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NIKE

SWOOSH STORIES

IMMERSIVE NIKE WORKPLACE EXPERIENCES INSPIRE, EDUCATE AND INVITE EMPLOYEES FROM AROUND THE GLOBE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE BRAND’S VISION OF SERVING ATHLETES.

Engaging the teams that fuel a brand as it delivers on its mission is critical to maintaining a focused organization. When you’re an iconic global brand with a vision to serve every athlete*, it’s an absolute must. The rich history of the Nike brand and its unwavering tradition of innovation to achieve that goal at every level are the basis for stories all employees, at any level, benefit from understanding. Those core ideas inform every decision they make, give them license to take risk, and guide their own drive to innovate. Our environmental teams take the Nike historical foundations and put it through the lens of a future vision to ground the contemporary expressions in the brand’s DNA— making the experiential narrative both informative and inspiring to the teams that are charged with creating the next generation of stories.

The mix of iconic brand content and a modern design approach is intended to constantly challenge the perception of the brand while leveraging the equity in the familiar product and brand stories that provide so much equity. To build on such a well known past with a clear expectation to evolve and innovate is a challenge that our team believes makes the Nike workplaces so dynamic, but more importantly purposeful. With over 70 global Nike spaces executed to date, our environmental teams are continually searching for new ways to tell the Nike story and, like our Swoosh partners, believe There is No Finish Line to what’s possible.

The Lui Xiang monolith sculpture in Nike’s Shanghai HQ conference center is an example of how stories told through artful moments can make a monumental statement that clearly establishes the tone of the brand while artfully inviting the Nike teams to find their greatness. The sculpture is made up of 3000 black anodized hurdles, each carrying an engraved thousandth of a second timestamp embodying the fractions of a second within the 100 meter hurdles—the event of one of China’s greatest track and field athletes and the buildings namesake.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

As users walk up the staircase that surrounds the sculpture, they get an intimate look at the focus and precision it takes within each fractions of a second to make a great athlete a champion on the biggest stages.

Conceptual art amplifies key brand-defining moments less overtly, yet are critical in setting a tone that delivers core brand ideas. These highly visual moments of statement-level storytelling give teams an ownable element that defines their space.

UNEXPECTED ENGAGEMENT

SPORT MOMENTS

Brand elements are turned into conceptual art that amplifies products or core brand ideas. These highly visual moments deliver statement-level storytelling, give teams an ownable element that defines their space and provides grounding way finding beacons.

ENTERTAINING

WITH DEPTH

ARTIST MURALS

As teams familiarize themselves with their space over long periods of time, discovery elements act as a compliment to the more overt content. Employees happen upon a perviously unseen aspect of a piece and gain new insight that deepens their personal interpretation of the brand.

DISCOVERY OVER TIME

DESIGN DETAILS

REINTERPRETATION
ICONS

The equity of foundational brand elements are used to connect spaces across the globe through universal stories. Those iconic elements become hyper-relevant when deconstructed and reimagined with a local spin to embody each teams focus and function.

THE ART OF INNOVATION

AIR MAX

With the advent of AIR, nike transformed the footwear world. Decades after the first AIR Max made the technology visible, the brand continues to reinvent the use of it’s most iconic cushioning technology. Showcasing that ongoing innovation is a clear invitation for current teams to keep pushing the possibilities and improve the way the brand can serve the needs of athletes*. The use of current airbags used within the wide breath of AIR Max products are used to create the wings of the brand’s namesake, Nike (Goddess of Victory), and the embodiment of the product experience. The result is an artful moment that has become an informative photo op for employees and visitors alike.

EMBEDDED DNA

THE POWER OF THE WAFFLE

As the first ownable innovation of the brand developed by Nike Co-Founder Bill Bowerman, the waffle outsole has become on of the most enduring product stories and transcendent visual icons for the brand. The message of seeing the world in unique ways to find innovations is naturally embedded and easily understood in the highlyvisual storytelling vehicle. Because the brand continues to employ the waffle in many forms and in a huge number of products, what could be viewed as archival is instead given the ability to seamlessly connect the past to the future vision as a natural symbol of technological progression. While the waffle remains ubiquitous, the Nike spirit of innovation dictates that we never let it become a stagnant symbol of the past, but rather an active ongoing challenge to redefine the future.

BUILDING COMMUNITIES

Each environment factors in the local user group and their function, culture or vision to drive the stories told within the space as well as how that concept will be brought to life in ways that are meaningful for those teams. In one of Nike’s largest distribution centers, the grass roots story of shoes being sold out of Geoff Hollister’s VW van at track meets becomes the basis for the transition between the employee, or Athlete, locker room and the work floor.

In Seoul, South Korea, the environment’s primary gathering area recognizes the city itself as one of the primary stories. Dubbed the market with the “fastest response to culture”, the iconic neon elements emblematic of the cities high-speed futuristic vibes are brought indoors to deliver both brand heritage and future vision stories blurring the lines between the Nike space and the city—A reminder to employees that being in-tune with the ever-changing culture of Seoul is critical to continuing the brand’s success in the region.

FEATURES WITH FOCUS

Entry moments create the most impactful opportunity to make a statement about who the Nike is and how they see the world. Taking that moment to go beyond identifying the space, we use artful installations as multilayered storytelling vehicles to create focus with depth.

FEATURES WITH FOCUS

Entry moments create the most impactful opportunity to make a statement about who the Nike is and how they see the world. Taking that moment to go beyond identifying the space, we use artful installations as multilayered storytelling vehicles to create focus with depth.

With the nail as a metaphor for how far can an idea be pushed is used to deliver the contemporary tagline “Find Your Greatness”—a now iconic marketing moment for the brand that shifted the possibility of sport from the elite athlete to the everyday athlete and continuing to drive to deliver on the Nike mission of “If You Have a Body, You’re an Athlete”.

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