NIKE TRAINING CENTER
Leading up to the World Cup 2010, I was asked to work on the Nike Football Training Center located in the heart of Soweto, South Africa.
A multimillon dollar football academy that hopes to unearth the talent in football. The center will give 20,000 young footballers a year the chance to develop their football talent while also having access to HIV/AIDS education through football life skills programming.
The start to end of this project including the building of the facility took about 6 months. There was a local Nike team who took on the duty of the building of the facility and the global team which consisted of the creative director, art director and myself who were responsible for the exterior and interior design elements.
During the first 4 months, we worked with a variety of agencies to create the amazing elements found at this site. Whether it be handwoven iron fence designs seen at the front of the building, touchscreen interactive trivia information about the best ways to hone your soccer skills, poster wall with biographic stories of famous local and international soccer players or metal plates which were stamped with little holes to create images of their soccer heros. I spent 6 weeks with the creative director and art director in Johannesburg working alongside a local design agency to get the last elements produced and to make sure everything was installed prior to the opening of the center.
To have been able to work on a multimillion dollar project like this and remain within the budget restrictions and timelines has been very rewarding to see that nothing was compromised due to either of these considerations.
THE BALL MAN
During World Cup 2010, Nike created an impactful creative campaign around the newest and lastest innovations for the NTK, National Team Kit, campaign.
To celebrate the beautiful game of soccer, Nike unveiled the “Ball Man” – a giant 21 meter high soccer player made from 5,500 skills balls and weighing more than 4.5 tons suspended from the atrium of the landmark Carlton Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ball Man was developed using a 3-D image of an athlete and then aligning each of the 5,500 skills balls to create the giant spectacle that dominated the atrium space. Strung together by over 10 kilometers of cable wire, and suspended from the atrium’s ceiling, the installation took a full three weeks to put up, and incorporates a display of Nike’s latest production innovations.
The design process ensured that the balls can be taken down and distributed to the community after the exhibition closed.
Working closely with the creative director and art director, we briefed the Leicester, UK based design agency Ratcliffe Fowler Design to create what is known as the Ball Man. I worked with product teams to source the 5,500 balls that were needed to create this structure, with the creatives to ensure design, timelines and budgets were met and to arrange the appropriate transportation and documents were in place to secure difficult import regulations found in South Africa.
SPORTWEAR TECH PACK
For Fall/Holiday 2013, Nike updates classic styles with a revolutionary reinvention of the fabric of sport: fleece. Evolving the fit, feel, and function of Nike’s most iconic sportswear silhouettes, the Nike Tech Fleece Collection represents the next generation of classic sport apparel.
As the project lead on this amazing initiative, I worked with the entire marketing team (brand, retail, design, digital, brand communications, pr, ecommerce, sports marketing and entertainment) as well as legal to bring this story to life.
Working with a local production agency we created a world in the retail lab to showcase how the story would be brought to life in retail. Senior level executives came to this space to see the evolution of the Nike Sportswear Tech Pack Campaign.
From there we worked with the production agency and chose a well renowned photographer to take the team around the world shooting 17 athletes in 12 different cities.
Once the tour was finished, I worked closely with the creative team and the post production agency to finalize the imagery for multichannel executions.
SPORTSWEAR AIR MAX REINVENTED
For the Spring 2013 launch of the Nike Air Max ''Air Reinvent/Air Max Engineered Mesh,'' the Sportswear Marketing team wanted to showcase the evolution of the iconic classics along with the modern innovations for the Air Max 1, Air Max 90, Air Max 95 and Air Max 97.
For this project, I worked closely with the Nike design team and product teams to gather the necessary background information on all the shoes and their modern innovations. With this information we commissioned Doubleday and Cartwright to create an illustrated genealogy of Nike Air Max, from designer Tinker Hatfield’s discovery of visible air to Air Reinvented, a collection of four classic styles revamped with Nike’s latest material innovations.
The art assets created for the Air Reinvented campaign appeared globally at both boutique and mass market Nike locations, select out of home and industrial executions and a handful of print opportunities.
In order to dimensionalize the story online, we approached Doubleday and Cartwright to leverage the artwork into a viral animation, which earned widespread praise on style platforms around the web.
We built close relationships with the Doubleday and Cartwright team to ensure on time delivery was met within budget constraints.
NIKE AIR FORCE 1 30TH ANNIVERSARY
In the Spring of 2012 till the end of the year, Nike launched the beginning of a series of 30th Anniversary Edition Air Force 1's.
For the sixth installment of this 30th Anniversary collection, the ''Camo One'' featured new HF (high-frequency) weld construction giving a three-dimensional look that includes reflective material. The embossed reflective heel and tongue tabs add a premium touch to this white based shoe with silver accents.
I worked closely with the marketing brand and creative team as well as the product team throughout the 2012 year in developing and executing creative around each installment of the 30th Anniversary collection.
