For the first time ever Nike with its rich history as an iconic sports brand will have a dedicated museum exhibition already this September. Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, will highlight Nike’s story of creation and its phenomenal transformation over the past five decades into a giant powerhouse in its upcoming “Nike: Form Follows Motion” exhibition. The main focus will be on the company’s design history, the creation of the prominent “swoosh” logo, that set Nike apart from its competitors, and will spotlight such popular products as Air Max and Flyknit and their creation processes.
The exhibition curated by Glenn Adamson will explore the ongoing research of Nike to create sustainable products in the future, which is a detrimental factor considering Nike’s influence on the trends not only in fashion but in pop culture as well. It will highlight the company’s celebrated technological innovations, which changed the perception of sneakers being merely a type of shoes to wear and raised a new generation of street fashion enthusiasts.
For the first time a curated selection from the Department of Nike Archives (DNA), which is home to over 200,000 Nike items, will be on a public display. It will include such rare and one-off pieces as the Waffle Trainer, the Air Force One, and Shox.
Structured in four chronological sections, the exhibition will incorporate the oldest archive’s items in the “Track” section; its momentum of gaining more popularity in the 80s in the “Air” section; research and development processes in the third section named “Sensation”; and finally, will present Nike’s celebrated collaborations with external designers and athletes in the final section.
The exhibition will pay tribute to such creative geniuses as Diane Katz, Tinker Hatfield, and Eric Avar, and famous collaborators like Marc Newson, Comme des Garçons, and Virgil Abloh, who shaped the world of sneaker culture we’ve come to know and love today.
As Nike’s success is partly owed to its triumphant collaborations with such renowned American athletes as Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, and LeBron James, it also will be represented in the exhibition. With the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games ending recently, it is also an opportunity for visitors to view how design innovation shaped the sports scene and ignited a social change that goes beyond the influence of social media only.
Those who are interested in more than the nooks and crannies of the street style, and are more consumed with the technical innovations that the fashion powerhouse is known for will get a chance to look into such creations as the Nike Air sole in the Nike Air series with Air Max leading the shoe revolution in 1987. Here you will learn how the development process went and will get to see the air bag prototypes and a testing machine developed by engineer Frank Rudy, who initially created the technology and introduced it to Nike.
Finally, visitors will get a unique chance to delve into the workings of the Nike Sport Research Lab, one of the world’s largest and most advanced facilities for studying the body in motion. It is thanks to this Research Lab that we have such leading sneakers as the Nike Free, designed to replicate the sensation of running barefoot, and the Vaporfly, created as part of an initiative to break the two-hour marathon barrier. These iconic models continuously improve the workout experience for millions across the globe to this day.
One of the current projects of the Research Lab that will be presented at the exhibition is the ongoing effort of the company to reduce its climate impact and implement more ethical material sourcing and circular manufacturing techniques, such as plastic recycling in Nike Grind, a granulate made from recycled materials. All of this will be compared to the initial efforts of the brand in the early 2000s with its early recycling projects.
Don’t miss out on this unique chance to learn unique facts about Nike’s history and projects aimed at shaping the future of footwear and athleisure at the Vitra Design Museum. The Exhibition will be held at Vitra Design Museum between September 21, 2024 and May 4, 2025. As for those who won’t be able to visit the museum, the exhibition will also travel with visits to other international museums, so stay tuned for more.
