Nike Sportswear 21 Mercer Street Store in Soho, New York
by Staff, August 18, 2008
Flywire Windrunner by Nike Sportswear
Considered the signature piece, the Flywire Windrunner jacket is a true remix of past, present and future innovations. It features gossamer-thin Japanese nylon, single layer ribbing on the wrists and waist, a digitally printed chevron (versus adding a seam), and of course a network of Flywire cables across the shoulders that adds strength and a distinctive graphic element to the piece. The Flywire is arranged in a pattern of four Flywire threads on the right and left chest, four lines on each shoulder, and two sets of four lines on the back, representing 080808, the opening day in Beijing this summer.
“Our goal was to make the lightest Windrunner ever and Flywire is ground zero innovation for weight reduction,” said Nike Sportswear Design Director Jarret Reynolds. The Flywire Windrunner jacket’s weight has been shaved down to a mere 116 grams—less than half the weight of then next lightest Windrunner. This is a jacket that is not only physically light, but also visibly light—an almost transparent garment.
21 Mercer Nike LunaRacer
Nike Sportswear is dedicated to performance footwear and apparel icons such as the Air Force 1 and the Windrunner jacket. But with innovation as Nike Sportswear’s one true constant the Sportswear line also allows for future designs to be brought into the mix. Joining the ever-evolving Nike Sportswear line is the Nike LunaRacer – Nike’s latest performance innovation in distance running—which makes its debut at 21 Mercer in five limited edition color ways.
The Nike LunaRacer represents the future in Nike’s design DNA. Brought to life in Nike’s Innovation Kitchen, the Nike LunaRacer is as much a revolution in running as it is a race day performance running shoe. The Nike LunaRacer brings together two technologies – Flywire and Lunarlite foam – designed for the best athletes in Beijing and beyond, creating a distance running shoe that is lighter, stronger, and faster than anything Nike has previously created in the distance running category.
Flywire technology, located throughout the Nike LunaRacer shoe’s upper, works like cables on a suspension bridge, providing precisely engineered support for the foot. The Flywire filaments are placed only where support is required, allowing for the reduction of materials, which equals reduction of weight. Flywire technology gained instant notoriety on the track via the Zoom Victory Spike worn by previous team USA middle distance runners, both medaled at the 2007 World Track & Field Championships in Osaka. Thanks to this innovation, track spikes with Flywire are now under 100g – a weight never before achieved by Nike – without compromising durability, integrity or support.
To add to the Nike LunaRacer shoe’s lightweight Flywire upper the Nike Innovation Kitchen developed Lunarlite foam, both lightweight and highly responsive, two qualities, which are usually mutually exclusive in cushioning. Lunarlite foam distributes the pressure patterns more evenly across the foot to help protect it from pain and injury – all-important for distance events. Lunarlite foam’s pillow-like softness is designed to reduce energy in the midsole. The Nike LunaRacer weighs a mere 5.5 ounces, and elite athletes who’ve experienced Lunarlite foam cushioning are reporting that after their long runs, they feel less beat up – a good sign for the blazing temperatures and speeds of the marathon in Beijing.
21 Mercer NSW Collection M-65 by Nike Sportswear
Nike Sportswear takes the greatest of Nike’s 36-year-old sports heritage and adds the latest design and technical innovations, resulting in a range of products that are instantly recognizable as Nike icons, but updated to the highest levels of performance and style. Within the Nike Sportswear line the pinnacle NSW collection, the apex of what Nike Sportswear represents: product steeped in sports but pushed to the cutting edge of engineering, craftsmanship, and modern design.
What happens when you give designers access to the greatest sports innovations, past and present, and allow them free rein to remix iconic designs with the groundbreaking new technology? Imaginations run wild. Products born under the NSW label blend high-tech and high-style in ways that venture into the realm of the sublime.
The M-65 jacket is a true classic of military design. Updated and re-imagined as part of the NSW collection, it is produced from a highly functional three layer laminate waterproof breathable nylon. Built entirely from patchwork squares, constructed using ultrasonic welding/taped back construction where no stitch is used to form the patchwork (very minimal stitching is used in other parts of the garment), every Patchwork M65 jacket is unique— each having randomly placed patchwork layouts.
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