When the most decorated 100-meter sprinter ever stepped to the line for a final time, she told herself what she knew: That she was prepared, powerful, and this race was hers — for her. The next handful of seconds were to honor everything that had brought her to this moment.Green, yellow, and black hair whipping behind her — a self-proclaimed “daughter of the soil,” who chose to wear the colors of her nation’s flag for her final finish —&nbsp;gold-hued nails splayed in front of her, <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-celebrates-shelly-ann-fraser-pryce" target="_blank">Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce</a> exploded off the blocks in the World Athletics Championship final in a capacity-filled Japan National Stadium in Tokyo. She ended her 100-meter career in the same way she began racing 18 years ago in Japan — with fierce speed, strength, and composure. It was a bold tribute to Jamaica, the nation whose unyielding support has carried her through two decades at the top of the sport.In her decades of dominance — from becoming the first Caribbean woman to win Olympic gold in the 100-meters in 2008, to returning as World Champion in 2019 after giving birth to her son, Zyon — Shelly-Ann has embodied the power of duality.&nbsp;The ability to have longevity in track and field’s shortest, most intense discipline; exuding femininity and self-expression in a physically demanding sport; proving motherhood and greatness can coexist.What athletes everywhere, and especially young girls, can take from Shelly-Ann’s lead: The courage to run your own race, on your terms. To trust that setbacks don’t define you, only your response to them. And the assurance that, if you believe in yourself and work with discipline, harmony is possible. Dreams and family, career and legacy.For that, and the now 276 incredible races and finish line moments, thank you, Shelly-Ann.Below, go behind the scenes of the G.O.A.T.’s final meet days in Tokyo.

The shoes. The hair. The finish. At the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Shelly-Ann, a five-time world champion, ended her career her way.

Sofieke van Bilsen is a 29-year-old Dutch photographer with a passion for storytelling through imagery. She is in-house photographer to the German women's national football team, and was team photographer for the German Olympic Team in Paris 2024. She works closely with Nike athletes such as Faith Kipyegon, Eliud Kipchoge and Sifan Hassan.In her photography, she aims to create compelling visual narratives, focusing on the deep connection between emotion and athleticism. She strives to capture the raw moments behind the scenes, the untold stories of the journey,and everything in between, bringing the spirit of sports to life.Sofieke's personality creates instant connections with people, and she is loved by the athletes she works with. Her relaxed and enthusiastic personality complements an incredible skill level and ability to work in high pressure environments for athletes.

Sofieke van Bilsen

Photo Essay

Icon Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Ran Her Final 100 Meter On Her Terms

Over the course of his career, LeBron James has shared his passion for the game globally, partnering with Nike to travel throughout Greater China during his offseason, galvanizing a nation in its love for basketball and hoops culture. Just as LeBron’s career has evolved through different eras, his tours have represented different values over the many times he's visited since 2005. Below are some of his most memorable moments in the country.

2005-2009

LeBron began his debut tour in Beijing in August of 2005. He was invited to watch the awards ceremony of the Nike Battlegrounds tournament, but he’d depart as more than just a spectator. From the moment he stepped down in China, he believed his tour could become a cross-cultural exchange rooted in a shared love of hoops and a mission to inspire the next generation of young players in China. “Basketball is not only a sport, it's also a bridge that connects people," he said.&nbsp;“This is a great learning experience for everyone. I hope I can continue to help grow the game globally and inspire the youth in China to reach their dreams."

LeBron's legacy in China is woven into special China-specific iterations of his signature footwear. In 2007, LeBron James appeared alongside NIKE, Inc.'s then-President &amp; CEO Mark Parker to debut his Nike Zoom LeBron V "China" colorway.

LeBron returned to Beijing in 2009 after his MVP season where he enjoyed a hero's welcome. As part of his trip, he donated equipment and provided scholarships for the Zhenhua School, a school for the children of migrant workers in suburban Beijing.

To celebrate his season, LeBron was presented with an exclusive pair of the Nike Air Max LeBron VII, featuring a Shenyang-inspired design dubbed “Loyalty” created by the local artist Ray Lei, and a Shanghai-inspired design dubbed “Family,” created by the local artist Sic.

2011-2015

LeBron embraced his role as a global ambassador for the game, focusing on the opportunity to inspire China’s young players. In 2011, his tour expanded to eight days over four cities, promoting grassroots basketball through a series of skill clinics and tournaments.

In 2012, with a fresh gold medal to pair with his championship ring, LeBron James made a triumphant arrival in Beijing to kick off a four-day tour as part of the&nbsp;Find Your Greatness campaign. "Greatness is defined by how much you want to put into what you do," said LeBron. "Greatness comes with victory. It also comes with being able to come back from adversity."

In 2013, LeBron returned to China with plenty to celebrate: his second straight NBA championship and MVP awards for both the regular season and the Finals.

In 2014, LeBron James was the first mentor to announce the roster for the Nike RISE, designed to help players raise their competitive game and improve their skill.

In 2015, Nike RISE 2015 evolved with LED Courts and motion-tracking drills to create a pinnacle training experience, teach the fundamentals of basketball and push the boundaries of sports training.

An emotional finale saw four players chosen to represent China at the World Streetball Championships.

2016-2019

After winning another NBA title in 2016, LeBron entered Guangzhou to a massive championship parade, the streets flanked by tens of thousands of fans, many of them in Cavs #23 jerseys. It was a signal for just how widely James’ legacy had expanded throughout Asia.&nbsp;His More Than an Athlete campaign inspired young players to see basketball as one of many tools for affecting social change.

After a warm welcome from thousands of fans, he spent most of his time in Beijing working out with and coaching members of the Chinese Junior National basketball team.

Visiting primary schools throughout Beijing, LeBron shared his personal basketball experiences with young athletes, emphasizing the role that hard work, dedication and self-belief played in his path to success.

In 2018, the first day of his "More Than an Athlete" tour in Shanghai began with a panel discussion with students at the Shanghai Theatre&nbsp;Academy, and ended with a park shootaround. Hundreds of fans gathered outside the court to watch him play, hoping to catch a glimpse of the icon.

This month, LeBron flew to China for his "Forever King" tour, his 15th in the country and marking the 20th anniversary of tours in Asia. There, he joined some of the world’s most passionate hoopers and basketball fans, reiterating his commitment to giving back to the game across the world.

Over the course of his career, LeBron James has shared his passion for the game globally, partnering with Nike to travel throughout Greater China during his offseason, galvanizing a nation in its love for basketball and hoops culture.

Journey of an Icon: 20 Years of LeBron James in China

Hours of powering up steep ascents and navigating gnarly descents. Whipping mountain winds, glaring direct sun and biting evening temps. Getting mentally right with the fact that the next aid station is far, far away. Ultra trail running can sound like a grueling, relentless sport reserved for the wildest, most hardcore athletes among us.According to our <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-acg-all-conditions-racing-department" target="_blank">All Conditions Racing Department</a> runners — six of whom just conquered pinnacle UTMB races across the French, Italian and Swiss Alps, on trails spanning 15 to 174 kilometers, with elevation gains of 1,200 to nearly 10,000 meters — the grit, determination, joy and freedom trail running gives you is worth every ounce of work. See for yourself.

<h3>ROSS GOLLAN</h3>Race: ETC; 15km with 1,200m elevation gain Global finish rank: 29th

<h3>MARIE NIVET</h3>Race: Experience Trail Courmayeur (ETC); 15km with 1,200m elevation gain Global women’s finish rank: 7th

CESARE MAESTRIRace: ETC; 15km with 1,200m elevation gain Global finish rank: 2nd

<h3>BAPTISTE COATANTIEC</h3>Race: Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB); 174km with nearly 10,000m elevation gain Global finish rank: 11th

<h3>ANTHONY COSTALES</h3>Race: Courmayeur – Champex – Chamonix (CCC); 101km with more than 6,050m elevation gain Global finish rank: 15th

<h3>DREW HOLMEN</h3>Race: CCC; 101km with more than 6,050m elevation gain Global finish rank: 3rd

Powering up steep ascents. Navigating gnarly descents. Whipping mountain winds. Ultra trail running is a relentless sport. But the payoff is well worth the grind.

Ultra Trail Running Can Take Everything You’ve Got — and Give You Even More

NExt volume

Italian Factory Making of The Mercurial Intro Loop

Cameron was born in Rochester, New York, but grew up in the small town of Brighton, Michigan. Skateboarding and snowboarding were his life until he minted himself as a photographer. For the first 15 years of his career, after he moved to Los Angeles, he shot for skate brands almost exclusively, constantly pushing himself to capture a familiar subject in a fresh, dynamic way. It was like DIY photo school. Try never to be at ground level, and use everything around you to build a more interesting photograph in camera. Foreground elements, reflections, the grit of the street, sun flare, off-kilter perspectives, light trails — This creative restlessness culminated into a signature look that continues to evolve in exciting ways.His approach to visual storytelling envelops you in the moment. You feel like you’re the runner trying to beat your personal best, hugging the curves of a racetrack on a motorbike, bouldering with your friends, cycling against a spectacular natural panorama, or rounding up cattle at golden hour. “I like the challenge of making the product the focus but having each image feel honest and human,” says Cameron.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Cameron Strand

Shoemakers. Cobblers. Stitchers. Pattern engineers. These are only a handful of the specialists inside Italy's Montebelluna and Diamant workspaces, in which Nike partners with teams that guide a single football boot through 35 individual manufacturing steps. In about three hours, the shoe moves from pre-assembly to shaping and stitching to final build.This work represents the final stretch of a much longer journey — nearly two years of development, testing and refinement — to deliver Nike’s pinnacle football boot, the Mercurial.Nike came to the region in 1996, drawn to a place long regarded as the best in the world for boot manufacturing. For three decades, Nike has relied on the expertise here to provide old-world Italian craftsmanship to complement its advanced footwear innovations, using hands as often as machines.Inside the Montebelluna sample room lives a one-of-a-kind collection of roughly 300 pairs of foot lasts. These custom forms honor more than 200 players who’ve shaped Nike Football, from Cristiano Ronaldo to Kylian Mbappé to Sophia Wilson. And while Montebelluna perfects the boot for Nike’s most elite athletes, the process starts in the Diamant factory, where this year’s Mercurial Vapor 17 and Mercurial Superfly 11 are made for footballers around the world.Every iteration of the Mercurial builds on what came before, raising the bar for speed, performance and confidence on the pitch. For the artisans who meticulously engineer these boots, the reward goes beyond turning a “prototype into a masterpiece,” as one bootmaker put it. It’s the pride and responsibility of knowing their work will be worn by football’s elite athletes on the world’s biggest stage.Here, go inside the Italian workspaces where the Mercurial comes to life.

