Footwear, apparel and equipment, on a wholesale-equivalent basis.
Nike Running / Footwear
Make innovation
something you can run in.
New approaches to cushioning, fit and flexibility opened up new possibilities at Nike Running. The design challenge was to turn those possibilities into shoes—to work through how they supported the foot, moved with it and took shape.
Across six years, I designed footwear and led work across product families with Nike’s design, innovation and product-development teams. Free, Lunar, Zoom and Air each offered a different starting point, from rethinking how a sole bends to removing the conventional foam midsole altogether.
Free
Let the foot lead.
Free Flyknit brought a knitted upper together with a flexible sole. The challenge was to make the whole shoe move with the foot while providing support where it was needed.
We worked through that relationship in sketches, fit studies and samples, considering the structure within the knit alongside the places where the sole needed to bend. Later explorations brought geometric knit patterns together with hexagonal flex grooves, developing the upper and sole as parts of the same moving shoe.
Work spans early Free Flyknit and subsequent development, including Free 4.0 Flyknit.
Lunar
The cushioning set the direction.
With Lunar, the cushioning helped shape the character of the whole shoe. The sole, heel support and upper had to work together, giving the underfoot technology a visible expression.
LunarGlide 4 developed through layered midsole forms and heel-support studies. For LunarGlide 6, we explored a more sculpted, folded expression, using references to movement to guide the form.
A separate Flyknit Lunar 2 study approached the sole through foot-pressure patterns, using them to inform its design.
Zoom
A training shoe with racing in mind.
Runner Matt Tegenkamp had a specific request. He wanted a training shoe that felt connected to the shoes he raced in: light, responsive and secure around the foot.
That gave the Zoom Elite 5 a clear brief. We explored different ways to hold the foot through the laces, midfoot and heel, drawing alternatives before developing selected directions into detailed renderings. Those support decisions carried through to the finished shoe.
Air
Take away a layer. Change the whole shoe.
I worked on the first-generation Nike Air VaporMax in Nike’s Innovation Kitchen. The idea was to place a Flyknit upper directly on an Air cushioning unit, without a conventional foam midsole between them.
Removing that layer changed the entire silhouette. The individual Air chambers became the defining feature beneath the foot, visible from heel to toe. The cushioning shaped the shoe’s identity as directly as it shaped its construction.
VaporMax launched on Air Max Day in 2017.
Earlier Air Max work is also shown, exploring a different expression of visible cushioning.
Nike Running / Business context
Free and LunarGlide combined, FY2013.
By 2012.
I spent six years designing footwear and leading product families within Nike Running. These figures describe the wider category and franchises, built by teams across Nike.
LunarGlide+ 4 (2012) and Free 4.0 Flyknit (2014).
Footwear design and design leadership / Rob Williams. Work developed with Nike’s design, innovation and product-development teams.