Spark Design Award

Nike Free 5.0 2008-09:

In 2007 bag designer Thomas Bell showed me his first attempts at footwear design. In his rough prototypes I could see potential. Over the next year I mentored & Thomas & his little experiment became the Nike Free 5.0. 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 to build the shoes. We adjusted machinery & created 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.