What It Takes to Make the Mercurial

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/topics/nike-football-2026" target="_blank">See more of our Universe of Nike Football.</a>

Shoemakers. Cobblers. Stitchers. Pattern engineers. They all partner with Nike in these unique facilities to perfect football boots — like the new Merc — for the game’s most elite as well as everyday footballers around the world.

Inside the Italian Workspaces Where We Craft the Nike Mercurial Boot

About Nike - Stories from Inside NIKE, Inc.

Walk through NIKE, Inc.’s global campus in Beaverton, Oregon, and you’ll experience a place defined by both its scale and the life within it.This isn’t an office park or even a corporate headquarters. It’s a world. And it’s one built around sport, where movement, the landscape and daily life intersect in ways that feel all-encompassing.Spanning more than 400 acres, this rolling campus has buildings named for legendary athletes and running paths that wind past soccer fields, a lake and cutting-edge innovation labs dedicated to the future of sport. It’s an intentional, expansive environment.Last fall, this city within a city, teeming with thousands of employees, was given a new name: the Philip H. Knight Campus, honoring its visionary co-founder whose restless belief in athletes&nbsp;and innovation helped build the company from a fledgling startup into a global force.But long before this campus existed — before the full-size track, the 11-lane pool and 30-foot-high rock-climbing wall, the hundreds of thousands of square feet of athlete buildings or the world-renowned <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/topics/next-level" target="_blank">Nike Sport Research Lab</a> — Nike had no headquarters at all. In 1964, it was known as Blue Ribbon Sports, and it had far humbler surroundings.

Before There Was a Campus

In April 1964, a shipment of 300 pairs of shoes arrived at the home of Bill and Lota Knight on SE Claybourne in Portland. Their 26-year-old son, Phil Knight — known to friends as “Buck” — was beginning his shoe business, and he stacked the boxes in the basement laundry room.This space became, quite literally, the company’s first office.“I don’t remember if I asked them,” Knight later recalled in an interview with the Department of Nike Archives. “I just moved the shoes in.”

From there, Knight would load the shoes into his Plymouth Valiant and drive to high schools around Portland, trying to sell them directly to runners. Sometimes the athletes didn’t have cash on hand, so they would come by the house later to buy a pair.“It was pretty amazing that they could find their way,” says Knight. “We were on a one-block street that was hard to find.”As Knight’s shoe company, Blue Ribbon Sports, grew, it decamped from his parents’ basement, but stability was still years away.The first official office opened in 1967 at a small building at SE 50th and Powell Boulevard in Portland. Rent was only $50 a month.“It was cheap,” says Knight. “Cheap and available.”Inside, the tiny space served as nearly everything at once: home office, warehouse, sales office and retail store. Orders were packed in the back, invoices typed at the front desk, and shipments mailed out by hand.“We’d get an order and go back and pack the shoes in a box,” recalled Bob Woodell, an early employee and the company’s first chief operating officer. “Then we’d come up front and type up the invoice, address and stamp the envelope, and mail it out. Those were the days when if you could get a 10-pair order, you’d be in heaven.” It wasn’t exactly a quiet office space. At exactly 4 p.m., the jukebox next door at the Pink Bucket Tavern would kick on, its bass vibrating through the wall.“You could set your watch by it,” recalled Woodell. “Boom, boom. You’d know it was 4 o’clock.”The Powell office was the first stop in what became a nomadic stretch for the young footwear company.During the next decade, Blue Ribbon Sports moved repeatedly — from its first offices in southeast Portland to Tigard’s Horace Mann building then to Beaverton and back to Tigard, near Nimbus Drive, before returning to Beaverton, where the company operated out of a pair of offices on Murray Boulevard known internally as “Murray I” and “Murray II.” Along the way, it also established its first dedicated product warehouse on Burnside in Portland, separate from its office spaces. By this point, it had claimed its permanent moniker —&nbsp;Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory.By the early 1980s, Nike employees were scattered across more than 20 buildings throughout the Portland area. The company was growing rapidly, but it didn’t yet have a true home base.

A Place to Unite the Team

Nike knew it needed to bring everyone together in one location.“We were spread out in buildings all over Washington County,” says Knight. “When we could move to a central place, we felt we could improve communications between the various departments.”There was also a perception problem. The company was gaining momentum as a major global business, but it didn’t yet look like one.

“[We] had some traction, but we had no presence,” recalled Jim Robison, who joined the company in 1979 and later helped lead the campus project. “People were flying in from Asia and Europe, and they’d come to a little 40,000-square-foot building across the street from K-Mart. Then they’d have to get back in the car and go someplace else for a meeting, have the meeting, then get back in the car and go back.”Nike needed more than space. It needed an environment that reflected what it was becoming.

Nike-PHK-history-arial-timelaps

In 1984, the company found that physical grounding in a 75-acre parcel just north of its existing offices in Beaverton. Nike purchased the land for $5.5 million in cash, securing the footprint for what would eventually become its permanent world campus.But construction didn’t begin right away.“We decided we didn’t want to move on building the headquarters until we really understood what our brand stood for,” says Knight.That clarity came in 1987, when Nike <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/full-court-press-how-nike-found-its-footing-in-college-basketball" target="_blank">sharpened its core identity</a>.&nbsp;“By 1987, we said we were going to be a performance company,” says Knight. “We were going back to our roots — that was our focus.”With that came a bigger question: If Nike was becoming a global company, what should its world headquarters look like?

Designing a Sense of Place

When construction began, the goal wasn’t just to bring people together. It was to create a place that felt fundamentally different from the offices it had outgrown.“We wanted a campus atmosphere because everybody is a junior in college at heart,” says Knight. “We wanted a place where you could get your work done, but also a place you wanted to be.” That idea became the foundation for everything that followed.

Rather than a single high-rise, the new headquarters would take shape as a collection of buildings organized around shared spaces, more like a college quad than a corporate office park. There would be room to move, gather and think.&nbsp;Early buildings were designed with places to eat, meet and reset. The Joan Benoit Samuelson Building, for example, functioned similarly to a student union, with a cafeteria, small shops and informal gathering spaces that drew employees together throughout the day. Weekly gatherings like the “Thirst Thursday” summer beer garden brought together employees across roles and tenures in a way that blurred the lines between departments.

“Everyone from rookie hires to senior executives bumped elbows and lifted pints together,” recalls Nike historian Scott Reames. “It was a relaxed atmosphere that encouraged employees to let off a little steam and also meet Nike colleagues from across every department.”Nearby, the Bo Jackson Fitness Center served as a campus recreation space, with workout facilities and fields that hosted intramural sports.“Employees would be surrounded by each other all day, every workday — in their offices, at lunch, at the gym and on the jogging trails. This proximity promoted spontaneous interactions, facilitated collaboration, and fostered a sense of community,” says Reames.

Incorporating Natural Elements

Nature wouldn’t be pushed away or relegated to an afterthought. It was central to the campus design.At the heart of the grounds, a manmade lake was introduced, with buildings arranged carefully around it. Rather than treating water and landscape as obstacles, the team chose to build with them, shaping the campus around the environment rather than forcing the environment to conform.

The earth that was removed to create the lake became a berm surrounding the campus — a quiet, tree-lined buffer that separated the company’s space from the outside world while creating running paths that looped through the property.The effect was intentional. Drawing inspiration from the contrast of dense urban life and quiet interiors he had experienced in Japan, Knight envisioned a place that offered a sense of calm after the intensity of work travel.“You’d go out and fight the wars,” he says, “and you’d come home and just want a place where there was peace.”

Even the buildings themselves reflected that thinking. Kept relatively low in the beginning, they were spread across the landscape to take advantage of light, space and the surrounding environment. With more land available, Knight and his leadership team made the decision to build outward rather than upward, favoring four-story structures over taller towers. Inside, design decisions prioritized openness and movement, with elements like expanded stairways introduced to bring in more daylight, even at the expense of usable office space.From the beginning, the campus wasn’t just built to house a business. It was built to reflect its identity as a company shaped by athletes and the environments they move through.

Built Around Athletes

As the campus took shape, even its buildings’ names reflected the company’s values.Early plans that referred to the buildings simply as “A,” “B” and “C” were scrapped in favor of a system that better aligned with Nike’s sports culture.“I said, ‘If you want to name our buildings that way, you’re going to have a heck of a time,’” recalled project leader Howard Slusher. “‘It doesn’t seem like who we are. Why don’t we just name them after our athletes?’”That thinking reshaped the plan. Buildings were named for athletes who stood apart in their sport — Hall of Famers, figures who were head and shoulders above their peers.The first buildings were named for icons like Steve Prefontaine, Joan Benoit Samuelson and Michael Jordan, a precedent that would continue as the campus grew.

The original campus came to be over a two-year stretch, beginning in 1990 with buildings such as Mike Schmidt and Michael Jordan, and continuing through 1992, culminating with the Nolan Ryan Building.For the first time, the company had a place designed for how it worked — and for what it aspired to become.It wasn’t just a headquarters. It was a foundation.“Bringing the Footwear Design and Apparel Design teams together created amazing synergy,” recalls former Design Director Wilson Smith, who spent more than 40 years with the company. “We were separated only by an internal bridge between the two sides of the building...I don’t think it was coincidental that we look back on the 1990s as the golden age of product design.”

Expansion and reinvention

Growth came quickly — and in waves.By the late 1980s, construction was moving in step with the company’s momentum, with new buildings added as demand surged. Nike officially dedicated its new headquarters in October 1990, bringing together employees who had long been spread across the region.The pace didn’t slow. Within a decade, Nike expanded the campus significantly, roughly doubling its footprint as the business surged in the 1990s. The athlete-naming tradition continued, with buildings honoring figures like Ken Griffey, Jr., Mia Hamm and Jerry Rice, reinforcing the connection between the company and the athletes it served.

