Here we have something special for you - we present you the new Nike Vintage Running Collection. The first badge was released in January in collaboration with Comme des Garcons, and this summer the general release follows at premium accounts around the world. Check out the collection and get the full background story and specifications to this very special collection, that combines past and future. Once again Nike strikes to impress us.
Nike’s sports heritage is the inspiration behind the Nike Sport Culture product line. These Running footwear was originally built for the highest levels of competition, using the most innovative techniques of the time. Today, these shoes have been reissued. Though they are still inspired by sport and innovation, they’re now infused with a different kind of energy to meet the needs of the discerning consumer who is passionate about style. It is a collection of uniquely crafted pieces informed and inspired by the past, but with both feet firmly in the present.
Meaningful design
“In order to innovate, you need an open mind.” This famous quote of Nike’s CEO Mark Parker well defines Nike’s design ethos.
While Nike continues to move forward with design innovation it is important to look back at the original masterpieces to remind us where it all began. However, it is not simply looking back to congratulate one’s self, but looking back to gain insight into what is intrinsically good about Nike running shoes – they’re simple, iconic and honest.
Built to the Original Specifications
The idea was to recreate the shoes to the original specifications, as if they had come straight from Bill Bowerman’s waffle iron, but with the soul and aesthetic of nearly thirty years of wear. The task was tremendously challenging. One of Nike’s Senior Developers, Steve Mellor, was a great source for the quest with his intimate knowledge of the shoes, having worked on them some twenty-five years earlier. With his knowledge, the team was able to engineer the shoes to the original specifications.
All of the shoes, such as the Daybreak, the Oregon Waffle and the Cortez, were in production at some time or another, and all of them were defining icons within their time period. Nike celebrates this formative period with replicas that feature the same visual and structural imperfections the shoes would have after thirty years of aging, such as washed out suede and yellowed midsoles.
It takes time, technique, craftsmanship and a lot of care to create something that has that innate belief built into it. These shoes not only include that belief with original specifications of past materials – finished laces, sock liners, foam packs, toe boxes, heel counters and so on – they also benefit from today’s manufacturing practices.
These shoes do not simply recreate the past; they challenge the future of Nike design to think how to do more with less. Nike innovation legend and track coach Bill Bowerman was all about doing more with less, both considering the athlete and the environment. Embedded within each of these shoes is the emotional seed of what the company was about in those early days, and continues to be about today. This gives each of them an individuality and uniqueness completely their own. At Nike, it’s not simply about creating a beautiful “products”.
It’s about creating something that “works”, and captures the soul of the brand.
