Major Nike Exhibition Opens at the Vitra Design Museum
“Nike: Form Follows Motion” tracks decades of design history, and marks the brand’s first ever museum show.
Nike has officially touched down at the Vitra Design Museum. In a much-anticipated exhibition curated by Glenn Adamson, visitors to “Nike: Form Follows Motion” will be able to get under the skin of the brand’s design history.
Titled “Nike: Form Follows Motion”, the Weil am Rhein museum has been decked out with colorful scenography by London-based studio JA Projects, which – according to Adamson – is designed to “emulate the precision and flair of Nike while also integrating vectors of athletic performance”.
Throughout the Frank Gehry-designed building, exhibits sourced from the Department of Nike Archives (DNA – the company’s internal archive) are on show – many of which haven’t been publicly displayed until now.
Each is sorted into one of four chronological sections. The first, Track, looks at the beginnings of the company and the establishment of key brand value: “always listen to the voice of the athlete”. Here, stories relating to the brand’s very earliest days are told – including that of the development of the Waffle Sole, which took place in Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman’s kitchen.
Secondly, there is Air, which is dedicated to the 1980s – a time at which Nike achieved global success through endorsements from star athletes like Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, and LeBron James.
Thirdly, visitors are taken into the heart of the Nike Sport Research Lab in the Sensation section, where the brand’s innovations and technological advances are explained.
The show culminates in Room 4, where external collaboration is the key focus. From external designers to athletes and the public – the brand’s influence across culture is expertly distilled. “By looking at Nike’s design
strategies, we gain insights into that bigger cultural picture,” Adamson says.
To accompany the exhibition, a catalogue – also titled Nike: Form Follows Motion – has been published, with graphic design by Daniel Streat of Visual Fields, interviews alongside Nike designers, and essays by the likes of Ligaya Salazar, Matero Kries, and Jared Dalcourt. “We tried here to provide an objective account of Nike’s design culture over a six decade span, using the company as a case study of design’s intersection with sport, technology and popular culture,” Adamson says.
Nike: Form Follows Motion is on show at the Vitra Design Museum until 4 May 2025.
Photography: Bernard Strauss
