Design+Creative Direction
From 2007-2009 I was the Design Director for NIke's $1.2 billion Running footwear business. At that time there was a lot of unnecessary decoration on running shoes. I was (and still am) convinced that simple design is better, so I directed my team to strip away the unnecessary stuff prevalent on most running shoes. We obsessively reduced weight, improved flexiblity & introduced adaptive foot stability features like Dynamic Support. We pioneered seamless construction techniques to improve comfort & product consistency. This obsession with performance helped create a simpler aesthetic, which attracted runners of all types. By 2010 we had launched a handful of industry-changing innovations. We’d also reduced the product line by over 60% & increased revenue by 40% to about $1.2 billion dollars, despite a global economic meltdown. This is a selection of products that illustrates my creative direction and also some 'greatest hits'.
In early 2007 I became the Design Director for Nike Running footwear. My initial goals were to rationalize + simplify running shoe design & create less restrictive, more comfortable shoes. This design was a first attempt at that. I focussed on making it lightweight & flexible to encourage the natural movements of the foot. New seam-less construction techniques were employed to increase comfort & product consistency.
The Free Everyday featured in a decent article about footwear design in New York Magazine . More importantly, it served as a quiet catalyst to modernize running shoes at Nike. It opened the doors for a number of game changing products from 2008-2010 (below).
In 2007 Nike bag designer Thomas Bell showed me his first attempts at footwear design. In his rough prototypes I could see potential. So, over the next year I mentored Thomas. Luckily he is very talented so it was really fun. His little experiment eventually became the Nike Free 5.0... although it took an incredible amount of collaboration & energy to make it come to life. We focused on modern, automated shoemaking which improved product consistency & fit. We spent long days in Asia helping the manufacturer build the shoes; adjusting machinery & even creating videos to convey process. I met with factory managers & explained the importance of our new automated-construction techniques.
The hard work payed off. The Free 5.0 revived an almost-dead franchise. 500,000 pair orders started flowing in. A year later nearly 2 million pair were sold. Sell-through in Asia was a staggering 42%. In 2009 we won the Spark! International Design Award. Quietly, we had another victory. The seam-less construction techniques we employed ushered a new wave of modern shoemaking.
The Nike Pegasus is a very important product for Nike: It's the longest 'continually for sale' NIke product. For it’s 25th anniversary I convinced the team to do something special: To simultaneously renew the Pegasus & pay tribute to the original. I teamed up with graphic designer Craig Conahan & we created a modern version of original Pegasus. We introduced new seamless construction techniques to improve comfort, product consistency & fit. One of the goals of this product was to influence our extended team - to encourage them to employ new shoemaking methods & simplify aesthetics. It was a small but influential project & Craig got to co-design his first shoe.
We also created a special edition gift ‘box set’ that we gave to our most loyal & influential business partners. I organized for one of the boxes to be auctioned by Sole Collector Magazine (thanks fellas!). We got over 1400 dollars for that pair of shoes. The money went to a great charity New Avenues For Youth. Nike CEO Mark Parker kindly included signed a letter to the winning bidder.
The Lunar Glide was the shoe that finally shook up the conservative running industry for Nike. It delivered industry-changing innovation combined with digestible aesthetics and appealed to a really wide range of runners & non-runners alike. Everyone from marathon great Paula Radcliffe to Pharrel Williams adopted the shoe. The Glide received critical acclaim from running publications & Innovation Magazine. Over 2 million runners enjoyed the shoe by the time it’s successor hit the market. (see below).
Product story: I encouraged lead designer Sebastien Mermet to utilize innovative ideas from recently successful shoes like the Free Everyday, Nike Free & the Lunar Racer. We stripped away the unnecessary stuff prevalent on most running shoes. I worked with my color designers to create simple but bold color ways . I hired textile designer Breanna Wagner straight from university and had her design a super-functional, custom mesh - which is now widely imitated. Uber developer Chris Cooke & engineer Philippe Blanchard obsessed the construction details. The team reduced weight, improved flexiblity & introduced an adaptive stability feature called Dynamic Support. In addition we had a refreshingly simple marketing strategy for the shoe thanks to dynamic duo Phil McCartney & Ernest Kim.
