“We were setting out to create a seamless extension of your body.”- Eric Avar
Where does the body end and the shoe begin? The Nike Air Flightposite succeeded in surprising the audience with a progressive dose of unfamiliarity that felt comfortable and strangely familiar. Its sleek, biomechanical shape communicated a certain level of humanity. Concept cars and the figure drawings of a 17th-century British artist reflected the rich range of physical and engineered influences at work during the design stage. In the quest for biomechanic streamlining, even laces were replaced by a zipper to emphasize a seamless fluidity. The wearer, the shoe and even the sole all merged into one for a holistic look and feel like never before. In the years that followed, the Foam and Flightposite systems would be explored further — proof of the restless, perfectionist, reductionist minds operating in the Nike Innovation Kitchen.
“The objective was for the technology itself to be the focal point — let it be the hero.”- Eric Avar
Sometimes imagination can be tethered by manufacturing limitation. Nike Shox was already a 20-year-old concept at the time of the Nike Shox BB4’s release. The idea was too ahead of the curve, necessitating foam that hadn’t been invented yet. It resurfaced at the tail end of the 1990s, piquing the interest of Eric Avar and the team as a visually expressive technology with a significant performance value. The Nike Shox BB4’s look was informed by its space age concept: a rocket and booster-like appearance was prepped for blastoff and served to amplify the explosive potential of the columns. With the creative team at mission control researching astronaut uniforms, the upper was designed for intergalactic exploration too. Showcased in Sydney that summer, Vince Carter’s iconic dunk of death over a seven-footer while wearing a pair secured his legendary status and drove home the power of the Nike Shox system. Off he went into the stadium atmosphere and we had liftoff. You can’t synthesize that kind of moment, but maybe, just maybe, those columns gave him the confidence to pull off the ultimate “posterized” dunk.
“So if Bill Bowerman was designing a basketball shoe, what would he do?”- Eric Avar
The Nike Air Hyperflight might look defiantly futuristic, but it’s actually rooted in Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman’s tireless quest for less. Inspired by a memorial tribute to Bowerman, lead designer Eric Avar contemplated how Bill would design a basketball shoe. What emerged from his thoughts was an idea for a track spike silhouette for the court. The answer to “What would he do?” became obvious. Avar stripped everything down, with the Nike Air Hyperflight’s traditional approach to creating the unconventional becoming a fitting tribute to a legend and a performance classic. This design’s colors would also redefine the presentation of the basketball shoe forever, paving the way for an impending colorway assault.
“We will design you the most comfortable basketball shoe you have ever worn.”- Aaron Cooper
How do you go about equipping a warrior for court warfare and building a lasting relationship between a brand and athlete? The Nike Zoom Generation epitomizes Nike’s hunger for athletic insights and the start of a relationship with a young phenomenon named LeBron James. LeBron requested comfort as a priority and lead designer Aaron Cooper pledged, “We will design you the most comfortable basketball shoe you have ever worn.” This was a player who transcended Force, Flight or Uptempo and talk with the team singled out the idea of LeBron as a modern soldier. That led to a unique field boot styling and, in the quest for ultimate comfort, a soft foam was developed to form around the foot. In addition, a full-length Zoom Air, double stacked at the heel, was honed to perfection. On being handed the Zoom Generation in his size by Aaron, “LeBron put them on, jumped up about four to five times, stopped and said, ‘These are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn’.” Mission accomplished.
