens of athletes, designers, scientists and the broader group, with examples sourced from the Nike Design Archive (DNA), which consists of over 200,000 samples. As Kries emphasises: ‘There may be not such a giant distinction between Nasa engineer Frank Rudy, who developed the unique Air know-how for greater than a decade, and an athlete carrying Nike: each are pursuing a dream with nice power and willpower.’ In fact, the query of what makes Nike Nike doesn’t have an easy reply, which is why the exhibition follows 4 chronological sections. The primary, ‘Monitor’, delves into the model archive’s earliest holdings: from hands-on advertising and marketing campaigns to early-day tales.

It was 1972 when American graphic designer Carolyn Davidson developed the Swoosh for Nike’s co-founders Phil Knight and Bowerman – immediately, probably the most recognisable logos on the planet. Kries smiles at the concept that the emblem itself might be the subject of an entire new exhibition: ‘It is without doubt one of the first logos that’s purely summary, which suggests not derived from any phrase or any figurative picture (like an apple).’ A paragon of design perfection, the 2 overlaid curves with a sublime tip exhibiting upwards elegantly categorical the concept of pace and motion. ‘It’s also exceptional that the emblem has remained unchanged over a number of many years, which is uncommon in our world of accelerated tendencies and pictures.’

Glenn Adamson, curator of the exhibition and curator-at-large on the Vitra Design Museum, recounts a narrative from Nike’s early days: the Tennessee State Tigerbelles, a record-breaking relay crew from a traditionally Black college that Nike endorsed within the Nineteen Seventies: ‘The 4 runners – Deborah Jones, Brenda Morehead, Chandra Cheeseborough and Ernestine Davis – set a world file within the indoor 880 relay in 1978; this was an emblematic second within the Civil Rights period and a precursor to the better-known relationships that Nike would develop with Black athletes within the Nineteen Eighties and later.’

From its beginnings within the track-and-field scene, the corporate advanced right into a nationwide and, finally, world powerhouse. The exhibition’s second chapter, ‘Air’, highlights the transformative Nineteen Eighties when Nike actually took flight, propelled by strategic sponsorships of athletes throughout numerous sports activities. A pivotal second got here in 1984 with the launch of the primary Air Jordan shoe, created for rookie Michael Jordan throughout his time with the Chicago Bulls, marking Nike’s entry into the basketball area. This success paved the best way for growth into different classes like tennis, world soccer and skateboarding. The legendary Air Max 1 – for which in-house designer Tinker Hatfield acquired inspiration from Paris’ Centre Pompidou – additionally emerged throughout this period, ushering in a brand new chapter within the firm’s design legacy.

The third house, ‘Sensation’, delves into the analysis and growth that shapes Nike’s design tradition, highlighting the Nike Sport Analysis Lab in Beaverton, Oregon. Based in 1980, this facility is among the many largest and most superior on the planet for finding out human motion, with lots of its findings immediately influencing the merchandise we see on cabinets. Adamson explains, ‘There, it’s not simply in regards to the really feel of the supplies or construction –although that’s actually vital – but in addition how a shoe or garment responds to athletes of various physique sorts, talent ranges and wishes.’ The exhibition seems at examples, such because the Alphafly sequence, engineered to interrupt the two-hour marathon barrier, a feat in the end achieved by Eliud Kipchoge, or the method behind sneakers tailor-made for elite athletes like LeBron James, exemplifying a extremely detailed ergonomic method to design growth.

Nike’s design for sustainability can be touched upon, an integral part of the Swoosh’s artistic course of for the reason that early 2000s. A subject usually scrutinised, Kries notes the ambition for the exhibition was to offer clear examples of inexperienced initiatives and innovations at Nike: ‘We current details and examples to reveal the intense analysis and work behind Nike. In the end, it’s as much as the viewers to resolve.’ This method permits guests to discover the model’s composite materials, Grind, made out of the soles of previous sneakers, and uncover Flyknit know-how, a digital knitting methodology that considerably reduces waste throughout manufacturing – most notably seen within the ISPA Hyperlink Axis silhouette.

The ultimate chapter, ‘Relation’, acts as a becoming coda that encapsulates the essence of the Nike universe: exploring collaborations with a various array of exterior designers (assume Marc Newson, Comme des Garçons and Virgil Abloh), athletes, musicians and different community-based initiatives that mirror the model’s influential function in each widespread and counter cultures. Reflecting on pivotal moments, Adamson recollects when American soccer participant Brandi Chastain unveiled a Nike-developed sports activities bra throughout her 1999 championship celebration: ‘This was an encouragement for a lot of girls to request sports activities tools tailored to their particular wants.’

For the sneakerheads desirous to discover footwear rarities up shut, Adamson guarantees two sections positive to captivate, together with a prototype of the aforementioned Bowerman’s Waffle coach. ‘These objects not often depart the Nike campus, if ever, so having them within the exhibition is such an thrilling alternative.’ It’s the ultimate room that heralds some never-before-seen highlights, comparable to a particular never-released version Air Pressure 1 designed to accompany American rapper Nelly’s 2002 album ‘Nellyville’; a 2018 Air Span created as a tribute to British blogger Gary Warnett (with solely 40 pairs made); and sneakers made again in 1982 for Elton John and Donna Summer time.

‘Nike: Type Follows Movement’ will likely be on show on the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany till 4 Might 2025, and it’s set to journey to different worldwide museums sooner or later. For extra data, go to design-museum.de