Nike Sportswear 2010 Spring Air Max BW Gen II

Within its 2010 spring footwear range, Nike Sportswear will re-introduce one of its well-known classic running shoes the Air Max BW under a new guise. Keeping true to the Nike Sportswear design philosophy, aesthetics and performance are joined together as the Air Max BW Gen II features an all new material known as Torch. The lightweight, moisture-management fabric will not only be seen in the Air Max BW Gen II but also other Nike Sportswear icons such as the Air Maxim 1 and Air Force 1.

Since its inception, Nike Sportswear has made a virtue of the ethos of evolution, crafting iconic products with innovative materials and defining designs. Nike Sportswear pushes the invisible wall between where the athlete stops playing and starts living.

Richard Clarke, Nike Sportswear’s Global Creative Director, believes that this blurring of boundaries is a logical development of style-savvy athletes embracing the notion that they shouldn’t have to sacrifice personal expression to participate in sport. Yet he notes that Nike’s life-long focus on performance and innovation is the key to creating new expressions of style. “If Nike hadn’t focused on innovation from the beginning, and continued to do so, we wouldn’t continue to drive a style proposition.”

The Spring/Summer 2010 product fuses innovation and sport heritage to enable Nike Sportswear to create new expressions of sport style.

FOOTWEAR

TORCH – LIGHTWEIGHT AND BREATHABLE INNOVATION ENABLES NEW SHAPE AND NEW FORM

In preparation for a summer of football, the Nike Sportswear footwear design team joined forces with Nike Football to explore the needs of some of the world’s greatest footballers when they leave the field of play. Focused on solving the needs of the athletes, the result is a technical solution called Torch

TORCH AND AIR MAX BW GEN II

At Nike, innovation is a process of creating new spaces in which to address athletes’ needs and improve their performance. When considering how Nike Sportswear could enhance the post-match experience for athletes, the footwear design team adopted a cut-the-weight, lose-the-bulk mindset gleaned from performance football boot design to arrive at a new technical innovation—Torch. . Torch is a lightweight, moisture-managing, supremely comfortable three-layer textile. The outer layer features a visually stunning, protective diamond pattern that holds its shape and won’t crease at stress points like traditional materials. The middle layer offers a lightweight structural element that stands up to a post-match cool-down or an active day around town. The inner layer provides moisture-managing breathability to keep the foot cool and allow for a period of rest after a game.

Torch has also been integrated into several classic Nike silhouettes for Spring/Summer 2010. The Air Max BW Gen II, Air Force 1 and Air Maxim 1 all get the Torch treatment, as well as technical enhancements such as welded uppers and natural motion soles. The Air Max BW Gen II was originally introduced in 1991 and has been a cult favorite of runners and sneakerheads ever since.

What may not be apparent upon first view of the Air Max BW Gen II is the Nike Considered design principle of its construction. Based on the idea of modularity, the Torch Air Max has been developed so that numerous mid-sole models from the Air Max family can easily be integrated into the production line, eliminating waste and inefficiency.