The Free Run simultaneously cracked style & performance codes. Some of the worlds best athletes trained in it. Oprah Winfrey put it on her 'Favorite Things of 2010' list which crashed Nike's servers. Mick Jagger sported his own personal pair in the New York Times style section, where they also made insightful commentary about the lack of stylish performance shoes. The Free Run is a rare sequel that was actually more successful than the original model. Lead designer Kasey Jarvis drew most of the lines & then bailed from Nike. Talk about quitting while you’re on top. Nice one KJ! This project was at the core of my creative direction for the Nike Running group so it was great to see it succeed on multiple fronts.
The AirMax is a revered & historically significant product within sneaker culture. However, by 2007 it was at a low point because it had functional & aesthetic issues. Collaborating with Fred Dojan, Suzy Cessor & Jeff Henderson we focused on a design reset. Jeff did an amazing job as senior designer, while I provided creative direction & fought battles to clear the way for the design to emerge. The result was a huge functional step forward & an aesthetically compelling shoe. The AirMax was back & it was an immediate hit: Equal parts comfort & fashion statement. Orders for the shoe doubled within months & we had to ask suppliers to urgently make more shoes.
The Lunar Glide 2 became the biggest selling performance product in any quarter of Nike’s entire history. My design direction was pretty simple: Fix the (small) problems with the previous shoe and don't mess with the rest. I hired rookie designer Cubby Golden to lead the redesign. I coached him to keep focused on refinement, subtlety & nuance. I also provided daily 'perimeter security' keeping good intentioned meddlers away from the project. Once a shoe starts to sell in large quantities, all kinds of people want to get involved in directing the creation of a sequel. Thats when the design director really has to step up and mange the design and the politics.
Historically, the Nike Elite has never been a hugely popular running shoe, despite having a cult following. In 2010 I got a chance to change that. I directed my design team to use new shoemaking techniques to create a shoe which was lighter, more stable & smoother running than the previous version. The new design outsold the old Elite by 300% & appealed to a wide range of runners even though it was designed for elite athletes. I was stoked when skateboarder Paul Rodriguez named it as one of his favorite shoes for 2010. An endorsement like this shows that good design appeals to a wide audience, not just the ‘target consumer’. My co-worker Phil McCartney helped us tune the design by personally testing prototypes. He’s an elite runner (sub 2:20 boston marathon) so his input was quite valuable.
Design Credit: Kevin Hoffer, Randy Wolfe, Me. Photo Credit: Nike/Andreas Harlow
It’s always a big challenge to reinvent a much-loved franchise shoe. The Air Max 2011 was no exception, especially after the incredible success of the 2009 model. Luckliy I had the opportunity to assemble a great team of people who were up for the challenge. Shane Kohatsu & Fred Dojan had done some great work modernizing shoemaking techniques so we used that as a base. I hired designer Rob Williams from Chrysler and had him focus on combining aesthetics and engineering. Rob’s so talented he nailed it pretty quickly. This was the third shoe he'd ever designed. While he handled the day to day details, I had my hands full uniting the team to maintain the integrity of the initial concept.
The most premium, most cushioned running shoe in the industry. Kasey Jarvis was lead designer. I pushed for a simple design while many other people felt that a more expensive shoe should have 'more stuff on it'.
The Hi-Tec Footwear company is known for it’s light weight hiking boots. In the late 1990s I took on the challenge of creating a new range of lightweight trail shoes & boots. The $65 Enduro proved to be very successful and temporarily lifted their anemic light hiking business. The Enduro got Hi-Tec into the then-hot trail running market. It earned praise in Outdoor Explorer Magazine & received an award by The Running Network as 'best trail shoe under $75'.