NIKE
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Find Your Greatness wall uses 60,000 ten penny nails to deliver a bold moment that is simultaneously contemporary and heritage as team members transition into the secure office spaces of the building. The story of Bill Bowerman endless pursuit of eliminating weight from his runners shoes goes to the extreme when he was asked what his ideal shoe would be. “I’d drive a ten penny nail through their foot if they’d let me”, was his response.
The Find Your Greatness wall uses 60,000 ten penny nails to deliver a bold moment that is simultaneously contemporary and heritage as team members transition into the secure office spaces of the building. The story of Bill Bowerman endless pursuit of eliminating weight from his runners shoes goes to the extreme when he was asked what his ideal shoe would be. “I’d drive a ten penny nail through their foot if they’d let me”, was his response.
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”.