The Nature of Motion was Nike’s first project at Milan Design Week, held at Via Orobia 15 from April 12 to 17, 2016. Ten designers, including Max Lamb, Greg Lynn, Lindsey Adelman, Bertjan Pot, and Martino Gamper, made works on the theme of natural motion, set between white walls built from Nike shoeboxes. We made it internally, Nike Brand Design EMEA with Nike Design, and Nike Brand Design briefed and creative directed the outside agencies.
Why it looks like this
The brief. Nike’s vice president of global design, John Hoke, told Wallpaper the brief to the designers was to “explore and abstract, and question and challenge the notion of mobility, motion and movement,” and that the show focused on collaboration, sports innovation, and imagination.
Walls of shoeboxes. Wallpaper reported that the installations were separated by sweeping white walls built by hand from Nike shoebox “bricks.” Hoke estimated the count at between 20,000 and 25,000 boxes. Fortune reported that planning took almost two years.
Backward, then forward. Dezeen reported that Nike’s in-house team created the three final spaces. Hoke described the route as moving from “the look backward to the look forward,” with the final section given to some of Nike’s past innovations.
It’s all about letting your dream of design overtake your logic of design.
John Hoke, vice president of global design, Nike, source
Press and sources
- Dezeen: Nike installations in Milan focus on different types of motion
- Wallpaper: Form and function: W* discusses ‘The Nature of Motion’ with Nike’s John Hoke
- Fortune: Nike’s Design Head: ‘The Goal Is Goose Bumps’
- It’s Nice That: Flyknit drums and a microclimate chair feature in Nike’s Milan show, The Nature of Motion