A bold step for the brand.
Yesterday in New York at the Nike 2020 Future Forum, Nike showed off what lies ahead for the brand. The show revealed everything from the latest performance gear to sustainability innovations, and even highlighted some Canadian athletes taking the spotlight this spring and summer.
Canadian Paralympian Marissa Papaconstantinou walked the show, and expressed how this liminal moment made her feel. “I always wanted to be part of a huge moment like this and it’s something I’m thankful for. My favourite moment was seeing a few Canadians in the audience and I felt an immediate connection back to Canada,” she said. The athlete posted in her Instagram story a candid shot of her walking the show, with Drake in the background sitting front row. She wrote: “Had a moment with the boy @champagnepapi.”
As part of Nike’s move toward a zero carbon and zero waste future, the Move to Zero Collection was revealed. This drop is an exploration of circular design, as it is comprised almost entirely of recycled content, and meets a 90 per cent or better efficiency marker. “We believe the future for product will be circular,” says Seana Hannah, Nike’s vice president of sustainable innovation. “We must think about the entire process: how we design it, how we make it, how we use it, how we reuse it and how we cut out waste at every step. These are the fundamentals of a circular mindset that inform best practices.”
Leading the Move to Zero collection is the Space Hippie. The four Space Hippie silhouettes are made with “space junk,” the brand’s own reconstruction of scrap material from factory floors, reconstructed into shoe material. Basically, in this collection, Nike is striving to make the most with the least material, the least energy and the least carbon.
Nike’s chief design officer John Hoke says that the Space Hippie product is futuristic and optimistic. “I’d say Space Hippie attacks the villain of trash,” says Hoke. “It’s changed the way we look at materials, it’s changed the way that we look at the aesthetics of our product. It’s changed how we approach putting products together.” Space Hippie 01, 02, 03 and 04 will be available this spring.
Other pieces in the Move to Zero Collection include apparel, such as a new, unlined Nike Sportswear Windrunner jacket, which features 100 per cent recycled polyester. Plus, hoodies, crews, T-shirts, joggers, shorts and dresses made up of 60 per cent organic and recycled fabrics will be available, with the manufacturing process using less water and fewer chemicals.
Take a peek at what the show looked like below.