The next phase wasn’t just about scale but also capability.As Nike entered the late 1990s and early 2000s, the campus evolved to reflect a company no longer building with contingency in mind, but rather with confidence in its trajectory.“The original campus was laid out in such a way that if Nike’s business took a sharp downturn — which was a threat in the 1980s — one or more of the buildings could be sold off or rented to another company,” explains Reames. “But the explosive growth in the 1990s cemented the idea that the second expansion would need no back-up plan, and the layout of the new buildings reflects that air of permanency.”New facilities were larger, designed to support a rapidly expanding workforce and the increasingly complex demands of a global brand. Additions like the Tiger Woods Center, dedicated in 2001, created space for large-scale gatherings, from sales meetings to product launches, that previously required off-site venues. Each building expanded not just how much space Nike had, but what the campus could do.

The evolution culminated in a sweeping modern expansion that reshaped the campus once again.Beginning in the late 2010s, Nike undertook a major development project that included three major new buildings across thousands of acres and more than 1.1 million square feet of new space. The expansion introduced a new architectural language — darker, more minimal structures designed with sustainability, performance and collaboration at their core — and brought together research, design and product creation in closer proximity than ever before.“Nike leadership wanted world-class architecture that captured the ethos of the brand and reflected Nike as a leader,” says Gene Sandoval, partner, ZGF Architects, who led the design of the Sebastian Coe Building, which opened in 2018. “Seb Coe was designed to represent movement, dynamism and be an inspirational creative office space nestled in the North Wood Forest.”Nike knew what it wanted from its structures. When Sandoval would bring plans to Knight and Howard Slusher, they would tell him to “go bigger.” Knight's philosophy was simple: if Nike was going to do this, it was going to do it big. Sandoval says he was continually struck by how seriously they took the idea that architecture should carry the culture and ethos of the brand.That vision shaped every detail of the Seb Coe Building. Nestled in the North Wood Forest — and originally named for that forest — the building was designed around preservation. They were asked to preserve as many trees as possible, and they wanted the interiors to feel like you were part of the surrounding woods. This can be sensed strongly in the cafeteria, with the floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the forest. The building was meant to feel like it was coming out of Oregon.In its cantilevered front, a water element anchors the structure’s most striking feature. The original plans called for the cantilever to reach 60 feet from base to tip — until Sandoval showed them to Mark Parker, who pushed for more. They ended up doubling it. At 120 feet, it stands as an engineering marvel unlike any other building in Oregon.At the center of the architectural transformation was the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/inside-the-nike-sports-research-lab-lebron-james-innovation-center" target="_blank">LeBron James Innovation Center</a>, which opened in 2021, representing a sea change in how Nike develops product. At its core was the groundbreaking Nike Sport Research Lab (NSRL), a world-class innovation laboratory built to study athletes in motion. Equipped with hundreds of motion-capture cameras, dozens of force plates and advanced testing environments, the lab allowed researchers, designers and engineers to observe performance in real time and translate it directly into innovation.“The NSRL is the epicenter of where we work with athletes of all abilities, all backgrounds, all skills and all sports,” says Matthew Nurse, Nike Chief Science Officer.If the LeBron Building represented a leap forward in sport science, the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/inside-the-serena-williams-building" target="_blank">Serena Williams Building</a> reflected an equally ambitious investment in creativity.

Opened in 2022, the 1-million-square-foot structure is the largest on campus and one of Nike’s most significant commitments to design. It brought together teams across product, insights and merchandising in a single space, designed to accelerate collaboration and push new ideas from concept to reality. Dedicated labs, immersive environments and expansive showrooms allowed teams to test, visualize and refine ideas at scale.“The whole building takes your breath away,” says Serena Williams of the building named after her. “Every element, everywhere you go, is an opportunity to be inspired.”The more recent additions marked a new era for the campus, one characterized not just by growth, but by integration. Science and creativity, research and design, all working side by side.

A Rare Workplace

Taken together, decades of considered decisions have created something rare at the Philip H. Knight Campus: a workplace that operates at the scale of a global company, but can feel like a personal, immersive home for its teammates.For first-time vistors, the impression is immediate. Walk the campus, and open fields and tree-lined paths reshape your sense of distance. Crossing from one side to the other can take 15 minutes or more, and the setting shifts constantly, from wide-open spaces to scenic stretches that feel hidden within the landscape. Like any special space, the people give it its energy. Teammates pass one another between meetings, mid-conversation or mid-stride in moments that feel closer to a college campus than a corporate office, raising quick waves as familiar faces cross paths throughout the day.

It’s the kind of place Phil Knight envisioned early on. Somewhere you come back to reset and prepare to go again.“I worked at Nike for 30 years and studied it closely as the company’s historian for 17, and I truly believe that the creation of what is now the Philip H. Knight Campus was a catalyst that fostered an unprecedented era of creativity and innovation,” says Reames.&nbsp;“If the Nike campus is the nucleus, then its employees are the electrons, bouncing off one another to create energy, light and ideas.”

A new name, a lasting legacy

For more than three decades, the campus has been known simply as Nike World Headquarters, the center of a company that grew from a basement operation into a global force.In 2025, it was officially renamed the Philip H. Knight Campus, cementing its connection to the company’s co-founder.“This is more than a name change,” wrote <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/elliott-hill-ceo-of-sport-interview" target="_blank">Elliott Hill, President &amp; CEO, NIKE, Inc.</a>, in a letter to Nike employees. “It’s a tribute to the man whose vision created a global movement. And it’s a reminder,&nbsp;to every one of us who will walk these paths and run these fields, of what can happen when belief meets action.”The renaming will be formally marked on May 21, 2026, a moment designed to bring the Nike community together around the legacy — and future — of a space that has shaped the company for more than 35 years.In that sense, the renaming doesn’t mark a new chapter as much as it clarifies the one Nike has been writing all along. From a basement laundry room to a world headquarters spanning hundreds of acres, the throughline remains the same: a belief in athletes, in innovation, and in knowing that the greatest is always yet to come.

From a basement laundry room to a global headquarters spanning hundreds of acres, the throughline for the space remains the same: a belief in athletes, in innovation, and in knowing that the greatest is always yet to come.

Feature

The Definitive History of Nike’s World Campus

January 25, 1964. Saturday.The Beatles registered their first number-one hit song in the United States: “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”And on a cold, rainy day in Portland, Oregon, a coach and his former athlete met for lunch at the Cosmopolitan Hotel to discuss a possible business partnership.One hour later, Phil Knight and <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/bill-bowerman-nike-s-original-innovator" target="_blank">Bill Bowerman</a> stood, reached across the table and shook hands. Blue Ribbon Sports was born.To understand how two Oregonians arrived at that moment — and why it held — we have to go back a decade, to a teenager who had just been cut from baseball.

The Handshake That Started It All

The Beginning

Phil Knight grew up in Southeast Portland and went to Cleveland High. As he tells it, he was the last cut on the sophomore-and-under baseball team — a decision that stung.“I was heartbroken but my mom said, ‘You are not going to mope around the house. You’re either going to get a paper route or go out for track.’ Well, that was easy. I went out for track.”That decision set him on a course that would change his life, and, eventually, the sports world.Knight tried out for track and quickly found his stride. While he was physically smaller than his teammates, he was fast, competitive and willing to work.At one early meet, his father, William, a labor lawyer who would later become publisher of the Oregon Journal, introduced him to Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman. The two older men had gone to college together at the University of Oregon. That day was his first introduction to the coach who would later shape his life.By then, Knight was already starting to win and place in local races, enough to earn a name in Oregon’s competitive prep scene. During his junior year, he spotted a headline that stuck with him: Bill Dellinger, a runner from the University of Oregon, who had just won the mile at the national championships under Bowerman’s coaching.“It was startling,” Knight said. “It was a huge headline in The Oregonian and that’s when I became aware of Bill Bowerman and what a phenomenal program he had.”

The Hamburger of Runners

Although small and lean, Knight never let size hold him back. In 1955, he played on Cleveland’s city-championship basketball team, finished second in the league 880-yard run and took fourth at the state meet. By fall, he’d earned a spot on Bowerman’s track and cross-country teams at the University of Oregon.Long before his first practice, though, his father had already turned to Bowerman for guidance — an early glimpse of the connection that would define both men’s careers. Curious to get the coach’s perspective on whether Phil should attend college or join the military, William Knight wrote to him that fall.Bowerman replied with his trademark mix of bluntness and care.“My first concern is for your young man’s education,” he wrote. “All will not be fun and frolic. It takes hard work for success in anything … it is a privilege to have your son here, also a responsibility for me, for you and for him.”

Like many freshmen before him, Knight soon learned what that meant, struggling under the bombastic Bowerman. “After my freshman year, I had to sit down with myself and ask if I was going to go back to that crazy man, or not,” Knight recalled. “I realized if I go back, I’m just going to have to do things his way because he’s not going to change. So I went back.”That decision proved pivotal. Bowerman saw potential in Knight —&nbsp;not as a star runner but as an ideal test subject. “I wasn’t one of the best runners on the team,” Knight admitted. “Bowerman knew he could use me as a guinea pig without much risk.”He called Knight the “hamburger” of runners — hearty stock, forgiving, determined — and began using him to test early shoe prototypes. In August 1958, Bowerman sent Knight a letter outlining his summer training plan and added a postscript: If you have a pair you think would make good flats, send them down. They’ll be ready when school starts.The pair Knight received that fall featured an experimental white, rubber-coated fabric — “the kind you’d use for a tablecloth you could sponge off,” Bowerman later said. They were crude, functional and a glimpse of what was coming. The coach was still years from finding a manufacturing partner but his drive to build a faster, lighter shoe had already found its first willing tester.

