Nike Sportswear 21 Mercer Street Store in Soho, New York
by Staff, August 18, 2008
Nike Dunk Hi
For Fall 08 Nike looks to Beijing for design inspiration, building a collection anchored around colors – while referencing the octagon that is central to the theme of the Fall 08 Nike Sportswear collection.
Continuing the mission of pushing color innovations of the Nike Dunk for Fall 08, designers literally used the classic hi-top as a canvas upon which to experiment with digitally printed graphics. Canvas was the original material used in the uppers of basketball shoes at the inception of the sport, but the Canvas Nike Dunk is a different beast all together. Made from one piece of material, it provides a seamless backdrop for experimentation.
The concept for the graphics on this Nike Dunk is inspired by sports optics research done by an engineer named Chiro Fusco in the Innovation Kitchen. His studies found that the arrangement of shapes and colors on a garment like the Nike Swift speedskating suit can create the illusion of speed, a characteristic that adds psychological benefits during competition.
For this Nike Dunk, a tightly knit pattern of tiny colored octagons—the graphic motif Nike has chosen for Beijing—is digitally printed on the canvas in a trompe l’oeil fashion, fooling the eye into seeing the iconic blocking of the original Nike Dunk shoes. The optical effect of these “octadots” makes the shoe appear blurred or farther away by creating the illusion of it being out of focus.
Air Max 90 Flywire by Nike Sportswear
Taking the concept of lightweight innovation to the highest level possible, the Air Max 90 Flywire is a cutting-edge version of the iconic Air Max that puts a premium on reduced weight in the upper. Built on the same retooled platform as the Air Max Current, the Air Max 90 Flywire fuses technology developed for Nike’s highest performance track shoe, the Zoom Victory Spike, into the design.
A material that is paper-thin, yet extremely supportive through high-strength thread overlays, Flywire is a revolutionary development that is on its way to becoming one of Nike’s most groundbreaking innovations. By stripping down upper materials to a bare minimum, only adding cables where needed for support, footwear like the Nike Hyperdunk basketball sneaker is becoming lighter than ever previously imagined without compromising durability, integrity or support.
For the Air Max 90 Flywire, this means that the upper has achieved one-piece construction with sock-like comfort at a weight that could not have been conceived of two decades ago. “At Nike we have a fascination with one-piece uppers,” says Nike Sportswear Design Director Jesse Leyva. “We’ve done one-piece Air Force 1 and Nike Dunk shoes, but we always wanted to add more stability. Flywire finally allows us to design a high-performance shoe with one piece of material against the foot. This innovation not only adds comfort by removing anything that could cause a hotspot in the shoe, but also drastically reduces weight.”
With a backing material made from sheer black mesh and Flywire cables spanning the upper in bright blue, this minimalist version of the Air Max 90 Flywire could easily have been reduced to a mere shadow of the shoe built by Tinker Hatfield in 1990, but somehow it still maintains its timeless silhouette. “We stayed focused,” says Jesse, “and held the highest respect for the iconic design lines of the original Air Max 90 we know and love.”
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