Nike and Dropcity Preview Air Lab: An Innovative Space for Creatives in Milan's Centre

Nike and Dropcity, an emerging Milanese centre for architecture and design, are presenting a preview of Air Lab at Milan Design Week 2026. 

The preview, known as NikeAir_Lab during Design Week, offers the global design community a one-week-only inside look at the past, present and future of Nike Air, with samples and swatches tracing the development of Air Liquid Max, FlyWeb, Radical AirFlow, Therma-FIT Air Milano and other innovations. The lab will live on as Air Lab—a permanent fixture of Dropcity when the space opens its doors to the public this autumn. 

Design Week attendees who register will get first access to eight tool stations, each with cutting-edge machinery, including robotic arms, thermoforming machines, pneumatic cylinder kits and more. Each machine acts on different aspects of air as a design medium: visualising (air as evidence), forming (air as shape), deforming (air as transformation), pumping (air as expansion), suctioning (air as void), calibrating (air as impulse), cooling (air as subtraction) and blasting (air as force). Visiting Nike designers and Dropcity's in-house team will lead hands-on workshops throughout the week focused on harnessing air in design.  

"Nike has always had an experimental, hands-on culture of making, so on our first visit to Dropcity a year ago, it immediately felt both familiar and energising", says Golnaz Armin, VP, Design Studio Excellence. "At Nike, prototyping is a daily practice—an instinct to make, test and refine in real time, where ideas are meant to be worn, experienced and challenged through doing. As much as we embrace the latest digital capabilities, the craft of creating physical product through an iterative process remains essential". 

That ethos is on full display at NikeAir_Lab, with nearly 100 never-before-seen prototypes curated across Nike's diverse design community. For the first time, the public can see up-close samples and swatches tracing the development of Air Liquid Max, FlyWeb, Radical AirFlow, Therma-FIT Air Milano and other product innovations.  

In its Milan Design Week incarnation, the lab will be the first of five tunnels visitors are invited to explore. The insights of Nike athletes, catalysts and trainers—including Arianna Fontana and Hiroshi Fujiwara—will activate the Air Library in the fifth tunnel, while the Air Archives will present a rare look at early experiments by inventor Frank Rudy from the Department of Nike Archives, initial explorations for the Alphafly NEXT% super shoe and Nike athlete Faith Kipyegon's Breaking4 speed suit, along with other items loaned by private collectors. 

After Milan Design Week, the equipment will be relocated to Dropcity's other facilities, which include dedicated sites of production for robotics, model making, 3D printing, textiles, ceramics, woodworking, carpentry, mosaic, recycling and more.  

"The Air Lab initiative advances an ambitious and unique vision, proposing that design and production can leave a tangible legacy for the city of Milan and for the community of designers and architects connected to it", says Andrea Caputo, architect and founder of Dropcity. "The lab will be operated by Dropcity as a civic facility, accessible to the public. This initiative represents a concrete and forward-looking commitment—one that establishes a new model of collaboration between companies and research centres like Dropcity, generating meaningful social impact on both local and international levels". 

Through a 20-year agreement with the municipality of Milan, Dropcity is set to emerge as one of the largest architecture centres in Europe. Addressing regional and international demand for accessible, high-quality workspaces, Dropcity's ambition is to support the emerging contemporary Italian design scene while remaining in close dialogue with the trajectories, research and investigations of the international design community.  

Located behind Milano Centrale railway station and covering more than 10,000 square metres, Dropcity is focused on supporting future generations of designers, offering exhibition spaces and 300-plus workstations at subsidised prices for architects, product designers, graphic designers and other creative professionals.  

"Milan is a global hub for creativity, culture and design, and NikeAir_Lab reflects our continued investment in the city and the creative community that brings it to life", says César García, VP/GM, Nike EMEA. "Through partnerships like Dropcity, we're creating spaces in Milan where innovation, design and sport intersect—and where ideas can move from imagination to reality".

NikeAir_Lab is on view on 20–26 April at Via Sammartini 72 in Milan. The Air Lab will live on as a permanent fixture of Dropcity when it opens its doors to the public this autumn.