From Track to Business

By the time Knight graduated from Oregon in 1959 with a degree in business, his competitive drive had shifted from the track to the classroom. The next stop was Stanford where he enrolled to pursue his MBA.At first, his path seemed uncertain. But during his final year, a class called “Small Business Management” caught his attention. It was a class that would quietly spark the idea of a lifetime.“It was the only entrepreneurship class so it was one of the classes that I was most interested in,” Knight said.&nbsp;He developed a strong rapport with his professor, Frank Shallenberger, who assigned the students a simple but open-ended project: invent a new business, define its purpose and create a marketing plan to support it.Knight had recently overheard a conversation among photographers at the Oregon Journal, where he’d worked summers during college. They were talking about a surge of inexpensive Japanese cameras that were starting to rival the more powerful and costly German models.“Electronics was a popular topic at that time and the smart kids chose to write about things like that,” Knight said. “But I didn’t know anything about electronics so I wrote about something that I did know about — shoes.”Drawing from his experience as one of Bill Bowerman’s wear-testers, he built his hypothetical company. By 1962, German sports shoes were on the rise in the U.S. — high quality, yes, but expensive. Knight saw an opening.He turned the idea into a paper he wrote almost literally overnight with a single bold hypothesis: Can Japanese sports shoes do to German sports shoes what Japanese cameras did to German cameras?Knight argued that Japanese-made running shoes could compete on both price and quality with the dominant German brands. Knight received an “A.” When the assignment was over, he couldn’t shake the idea. “I wrote a letter of inquiry to virtually every Japanese shoemaker that I could find.”Only one company replied: the Kow Hoo Shoe Company of Hong Kong. The letter, written in imperfect English, was polite but discouraging.“It is with regret to inform you that due to lack of [such] equipment and material, we can hardly manufacture [such] type of shoes and trust that every shoemaker in Hongkong (sic) fails in doing so. We are expert in manufacturing Golf shoes, Skating boots and Bowling shoes etc.”It wasn’t the answer Knight had hoped for, but it didn’t matter. A seed had been planted that would soon take root.Shaken but not deterred, he was about to face the opportunity of a lifetime.That story — and more — will come in future Department of Nike Archive features on The Record.

Born of need and elevated by expertise and diligence, today the Department of Nike Archives (DNA) cares for hundreds of thousands of artifacts and a limitless vault of connected stories.&nbsp;The brand archive began organically in the 1970s and officially became DNA in 2006. The department’s purpose is to both preserve and accelerate the ever-evolving and interconnected story of Nike. “Knowing who you are and the fights you’ve come through can do huge things for morale, inspiration, and creativity. That’s what DNA provides.” - Phil Knight

Department of Nike Archives

Go behind the scenes of the famous business deal between Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman — co-founders of Nike.

History

In 1971, Watergate was just a hotel, NASA was preparing Apollo 15, and a small Oregon company had just sold its first pair of shoes.The shoe — a football boot called “the Nike” — retailed for $16.95. Its defining feature was a checkmark-shaped stripe created by a Portland State University student for $35. Few noticed the shoe, but the mark would long outlast it.At the time, Nike wasn’t yet the global sports brand it would become. Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman were still operating as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), a small distributor of Japanese running shoes. But contracts with their supplier were winding down, and Knight knew the company’s future depended on more than someone else’s product. To succeed, BRS needed a shoe of its own — and with it, an identity.That February, Knight contracted a factory in Mexico to produce a black soccer cleat with a white sole. To distinguish it from Onitsuka Tiger models, he needed a brand mark. He turned to Carolyn Davidson, a design student he’d met while teaching accounting at Portland State.

Two years earlier, Davidson had been overheard in a hallway telling a classmate she couldn’t afford an oil painting course. Knight offered her $2 an hour to make charts and graphics for his side business. Over time, she created ads, brochures and catalogs. Now he asked her for something bigger: a stripe for the side of a shoe.

Davidson sketched half a dozen options. In a Tigard, Oregon, office, Knight gathered two employees to review them, including Jeff Johnson, Nike’s first full-time hire. None made a strong impression. “It came down to a matter of which was the least awful,” Johnson recalled.The group settled on Davidson’s curving checkmark. She thought it suggested motion. Knight was unconvinced. “Well, I don’t love it,” he told her, “but it will grow on me.”The stripe — not yet called the Swoosh — was rushed to Mexico so production could begin. Davidson sent Knight an invoice for $35.

Those first shoes carried the new mark into the world, but it looked different on nearly every model. On some, the line stretched wide. On others, it pinched tight. One runner joked that the curvier version resembled a “dead fish.” Factories stitched it however they could, and designers adjusted the angle depending on the shoe’s shape.

Yet the stripe was already making appearances in the right places. At the 1972 Boston Marathon, two of the top American finishers crossed the line wearing Nike shoes marked with Davidson’s design — the first confirmed appearance of a Swoosh in a major race. The company highlighted the feat in its marketing materials the following year.Apparel presented another challenge. On shirts and bags, the asymmetry of the mark seemed awkward. Johnson experimented by fanning multiple Swooshes into a circle, creating what became known as the “Sunburst” or “Pinwheel” logo. Borrowed in spirit from the 1972 Olympic design, it gave Nike something bold to put on warm-ups and team gear.

Geoff Hollister, Nike’s third employee —&nbsp;who would go on to pioneer the company’s early marketing efforts —&nbsp;pressed the Sunburst onto singlets and tracksuits. He also applied the Swoosh alone in unconventional ways. In 1974, Steve Prefontaine appeared at a meet in Tacoma, Washington, wearing a tracksuit with a lone, backwards Swoosh across the chest. That marked the first time the logo stood by itself on apparel.In those first years, the design was far from consistent. Some called it the stripe. Others thought it looked strange, even unbalanced. But on marathon finish lines, in Olympic Trials and on the chest of America’s most famous runner, the mark was already doing its job: it was sticking.What began as a reluctant choice — a student’s sketch rushed off to a factory — had become the emblem of Nike’s earliest wins. The Swoosh wasn’t yet the global icon it would become, but it was already proving it had staying power.

In the decades since that first soccer cleat, the Swoosh has taken on countless forms. It was paired with bold Helvetica in the 1970s, broadcast to millions in Dennis Hopper’s 1993 football ads, stretched across Niketown Portland’s architecture, and splashed across caps at Wimbledon. It has been oversized, miniaturized, multiplied and, at times, overused. It has been guarded by Nike’s “brand police,” celebrated by athletes and parodied by critics.Through all those shifts, one through line has remained: the Swoosh endures. What began as a quick sketch by a college student has become one of the most recognized symbols in the world. More than a stripe, it’s a global shorthand for speed, innovation and possibility.

Before Nike was a worldwide sports brand, it was an upstart company in need of an eye-catching visual identity. Here, the real story of the Swoosh.

The Nike Swoosh Logo: From Humble Beginnings to Global Icon

In the late 1950s, veteran track and field coach Bill Bowerman was dissatisfied with available running spikes, which were constructed of weighty leather and metal. As a result, he became obsessed with shaving ounces off shoes to help runners slash seconds off their times. His quest wound up redefining athletic footwear.&nbsp; Prior to this feat, Bowerman’s drive and relentless curiosity had precipitated a string of diverse accomplishments: Born in 1911 in Portland, Oregon, he excelled as a student-athlete while attending the University of Oregon and later gained acclaim as a high school football and track coach. He fought in World War II and came back a decorated hero. In 1948, Bowerman returned to his college alma mater and, during his 24-year tenure, led the university to four NCAA track titles and coached 16 sub-four-minute milers. Further, he introduced jogging to the community of Eugene in the 1960s, which helped spark a national phenomenon, and he served as the U.S. Olympic track coach in 1972.

Bowerman was also a mentor, coach and friend to Phil Knight, with whom he co-founded&nbsp;Blue Ribbon Sports, the precursor to Nike, in 1964. His confidence and counsel helped the company's original business model — importing and selling Japanese-made&nbsp;<a href="https://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pw/running-shoes/8yzZoi3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">running shoes</a>&nbsp;— succeed and grow.&nbsp;However, Bowerman’s own footwear innovations proved even more influential, shaping Nike’s ethos of leveraging athlete insights to design transformative products.

Building a Better Shoe

Bowerman first began tinkering with running shoes in the 1950s, when he wrote to several footwear companies proposing ideas for improving shoes to better serve runners. None accepted his recommendations. Frustrated but not deterred, Bowerman took matters into his own hands and, with the guidance of a local cobbler, learned how to make shoes. To start, he deconstructed existing racing shoes with his band saw and examined their anatomy. Then, he toyed with metal and plastic spike plates and assembled various uppers over diverse lasts. Later, a Springfield-based bootmaker provided technical advice and showed Bowerman how to craft shoe patterns.&nbsp;

Phil Knight became the first student-athlete to try a Bowerman original. In a letter to Knight dated August 8, 1958, Bowerman suggested a weight-training regimen and running schedule. He closed the letter with a postscript: If you have a pair of shoes that you think would make good flats, send them down to me. They will be ready for you when school starts. Bowerman fitted a handmade pair with an upper made of white rubber-coated fabric — “the kind you’d use for a tablecloth you could sponge off,” he explained — to Knight’s size. Knight says Bowerman chose him to try the shoes because he “wasn’t one of the best runners on the team. Bowerman knew he could use me as a guinea pig without much risk.”&nbsp; Whatever the reasoning, the young runner tested the shoes at practice one evening, but didn’t get to wear them for long. His teammate Otis Davis spotted the prototype and wanted to give it a try. He liked the shoes so much he didn’t give them back. In fact, Davis went on to win a conference championship and a gold medal in the 400 meters at the 1960 Olympic Games in Bowerman-made shoes. Moving forward, Bowerman custom fit shoes to his runners by drawing an outline of their feet, measuring widths and noting individualities, such as an extended heel or slim ankle. He experimented with dozens of textiles — kangaroo leather, velvet, deer hide, snakeskin and even fish skin — to find the ideal lightweight, stretchy and resilient material, churning out new creations on a weekly basis. As his prototypes grew more refined and reliable, he continued to seek alliances with footwear companies, to no avail. In an August 1960 letter to a Portland company requesting steel for spikes, Bowerman wrote: Most American shoemakers are not interested in what we track coaches think about track shoes. The best shoes...at this time are made by the Germans. Their sole material is not too good and I can either replace their sole or I can make my own shoe. I don’t think there is any question, certainly in my own mind there is not, that I now have the best shoe in the world – if I could just find some good American shoemaker to make it.