This particular shoe was the one that we wanted to showcase for multichannels such as retail and online.
In conjunction with external communication, I worked with the marketing brand and creative team as well as the product team in creating a space that would showcase the collection and tell the story behind the evolution of this collection and how it would be brought to life for consumer facing. Senior executives at Nike were invited for this walkthrough.
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |  |
NIKE F.C. COLLECTION
As the world gears up for the summer's big competition World Cup 2014, Nike takes the opportunity to celebrate 20 years of brilliant football. In 1994 during a sunny afternoon in Pasadena, Calif., a statement was made – glory is granted to those who risk everything. From that point on players such as Luís Figo, Fabio Cannavaro and Ronaldo exemplified that style, daring to do whatever it took to bring victory to their teams and nations. To honor the all-or-nothing approach of these athletes, Nike introduces Nike F.C. – not just a collection but also a badge of honor representing passion, talent, irreverence and most of all the willingness to put it all on the line.
Working alongside the Global Sportswear Brand Marketing Senior Director, we set the global brand strategy for the new Sportswear collection Nike F.C and created marketing plans for global marketing teams, sales and merchandising for the Nike F.C. collection which launched prior to World Cup 2014.
MERCURIAL VAPOR SUPERFLY III
For the Spring/Summer 2012 season, Nike launched the Mercurial Vapor Superfly III. With an adaptive traction system for extra grip on the pitch with positioned blades that capitalize on sudden change of direction, the new Mercurial Vapor Superfly III was by far Nike‘s most advanced boot at that time.
With a new Nike Flywire upper for a lightweight, dynamic fit, the Mercurial Vapor Superfly III also featured the notable disruptive pattern, this time in metallic purple, as a potent psychological tool on the pitch.
I worked closely with the marketing and creative team from brief, to concept to execution. Creative that would primarily be seen on mutlichannels such as retail and online.
The concept behind the Mercurial Vapor Superfly III and its benefits were briefed to an Amsterdam based creative agency PostPanic in creating this animation.
CTR360 MAESTRI LINE
For the Fall 2009 season, Nike launched the CTR360 Maestri line of boots. The name “Maestri” stems from the Italian word "master." The CTR360 Maestri was created for the dynamic soccer player by incorporating the Kanga-Lite material and foam control pad design to increase touch and strength for play in all field conditions.
The CTR360 boot is mainly known for control specifically for midfield players.
I worked closely with the marketing and creative team from brief, to concept to execution. Creative that would primarily be seen on mulitchannels such as retail and online.
For retail, we worked closely with a London based agency, All of Us, to create a console made of the boot that would allow for a consumer to take the boot and move it around to see the benefits of the boot which would be shown on screen.
Gathered content for the marketing digital team for the Nikefootball+ app. This was an app for exclusive access to the best players and coaches in the world. One would also get pro drills straight from the training grounds of Brazil, Barcelona and Juventus, direct to one's iPhone.
THE CORTEZ BROTHERS
The Cortez Brothers is one of the first special projects I worked on at Nike with the creative director and art director from the European design team. We worked closely with the Marketing Energy team to develop a story behind the Cortez sneaker which was an exclusive campaign for only a select amount of doors around the globe.
Centered around two special characters, Phil & Bill [based on Nike’s co-founders Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman], ‘'The Cortez Brothers’' and their characters are physical manifestations of the Nike Cortez – pure hybrids of classic style and performance. While Bill shares the classic style of the original 1972 Nike Cortez – he is old school, Phil, Bill’s younger brother, represents 2009 and has a tireless appetite for new things, ideas and experiences.
The team worked with Tokyoplastic to create this animation to hype the special launch of the pack. The pack consisted of a blue nylon Cortez and a silver metallic Cortez Flymotion which was one of Nike's newer innovations. The design of the two sneakers is also represented in the two toys, Phil & Bill [based on Nike’s co-founders Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman] which were made by an Italian design agency Sartoria.
V IS FOR VICTORY
In the Spring of 2009, the Nike Sportswear EMEA team created the Nike V is for Victory campaign for a new line of Nike Chevron Eugene jackets.
Ripped from the archives, the Nike Eugene Men's Track jacker is an enduring design that has been updated to accommodate both technological needs and environmental sustainability.
There were two creative directions chosen for this campaign. One with the Nike Chevron Eugene Jacket on the athlete with their fingers raised up as a V as in V is for Victory and one with their bare chests and getting colored powder thrown on them an creating a V on their chests.
The team worked alongside the likes of fashion photographer Rankin to create this colorful and energetic campaign featuring some of Nike's football players: Cesc Fabregas, Joe Cole, Andrei Arshavin and Didier Drogba.
Worked closely with the Nike Sportswear EMEA team as well as with the creative team (creative director, art director and producer) to ensure that the multi-athlete shoot was delivered within time and budget.
