Related story Nike releases Air Max shoebox made from recycled cartons and coffee lidsĭylan Raasch, the senior creative director of Nike Air Max, echoed this in conversation with a group of journalists at the press event. "Our job is to see what's coming and imagine how those trends might swing." "You can pretty much chart that the rise of minimalism comes with prosperity, and then when you get to a more darker time – a time of unrest or discord – you start to see people being more expressive, and their fashion tends to go there too," she said. This aesthetic shift can be attributed to recent changes in the cultural and political climate, according to Dailey. The bold shoe design follows "a more minimal period" at Nike, including products like the popular Roshe. Maximalist design responds to "messed-up" politics "We were looking back at that Y2K era and imagining what in 2000 we thought was going to be 20 years in the future."
"If you imagined 2001 Space Odyssey was made in the 1970s, but it was an imagination of what 2001 would be," Courtney Dailey, vice president of colour design, told Dezeen at shoe's press reveal," she added. "We were talking a lot about sci-fi and the idea of retro future," Courtney Dailey, vice president of colour design, told Dezeen at shoe's press reveal. Each will draw on tones found in the natural environment, like lava flows, the Northern Lights, the Milky Way, and sunsets and sunrises.Īmong these are bold sandy tones and brash teal-blues, all of which are arranged in swirling gradients to offer a retro-vibe. Revealed in dark purple, more colour options will be rolled out later. It shows that the airbag will be detailed with concentric marks, with boomerang- and bean-shaped pockets puncturing the fabric upper to follow these circular forms. The Portland-headquartered brand has only released one image of the design so far. The plastic ring is also made up of more than 75 per cent recycled manufacturing waste, following Nike's new focus into sustainability, which its chief operating officer Eric Sprunk outlined in an interview with Dezeen earlier this year.Īir Max 720 influenced by sci-fi and Y2K era
"And then making, iterating, so it works, and then figuring out how to manufacture it." "A lot of time was spent just engineering that air sole to get it perfectly right, so that the foot sits in it appropriately, and it functions," she said. Her team undertook a number of trials and failures before perfecting the final design. Speaking at a press preview of the product in July 2018, Gomez said the challenge of the project was innovating a large plastic airbag loop that wouldn't fracture under pressure. Related story Marc Newson and Riccardo Tisci design trainers for Nike Air Max anniversary