A Shoe in the Door

This opportunity finally arrived when Knight forged a relationship with Onitsuka in 1964, based upon the belief that less expensive Japanese-made running shoes could perform as well as standard-bearer German shoes. Subsequently, he and Bowerman invested 50-50 in the business of importing and selling running shoes, opening a path for Bowerman’s own ideas. The coach expressed his optimism in a letter to Onitsuka in May 1964: I hope that your arrangements with Mr. Knight would be such that I would be free to turn over the ideas that I have worked out on track shoes.&nbsp;Bowerman spent the following summer designing and in October traveled with his wife, Barbara, to Tokyo for the 1964 Olympics Games, where three of his Oregon runners were competing. The couple stayed an extra week so that Bowerman could meet with Onitsuka founder and CEO Kihachiro Onitsuka as well as S. Morimoto, a company executive. Bowerman explained his ideas and toured factories to study the cutting and stitching machines. He gained confidence in the Japanese shoemaking process and established relationships with the two leaders, ensuring a receptive audience for his future prototypes and suggestions.

The Dawn of Cortez

Bowerman’s first breakthrough with Tiger shoes surfaced the following spring, in 1965, the indirect result of a track meet. At the meet, University of Oregon distance runner and future Olympic marathoner Kenny Moore moved wide in an 880-meter race, into the path of a passing teammate. The misstep resulted in a spike-inflicted gash on the outside of his foot. That injury led to a stress fracture and one of Bowerman’s most enduring inventions. Early in Moore’s recovery, the runner trained in the Onitsuka Tiger TG-22, a high-jump shoe that Blue Ribbon Sports mistakenly sold as a running shoe. When Moore’s X-ray showed a break across the third metatarsal, Bowerman asked to see his shoes and promptly ripped them apart. They had spongy cushioning in the heel and forefoot but zero arch support. “If you set out to engineer a shoe to bend metatarsals until they snap, you couldn’t do much better than this,” Bowerman growled. “Not only that, the outer sole rubber wears away like cornbread.”&nbsp; To correct the TG-22, Bowerman fashioned a running shoe with a cushiony innersole, soft sponge rubber in the forefoot and top of the heel, hard sponge rubber in the middle of the heel and a firm rubber outsole. In June of 1965, he sent Onitsuka instructions and samples for the shoe.

A month later, Morimoto responded, confirming that he was producing a training shoe to the specifications. But, Onitsuka had “some opinion as to the inserted sponge rubber at the heel.” Despite the objections, Bowerman pushed for the placement of sponge rubber in the heel, stating that it would help alleviate Achilles tendon issues. That summer, Moore rebounded from his stress fracture and logged more than 1,000 miles in Bowerman’s latest creations. Early Onitsuka prototypes featured two distinct pads in the heel and ball of foot, and a narrow heel. This eventually morphed into the full-length midsole Bowerman had originally conceived, a feature that ultimately became a major selling point for the shoe.Consequently, Onitsuka introduced the Bowerman-engineered Tiger Cortez, which an early 1967 catalog explained as: Designed to be the finest long distance shoe in the world. Soft sponge midsole through ball and heel absorbs road shock; high-density outer sole for extra miles of wear.

Consumers loved it. The Cortez was the first stable, comfortable shoe for the roads. It looked cool and debuted as running emerged as an American pastime, popularized by Bowerman and his 1967 book “Jogging.” And when Knight and Bowerman ceased importing and distributing running shoes through Blue Ribbon Sports and launched Nike as a designer and maker of athletic shoes, the Cortez silhouette carried over to the new brand. It also earned Bowerman a patent for its innovative continuously cushioned midsole. In July 1973, Runner’s World called the Nike Cortez “the most popular long-distance training shoe in the U.S.”

1973 Nike Cortez Ad

1977 Nike Cortez Tradition Ad

Waffle Windfall

The Cortez, however, was just the first of Bowerman’s celebrated inventions, which came to comprise eight registered patents, including shoes with an external heel counter, improved spike placement and a cushioned spike plate. It was also just the first success in his enduring quest to create the lightest running shoe possible.&nbsp;“He thought running shoes could be better,” Nike’s first full-time employee Jeff Johnson says about Bowerman’s early&nbsp;innovations. “He challenged accepted notions of traction, cushioning, biomechanics&nbsp;and even of anatomy itself.”Bowerman next sought to manifest a shoe with excellent traction on multiple surfaces, without metal spikes. The solve came over breakfast in 1970, as he&nbsp;contemplated the syrup-cradling depressions of the waffle on his plate. “What if you reversed the pattern and formed a material with raised waffle-grid nubs?” he wondered. He subsequently commandeered the family waffle iron and substituted melted urethane for batter. Unfortunately, Bowerman initially forgot to grease the iron with an anti-stick agent and it glued shut. Despite this setback, he persevered&nbsp;and fashioned a flexible, springy and lightweight rubber material with a raised, gridded pattern and grip traction.&nbsp;The Blue Ribbon Sports crew raced to debut the waffle sole at the upcoming 1972 U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Eugene. They had nylon uppers flown in from Japan to pair with waffle soles hand-cut from sheets of rubber made in Eugene. Early Blue Ribbon Sports employee Geoff Hollister glued the components together, creating shoes for a handful of trial competitors to wear during training or on the infield at Hayward Field.The hand-built shoes were dubbed the Moon Shoe due to the distinctive imprint they made in the dirt, which resembled the lunar footprints left behind by American astronauts during the era’s historic Apollo missions. The first iterations were crude, but runners liked the feel and traction of the waffle sole and word of the invention quickly spread. Bowerman further refined the concept and developed the iconic Waffle Trainer in 1974.&nbsp;

The rubber studs of the waffle sole offered give and cushioning that appealed to both elite athletes and everyday runners. The shoes, as TIME magazine wrote, were ‘’grabbed by the army of weekend jocks suffering from bruised feet.’’ The Waffle Trainer placed Nike on the global athletic footwear map, setting the stage for unparalleled growth. Bowerman’s legacy as an original thinker and innovator will forever be linked with the waffle sole, which like many brilliant inventions is so simple and intuitive it resonates immediately and broadly. Versions of it are still employed today in Nike footwear, as are Bowerman’s many other contributions to running shoe innovation, including the raised heel, the nylon upper and the continuous midsole.&nbsp;Nike’s footwear ideal has evolved, but Bowerman’s preoccupation with creating products that enable athletes to perform at their highest potential continues to fuel Nike's culture of innovation. Contemporary examples can be found in footwear technologies such as the Nike Free articulated outsole and the compressive woven-in support of Nike Flyknit uppers.&nbsp;

Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman's quest to create footwear to improve athlete performance is a driving force for Nike's ever-evolving approach to product innovation.

Innovation

Bill Bowerman: Nike’s Original Innovator

Editor’s Note: Fifty years ago today, Steve Prefontaine died in a tragic car accident at the age of 24. Kenny Moore, the esteemed writer and UO runner, said the following at his memorial service: “[Pre] conceived of his sport as a service, in the way an artist serves. Without that, he would never have given us all the records. They were out beyond winning or losing, which a runner does for himself. They came from those furious minutes near the end of a race when his relentlessness and our excitement blended into a joyous thunder. All of us who now say, ‘I had no idea how much this man meant to me,’ do so because we didn’t realize how much we meant to him. He was our glory, and we his.” Fifty years later, we remember the magic of Pre, who taught us that transformation — not just victory — is at the heart of sport.In 1973, two years after the Nike brand was born and the first Swoosh adorned shoes, the nascent footwear company signed its first star runner. The phenomenal Oregon native held multiple American distance records, competed on track and field’s greatest stage in Munich in 1972 and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated as “America’s Distance Prodigy.” The prodigy was Steve Prefontaine, America’s best-known track and field athlete at age 22. He possessed warrior determination and ran each race as if his life depended on it. His competitive fire, gutsy race tactics and inherent charisma charmed crowds and inspired up-and-coming runners to stick with the sport and give it their all.&nbsp;

On Track for Greatness

At 15, competing for Marshfield High School in in Coos Bay, Ore., Prefontaine set his first national record, running the 2-mile event in 8:41.5. He won back-to-back state cross-country championships in 1968-1969, and went undefeated in cross-country and track his junior and senior years. Heavily recruited by top running schools during his senior year, Prefontaine was swayed by a handwritten note from University of Oregon head coach Bill Bowerman. “It said if I came to Oregon, he’d make me into the best distance runner ever,” Prefontaine recalled. “That was all I needed to hear.”

While training under Bowerman and assistant coach Bill Dellinger at Oregon beginning in 1969, Prefontaine won seven NCAA titles (three in cross-country, 1970-71, ’73; and four in the three-mile distance in track, 1970-73). In Pac-8 Conference track competition, he won three-mile titles each of his four years at Oregon, plus the mile in 1971. At home at Hayward Field during his collegiate career and beyond, he notched a remarkable 35 out of 38 victories between 1970 and 1975.&nbsp;

Prefontaine’s ascendance came at a time when running was far from mainstream. Drivers unwilling to share the road routinely yelled and threw garbage at runners as they sped past. Prefontaine helped changed that attitude from annoyance to admiration. On the strength of his indisputable achievement and winning personality, he was the first person to make running cool. His association with Nike helped establish the Swoosh as a trusted running brand and transform the company from national shoe distributor to worldwide brand.

As a competitor at the University of Oregon, Prefontaine had considerable exposure to Blue Ribbon Sports and Nike footwear (at the time, products were branded Nike but the company name was still the original Blue Ribbon Sports, or BRS). In the summer of 1973, Nike co-founders Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman extended a $5,000 yearly stipend to help offset Prefontaine’s training expenses and to relieve him of occasional bartending shifts at the popular Paddock tavern. In between track workouts and long runs along the McKenzie River, Prefontaine put in time at the BRS store in Eugene. Prefontaine became well versed in BRS and its products and he was an ace pitchman. He printed up business cards with the title National Director of Public Affairs, and began traveling around the Pacific Northwest sharing training tips and encouragement to athletes while introducing them to new Nike running shoes.&nbsp;

The Start of Swoosh Sports Marketing

“The amazing thing about Pre was he was a hell of a student of the sport and he just loved digging and learning about things,” said Geoff Hollister, a runner who also competed at the University of Oregon under Bowerman and became Nike’s third employee. Hollister managed the BRS store in Eugene, and he and Prefontaine became close friends who shared interests in architecture, sports cars, and, of course, running.&nbsp; The pair visited high schools, colleges, sports stores and running clubs. “Every place we went, Pre would take time to go for a jog with the kids. He would analyze their form, and talk to them,” Hollister said. Prefontiane easily related to teens and was a natural spokesman for the sport. In his book “Out of Nowhere,” Hollister remembered a talk Prefontaine had with students at West Albany:&nbsp;

Prefontaine took that same personal approach when connecting with athletes from afar, helping to create an early blueprint for Nike’s sports marketing. He introduced the sport’s elite to Nike products, sending shoes, along with personalized notes and his business card, to running friends around the world. “It was totally his own idea,” said Hollister. Prefontaine shipped boxes to Mary Decker in San Diego; New Zealand’s John Walker and Dick Quax; to Brendan Foster in England; and Kenya’s Kip Keino. “All those people ended up wearing Nike shoes,” said Hollister. In April of 1975, Prefontaine sent a note and a pair of ’73 Nike Bostons to the relatively unknown runner Bill Rodgers. The shoes' arrival created a stir among his teammates at the Greater Boston Track Club. “You’d hear about Nike shoes or see pictures, but it was the first pair that I’d seen in person,” recalled Alberto Salazar, who was a high school student in Boston and a teammate of Rodgers at the time. “He brought them to the track, and we were all holding them and passing them around. Everyone was real excited not only because it was a Nike shoe — which was kind of neat because it was different — but because Steve Prefontaine had sent the shoes with a note.” A few weeks later, Rodgers wore them in the local city marathon. He finished first.

Legacy

Prefontaine is also remembered for furthering the cause of American amateur track and field athletes, who were boxed in by the lopsided rules of the American Athletics Union (AAU). In the 1970s, athletes who wanted to participate in the Olympic Games were required to remain amateurs, making it difficult but necessary to train at their sport and earn a living doing something else. The AAU controlled runners’ competition schedules and took the lion’s share of appearance fees due to athletes. Prefontaine gave up offers upwards of $200,000 to go pro to preserve his eligibility for Montreal 1976, and instead collected a $3 per diem — the maximum amount allowed by the AAU.&nbsp;

He continually challenged the AAU and spoke out about the inequity, even when it put his eligibility to compete in jeopardy. Prefontaine preserved his amateur status but he never made it to Montreal. His last meet was May 29, 1975, in a race he helped organize against members of the Finnish national team and distance heavy hitters such as Frank Shorter. Competing in the 5000m, Prefontaine trailed Shorter the first two miles, then, with three laps to go, accelerated to a 63-second pace. In front of a Hayward Field crowd of 7,000, he finished with a 60.3 last lap and a winning time of 13:23.8, just off his own American record. He ran a victory lap, attended the University of Oregon track and field awards banquet and spent the rest of the evening hanging out and celebrating with friends. The biggest track and field star in the country came to a tragic end later, just after midnight, while driving home, his life cut short by a car accident at age 24.&nbsp; His legacy is multifaceted. To generations of athletes at all levels, he embodies the philosophy of training incredibly hard and going all out in competition. For Nike, he was both a muse on the track and a trailblazer who pioneered a highly original and personal way of inspiring athletes with the brand. For fellow runners hamstrung by the AAU, Prefontaine was a leader who helped turn the tide towards professionalism. After Prefontaine’s death, others joined Nike in taking up his cause, ultimately leading to the abolishment of the AAU by the U.S. Congress in 1978. It was perhaps his most important legacy off the track.

Prefontaine's competitive fire, gutsy race tactics and inherent charisma charmed crowds and inspired up-and-coming runners to give it their all.

People

How Steve Prefontaine Set the Pace for Nike

On May 29, 1975, Steve Prefontaine crossed the finish line for what would be his final race. In a 5,000K victory where he was just a second and a half away from beating his own American record, Pre was wearing what would eventually be called his “signature” spike: the Pre Montreal, a name inspired by the summer games happening in Canada the following year, in which Pre was scheduled to compete in the 5,000m.&nbsp;Lore has it that prior to the Pre Montreal, <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/how-steve-prefontaine-set-the-pace-for-nike" target="_blank">Steve Prefontaine</a> was reluctant to run in Nike track shoes because he couldn’t find a shoe that felt just right, including the prototypes created for him by Bill Bowerman. The Pre Montreal might have been the first Nike shoe Pre truly loved, and its history is grounded in equal parts innovation and somber memory for its legendary endorser.&nbsp;

How We Made It

The Pre Montreal was the first competitive racing spike to have a toe box without seams or stitching. It went into production in 1973 but didn’t become available to the masses until the following year.While visiting Japan with Phil Knight in 1972 to order a new batch of Nike samples, Jeff Johnson, Nike's first employee, tinkered with spike plates he picked up from a distributor in Germany.

Johnson was looking for a way to combine a six-spike toe plate with a seamless toe piece upper. To do it, Johnson used reverse leather in the forefront of the shoe, a standard shoe seam in the back of the shoe and then joined by two pieces of nylon.“The idea of getting rid of the seam was to reduce the risk of blisters, because some people have a long first toe and some people have a long second toe,” Johnson told Nike DNA historians. “So, where the toe is going to strike the stitching and overlay is unpredictable.”

How It Took Off

Prefontaine had yet to find a Nike spike that he felt comfortable in during competition. That included Bowerman’s novel prototypes.“They were pretty rough and they were inconsistent because of the lasting machinery,“ said Johnson. The shoes that Bowerman was cobbling during Pre’s days were stuck in an older era, still solid shoes but not the freshest spikes on the track. As Johnson explained, “You wore them out of respect for Bowerman.”&nbsp;But times were changing. Pre graduated from the University of Oregon in 1973 and quickly signed on with Blue Ribbon Sports as the company’s self-proclaimed national director of public affairs. He even printed up his own business cards. Pre’s endorsement of Nike shoes, which often meant sending a pair of shoes along with a hand-written recommendation to a young runner, would become the cornerstone of Nike’s marketing efforts for years to follow.“We had Pre as an endorsement but we had nothing specific to give him,” said Johnson. Not only would&nbsp;Nike’s young star benefit from the design but the name would fit as well. Contrary to popular belief, Johnson named the spike after the impending 1976 Montreal Olympics but the association with Prefontaine was a pleasant coincidence.The spike’s final design earned Prefontaine’s seal of approval. Amateur Athletic Union regulations of that era prevented athletes from officially endorsing products at the risk of losing their amateur status altogether and Nike could claim that the spikes referenced the site of the upcoming summer games. Still, it was impossible to disassociate the runner from his colorful new spike. Nobody could stop Pre, and Pre was everywhere. He would race from 1973 until that final race in May of 1975 while wearing his Pre Montreal spikes.&nbsp;

What's Next

The legacy of the Pre Montreal continues with the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-international-running-pack-official-images" target="_blank">Nike International Running Pack</a>. The collection's Vaporfly 4, the latest evolution of Nike’s original super shoe, embodies the spirit of the Pre Montreal through the spike's memorable red and blue colorway, its visual treatment inspired by the spike upper's combination of nylon and suede.

The 1973 Pre Montreal racing spike was an innovation worthy of its rising star endorser, Steve Prefontaine.

Icons

The History of Steve Prefontaine’s "Signature" Track Spike

Not every breakthrough in sports science begins in a lab. For Nike’s iconic waffle sole — one of running’s most game-changing innovations — it began in the kitchen.It was 1971 and <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/bill-bowerman-nike-s-original-innovator" target="_blank">Bill Bowerman</a> was wrestling with a problem he’d been turning over in his mind ever since a hard, slick new urethane track had been installed at the University of Oregon two years prior, which was injuring runners. Bowerman had to face a reality: He had chosen a track surface that wasn’t holding up, and he needed to find a fix. How could his runners get better grip? Spikes dug in too deep; flats didn’t bite enough.One morning, while glancing at his wife, Barbara’s, waffle iron — a Model 251 by Bersted Manufacturing Company, which the Bowermans had received as a wedding gift in 1936 — he was struck by the grid pattern. The raised squares seemed like the exact geometry that could deliver the lightweight traction he’d been chasing.He poured liquid urethane straight into the family waffle iron, only it instantly glued shut permanently, ruining their 35-year-old wedding present. Undeterred, he drove into town, bought several more secondhand waffle irons, and kept experimenting. Those first imprints came out inverted with concave bumps, but they sparked the idea that would lead him to refine molds and materials until a workable prototype finally emerged.

What resulted was the first version of the Nike Moon Shoe — a design that would shape the future of running for decades.“The waffle sole changed everything,” says Nike Running Historian Rick Lower. “Not only did it transform how runners thought about traction and cushioning but it showed people what Nike was about: solving problems in new ways.”

A Catalyst for the Future

In 1971, Nike, then still known as Blue Ribbon Sports, an American importer of Japanese running shoes, hadn’t yet become the global force in sports innovation that it is today. The fledgling company was still finding its footing, and Bowerman — co-founder, coach and relentless tinkerer — was at the center of that push. To him, every surface was a problem waiting for a solution.&nbsp;That included the new Astroturf laid down at Autzen Stadium, where the Oregon Ducks football team struggled for traction. In wet conditions, players often ditched their cleats for basketball shoes with a herringbone outsole that gripped better. Bowerman and teammate Jeff Johnson began exploring traction ideas for football as well as track, a line of thinking that would lead to the Astrograbber — a shoe prototyped in 1972 and <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-bode-rec-astrograbber-official-images" target="_blank">reissued decades later</a>.“There had been no real innovation in outsoles for decades,” says Nike Running Historian Rick Lower. “Running shoes were basically just a sheet of rubber to protect your feet from the road, and traction and cushioning were secondary. Bowerman wasn’t willing to accept that.”Inspired by the moment in his kitchen, he began pulling in a network of local resources to help refine the molds and materials — tire shops, machinists, cobblers. Early prototypes disintegrated after only minutes of running. Others left athletes with cut ankles from exposed wire that was embedded in the rubber mixture for traction. Yet each failed attempt nudged the idea closer to the finish line.

By November 1971, the waffle sole had its first taste of competition when members of Oregon’s cross-country team wore early versions to win the NCAA title. Through the winter and spring of 1972, more college&nbsp;and local South Eugene high school&nbsp;athletes quietly tested pairs. By the following summer, Bowerman and Geoff Hollister were hand-cobbling a small batch of prototypes for a bigger stage: the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene.They weren’t perfect, especially not for the marathon level. “It was basically just an upper stitched to a thin sheet of waffle,” Lower says. “So minimal it was like running barefoot.” Still, a handful of brave runners laced them up. Some thought the waffle sole footprints looked like astronauts’ footprints on the moon, becoming part of the lore that gave the prototypes their now-iconic nickname: the Moon Shoe.For the fast-growing company, it was a pivotal moment. Even if the shoe wasn’t ready for mass release, it was proof the idea worked and evidence that this small Oregon company could push running footwear in an entirely new direction.

The Bridge to a Running Movement

The Moon Shoe itself never went to market, though a few pairs are believed to have been sold out of Nike’s Eugene retail store, making it possible to have snagged one if you were in the right place at the right time. But the shoe’s DNA spread quickly. By 1973, Nike released the Oregon Waffle. Two years later came the Waffle Trainer, Nike’s first blockbuster success.Designed by Bill Bowerman and Geoff Hollister, as well as famed Bowerman collaborators orthopedic surgeon Stan James and podiatrist Dennis Vixie, the Waffle Trainer became Nike’s most popular running model. It was created at the request of runner Jon Anderson, who wanted a more substantial training shoe, but went well beyond satisfying Anderson’s needs — it became the best-selling training shoe in the country. By 1975, orders had topped 100,000 units, and its blue upper with a yellow Swoosh became one of the defining looks of Nike’s early years. To this day, it remains emblematic of Nike in the 1970s.

The milestone sneaker didn’t just give everyday runners better grip. With a flared sole and a new cushioning sensation unlike anything they’d felt before, it changed expectations of what a running shoe could be.“That shoe was the bridge,” Lower explains. “It took the Moon Shoe’s experiment and turned it into a global product. From there Nike’s reputation as an innovator was cemented.”But it wasn’t the end for the Moon Shoe. After making its revival on Nike collaborator and French designer Jacquemus's runway last January, the iconic silhouette was reimagined for a new generation. Sleek and fashion-forward, the new sneaker, coming soon, bridges performance heritage and style with speed, capturing the same restless drive that defined its earliest incarnation. What was once vaulted as Nike's racing DNA is now primed for the future.

Long Live Experimentation and Innovation

The waffle iron tale might have stayed legend if not for a discovery decades later. When Bowerman’s son Tom renovated the family property in Coburg, Oregon, he unearthed a long-forgotten rubbish pit near the carport. Inside were discarded prototypes, molds and the rusted shell of the waffle iron Barbara Bowerman had tossed after Bill glued it shut.&nbsp;Today, that iron rests in the Department of Nike Archives at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., acting as a reminder of the kitchen tinkering that became the blueprint for Nike’s approach and long-term success: experiment boldly, keep refining and never stop pushing forward.

Created from the experimentation and ingenuity of Nike's co-founder Bill Bowerman, the Nike Moon Shoe's unique design would shape the future of running for decades.

From Waffle Iron to World Stage: The True Story of the Nike Moon Shoe

Dive Into Our 50-Plus Years of Heritage

Story Landing

3-Minute Portrait

Emma Hayes 3-Minute Portrait

Emma Hayes Tells You How to Succeed in Sports

3-Minute Portrait Alysa Liu

Alysa Liu’s Best Advice for Sports and Life

3-Minute Portrait Juju Watkins

JuJu Watkins On Her Natural Competitive Advantage

This generation of female footballers is fueled by fierce competitors who embody the leading role they play both on and off the pitch.&nbsp;They’ve directly benefitted from the pioneers in their sport while working tirelessly to show the rising generations what’s possible when you keep pushing the limits.&nbsp;Six of football’s most exciting players — Patricia Guijarro, Naomi Girma, Lauren James, Salma Paralluelo, Sophia Wilson (formerly Smith) and Deyna Castellanos — reflect on the gratitude they feel for the beautiful game and the opportunity to celebrate the future of it together.&nbsp;

<h3>SEEING IS BECOMING</h3>Sophia Wilson (formerly Smith) Portland Thorns FC, USA“I think women’s sports is growing so much and getting to a place that it should have always been. But I’ve been lucky enough to grow up when professional soccer was always in a dream that I could have because there was a league for me to play in. I’m very fortunate. But even in the short time I’ve played professionally, I’ve seen so much growth, not just in women’s soccer, but also in women’s basketball. I mean, all, all female sports are getting more attention, more investment, more recognition, and I think it’s only the beginning, and that’s very exciting.“I notice the rise in attention from fans in our home games. Match day in Portland is always electric. But I think that’s what makes it so special is it doesn’t matter if it’s just a regular season game or if it’s a championship game, the fans always show up. They have energy for 90-plus minutes. I’m honored to be a part of it and to be able to play in front of such an amazing crowd. The opportunities I have — with the Thorns, with the U.S. National Team — make me more than proud. I have the opportunity to show both young girls and young boys that they can have big dreams and they can become possible, just like they did for me.”

<h3>HONESTY LEADING TO CHANGE</h3>Deyna Castellanos Portland Thorns FC, Venezuela“I think the exposure that we have right now is something that has helped the sport for sure. And not just football, but in women’s sport in general, I think, like, it could be even bigger, and I think we're gonna get there. Being with Athlete Think Tank has been an amazing experience every time because everybody has the confidence and encouragement to speak their mind about how women’s sport needs more support.&nbsp;You learn from everybody’s path and everybody’s past and future, and it’s something that is just very inspiring.”

<h3>FROM ROOTS TO ROLE MODELS</h3>Patricia Guijarro FC Barcelona Women, Spain“I grew up in Collerense, a very humble place where I started playing with boys before transitioning to girls’ teams without knowing much about women’s football. That whole process of discovering the women’s game and seeing important athletes emerge from Collerense has been incredible. We’ve been fortunate to experience so much. I believe the humility I gained from growing up in Collerense has played a big role in shaping who I am today.“Now, younger players have role models to look up to and players they can dream of becoming. When I grew up, I had Virginia Torrecilla nearby in Collerense, but I didn’t have many role models beyond that. Today, girls can feel much closer to us and dream of achieving what they see us doing.”

<h3>WITH ATTENTION COMES RESPONSIBILITY</h3>Salma Paralluelo FC Barcelona Women, Spain“I think I’ve been fortunate to come into the game at a time when a lot of progress has already been made, thanks to previous generations of players who fought for those changes. It’s a more comfortable situation for me now, although there’s still a long way to go. I’m happy with the progress and proud that we’re finally getting the recognition we deserve. More people recognize you now. Honestly, I’m someone who enjoys having my own space, so I don’t love being in the spotlight all the time. But it’s something that comes with success, and I know it stems from something positive. I love how we keep pushing boundaries and striving for real growth in women’s football and sports in Spain. That collective drive is what excites me the most."

<h3>DRAWING SUPPORT FROM HOME</h3>Naomi Girma Chelsea FC Women, USA“I think being from San Jose, a place with such a deep history in women’s football, shaped how I kind of view the game and how I just like to have fun and enjoy everything that I’m doing. And I think in, like, big-pressure moments as an athlete, I can go back mentally to where I started playing. It always makes me feel calmer and more in the moment. I know the city of San Jose is behind us as female athletes. We’re working hard to make the future be even better for the next generation.“

<h3>WATCHING THE FUTURE UNFOLD</h3>Lauren James Chelsea FC Women, England“Growing up, I couldn’t watch women’s football as easily as I can now. I’m hoping that both girls and boys can watch me play and know that they can achieve the same things for their futures. Those that know me know I’m proud of being a Londoner. The city has been a huge part of my identity as a female footballer."

“Growing up, I couldn’t watch women’s football as easily as I can now. I’m hoping that both girls and boys can watch me play and know that they can achieve the same things for their futures.”

6 Fierce Footballers on Paving the Way for the Next Generation

From her start recording music in a makeshift closet studio in Johannesburg to becoming the youngest African artist to win a Grammy, Tyla has had an unstoppable rise.&nbsp;She’s dominated fashion weeks; lit up the VMAs; and turned popiano, her signature fusion of Amapiano, Afrobeats, pop and R&amp;B, into a global movement.&nbsp;With her breakout hit Water earning critical acclaim and the Water Dance creating hundreds of thousands of social media iterations, the 23-year-old has solidified herself as both a musical and cultural force. And just like her sound, her style is ever-evolving — one moment in Nike Shox and a tracksuit, the next, giving high-glam red carpet.&nbsp;Where there’s music and style, there’s sport. Which makes Tyla’s new partnership with Nike such a natural fit. A lifelong fan of the brand who grew up coveting her brother’s Nike hand-me-downs, the South African pop star has always embraced the intersection of sport, movement and music. Below, we hear from Tyla about the rhythm that drives her, the Nike staples she swears by, and why she refuses to be put in a box.&nbsp;

What’s your&nbsp;most defining Nike memory?&nbsp;Growing up and seeing my brother get the hand-me-downs from my dad. They were always Nike, and I wanted them so badly. He was the only boy in the family, so he kind of got whatever he wanted. I’d just have to borrow them whenever I could.&nbsp;How did you develop your signature sound and how has it evolved?&nbsp;I’m so happy that I was able to come into the game with a sound that nobody has done, you know? The way my music sounds — nobody sounds like that. The fact that I have my own identity as an artist is what every artist, I’m sure, dreams of. So I’m just grateful that people vibe with it. It’s bigger than where I’m from; it touches the world. And it’s exciting because it shows just how far we can take this.&nbsp;My hope for the next generation of African artists, especially women, is that we can make what we want to make and not be boxed into a specific genre. Depending on where you’re from or the way you sound, even if you make something that’s not generically Afrobeats, if you’re from the continent, it’s easy to be clumped together. I’d like for us to be able to exist in every space as artists — to create what we want and be recognized for it, without it being watered down into one thing.&nbsp;In terms of my sound, it started with a vision. I knew that I wanted to be in pop, but I didn’t want to do it in a normal way. I didn’t want to be a generic pop girl. Where I’m from, I had huge influences from Western music, but also local music. I wanted to mix it all into one and see what I could do.&nbsp;My manager had this small house in Johannesburg, and I would go there every weekend. They made a studio out of a closet, and I remember always going in there, recording, trying new things, experimenting. That’s where I wrote my first song.&nbsp;From there, it just evolved into something I’m so proud of because it really felt like I brought a vision to life. When I signed to the label, I told them, “This is my vision. I really want this to be my sound.” They supported me in that, and we just figured it out along the way.&nbsp;&nbsp;

With your nonstop schedule, what Nike pieces do you rely on to stay comfortable and stylish on the go?&nbsp;Definitely sneakers.&nbsp;Especially the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.nike.com/w/womens-shox-shoes-5e1x6z7e8jqzy7ok" target="_blank">Nike Shox</a>. But&nbsp;recently I've been wearing the Clogposite collab with Supreme. I have every color —&nbsp;literally&nbsp;every color. I put them on for everything. At airports, in the studio, walking around. They’re just so comfortable and convenient.&nbsp;I just feel like it makes you look more fly when you have a good shoe on.

Tell us about your personal style and how it’s evolved.My style has evolved a lot over time. When I look back at some pictures, I’m like, “Oh my gosh, what were you thinking?” I&nbsp;get bored so quickly, and I change my mind all the time. I’ll love an outfit today and a month later, I’ll hate that I ever put it on.&nbsp;People say my style is kind of “Flintstone” — ripped up, distressed, all that. It started when I had to dress up for shows but didn’t have access to a lot of resources. Me and my friend Thato would take random pieces, cut them up, tie them together — literally make outfits out of nothing. The more I did it, the more I loved it, and it just became my thing. Now, I hate anything that looks too perfect.&nbsp;I used to have a really clear vision for how I wanted to look. These days, I’m more open and experimenting. Before, I wasn’t that deep into fashion — I’d just put something on, and if I felt fly, that was it. Now, with fashion weeks and having greater access to brands, I’ve really fallen in love with it. I want to try everything.My aesthetic depends on how I want to feel. Sometimes I want to feel pretty, sometimes cozy, sometimes boyish. It&nbsp;depends on my mood. I don’t want to look the same all the time. When I look back years from now, I want to see many different versions of myself. One hundred different Tylas.&nbsp;What excites you most about this partnership?I mean, I’m a Nike girl. I love the brand. Nike isn’t just athletic clothes, it’s fashion. I really like that because when I wear Nike, it doesn’t feel like I'm just putting on a shoe or shirt. You feel fly wearing it. All the collabs, vintage Nike, it’s always been something that I gravitated toward. I also love how diverse Nike is. I’m really excited to work together, not only to wear the clothes but to hopefully create something with the team too. Maybe a Tyla shoe?&nbsp;That would be fire.&nbsp;

Where there’s music and style, there’s sport. Which makes Tyla’s new partnership with Nike such a natural fit. Hear from the Grammy Award–winning artist about the rhythm that drives her, the Nike staples she swears by, and why she refuses to be put in a box.

Welcome to the Family

5 Questions With Global Sensation Tyla

For A’ja Wilson and Issa Rae, being real has always been their foundation for success. Now they’re dropping gems as they chat about the A’One signature collection. You're gonna want to pull up a seat.

Nike A'One with A'ja Wilson and Issa Rae

A'ja Wilson's <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/behind-the-design-a-ja-wilson-signature-shoe" target="_blank">new signature shoe, the A'One,</a> debuted February 4, 2025 — the silhouette is a reflection of her expressive honesty, to herself, the game and in her relationship with Nike. Real through and through, <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/aja-wilson-interview-overcoming-self-doubt" target="_blank">A'ja sets the tone</a> for how to be confident, authentic and tenacious, on and off the court.

Watch the WNBA champion and the award-winning actress and writer chat about A'ja's passion for the game, the importance of her family, and what she wants all hoopers to get from the A'One, her new signature shoe.

Real Talk With A'ja Wilson and Issa Rae

It was the first time A’ja Wilson saw a physical sample of her first signature shoe, the A’One. She turned the shoe over in her hands. Ben Nethongkome, the shoe’s designer, saw tears well up in her eyes. “I promised I wouldn’t cry,” she joked to Nethongkome. She wore her excitement openly, unguarded.“A’ja is one of the most honest, original, expressive players I’ve ever worked with," says Nethongkome. "In designing her shoe, she’s never brought anything less than her honest point of view. That’s exactly the kind of feedback you need when you collaborate on a design with an athlete.” That expressive honesty is core to <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/aja-wilson-signature-shoe-apparel-official-images" target="_blank">A’ja’s shoe</a>, but also to her life, her game and her relationship with Nike. She joined the brand after turning pro in 2018. She became the face of Nike Basketball’s Cosmic Unity line, building a rapport with designers like Nethongkome. She quickly established her voice as an athlete who was comfortable giving clear feedback on what was working in a particular product, and importantly, what wasn’t. The brand encouraged her to share more. In 2022, she was invited to be a member of Nike’s <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-athlete-think-tank-second-cohort" target="_blank">Athlete Think Tank</a>, a group of professional athletes who are encouraged to give unfiltered feedback on how the brand can better support women athletes.

“You have to be real with people, and that comes from being confident,” says A’ja. “Any time I’m doubtful, I remind myself of my identity. Waking up, I gotta be like, ‘Girl, you’re blessed, you’re A’ja. Go take care of business.' I’m fully equipped to feel how I feel and execute my game plan in life.”&nbsp;On court, her game shimmers with a take-charge aura. A ball leaving her fingertips on a turnaround jumper is traced with her confidence as it rotates toward the rim. Her signature shoe, then, had to be canvased with that self-belief.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Pink A’ura launch colorway symbolizes A'ja’s ability to lead with confidence, loyalty and passion, with layers of pink creating a gradual ambiance that's flush with Leo energy and lights up the court in her favorite color.

The silhouette’s Cushlon ST2 foam works with a firmer base to deliver explosive responsiveness and smooth, cushioned landings so hoopers stay ready for every play.

A postgame quote that speaks to A'ja's trademark tenacity is immortalized on the heel: “Weakness, weakness. We don’t have time for that.”

The shoe pays homage to A’ja’s mom and dad with Celtic symbols representing their names, further harking to A’ja’s belief that family means everything.

A'ja's signature logo is inspired by the star she draws inside the “A” of her signature while referencing her role as an “A1” hooper who inspires kids to reach for their dreams. With that motivation in mind, the Nike A’One will be available in kids’ sizes as small as 1Y.

Nethongkome and his team spoke at length with A’ja about what technical qualities she needed in the A’One. She was clear that comfort and support were key for her, as those qualities would support her on-court versatility at both ends. No gimmicks. So, the midsole combo needed to do a little bit of everything. A Cushlon SLT midsole balances a plush ride with a responsive court feel, while a firmer foam carrier is wrapped around the outside to help brace A’ja’s footwork against hard cuts. A lateral TPU outrigger helps keeps her over the footbed.&nbsp;&nbsp;Like A’ja herself, authenticity is at the heart of the shoe. It was in the refinement of the upper where Nethongkome watched A’ja show up to design meetings as her most animated self. Nethongkome describes meeting Wilson in Los Angeles a few years ago. The team kitted out a studio entirely with mood boards, inspirational images, swatch samples and more, from ceiling to floor. Rather than wait for their cue, A’ja took the reins. She held tiny material swatches and compared palette combinations. She sifted through images of natural objects that held important metaphorical meaning for her, like clamshells containing a precious pearl. She talked out loud as she held neutral colors to the room’s light — not just a gray, but a specific gray, the gray she’d like to use someday for her wedding day.&nbsp;

“It’s not uncommon for athletes to be a little bashful during a design work session, because design feedback isn’t necessarily in their wheelhouse,” says Nethongkome. “Not A’ja. Her energy was infectious. Actually, her enthusiasm also helped some of our more bashful designers open up, too, because no comment was off the table.”&nbsp;Her honesty deepened the expressive detailing layered into the A’One. One of the review sessions last year involved traveling four hours north on I-5 to meet Wilson in Seattle, who was attending a concert later that night. Wearing a short sleeve shirt, A’ja sported a new tattoo design above her right tricep, which Nethongkome noticed. A'ja explained that the intricate symbols were Celtic characters representing her parents’ names, Roscoe and Eva.&nbsp;&nbsp;Nethongkome asked, Can we add some of these family details into the shoe’s design? The Celtic script was later incorporated into the shoe’s inside tongue. Her late grandmother, Hattie, is memorialized through inspirational quotes on the outsole. The upper’s pearl motifs are directly influenced by the pearl necklace she gave A’ja when she was a child. A’ja’s willingness to share, with sincerity, created a two-way exchange that transformed the shoe into a more personal memento, one that narrated Wilson’s closest connections, ambitions and goals.&nbsp;

Speaking of goals, A’ja describes the innate accountability that comes along with being a signature athlete, with her own shoe. The products need to be bigger than her, she says, because her legacy in basketball needs to be about more than her personal success. While indelibly personal, the shoe had to relate to all backgrounds, all skill levels, from the most skilled pro to the novice who’s picking up a ball for the first time.&nbsp;“Going after this legacy I’m chasing, to be the best, is a huge responsibility," she says. "But something I’ve always wanted to be about is for fans to see me as a real person. We can sit down and have a normal conversation. I’m chasing this goal, but I’m not on this unapproachable pedestal. We can be real with each other.”&nbsp;&nbsp;A’ja’s brought nothing but realness to the A’One. Sometimes, that includes some playful banter, even the occasional dare. A few rounds before she saw the final version — the meeting when she got tears in her eyes — the team pulled a prototype from the bag that was a typical sample size, a Men’s 9. She was emphatic. “That’s it,” she said. “I’m wearing these tomorrow.”&nbsp;&nbsp;Then she smiled. “Try to stop me.”&nbsp;

When you're designing for the queen, you have to perfect the crown.

6 Fierce Footballers on Paving the Way for the Next Generation

5 Questions With Global Sensation Tyla

Real Talk With A'ja Wilson and Issa Rae

How We Made A’ja Wilson’s Signature Shoe As Real As She Is

The Spaces Where Nike Creates the Future of Sport

The 2-Minute Test That Helps Every Runner Move Better

5 Questions with Record-Setting Artist Jackson Wang

In It for the Long Run: Behind the Scenes of High School’s Most Competitive Race

“The Better I Look and Feel, the Better I Play”

A'ja Wilson on How Pros Overcome Self-Doubt

How A Pro Runner Stays Fit in the Off-Season

Sabrina Ionescu on the Magic of the Game-Winner