Nike Ignites New Frontier of Innovation With 40 Elite Athletes in Unforgettable Experience in Paris

The company that brought you Air Max, the Jumpman and Breaking2 is making history again. Leveraging its proprietary Nike Air; its world-class and unmatched roster of athletes; and its passion for combining creativity, irreverence and bold exploration, Nike hosted “Nike On Air,” an exhibition and live performance at the Palais Brongniart in Paris that marked the final countdown to the biggest stage in sport.

Nike is the brand of athletes
The Nike On Air event was occasion to unveil the footwear and apparel that the brand’s athletes will wear this summer — and it was also a moment to celebrate the hard work and technology that brought it all to life. This was conveyed through an immersive and sensorial experience that underscored three truths: Nike is the brand of athletes, its innovations continue to lead the sports industry, and its proprietary Air technology uniquely enables the company to serve all athletes with unrivaled performance product.

The experience began outside the Palais Brongniart, where, since April 3, all Parisians were invited to view and interact with colossal AR-enabled statues of six titans of sport, poised in midair and glowing in signature Nike orange: Nike athletes LeBron James, Alexia Putellas, Bebe Vio, Kylian Mbappe, Sha’Carri Richardson and Victor Wembanyama. Each statue was between 8 and 11 meters high and had an augmented-reality interface that unlocked the athletes in action and their Air-powered footwear. Their AR heroics communicated their relationship with Nike Air, the shoes that energize them and ultimately position them as timeless athletes among us.

Nike innovations lead the sports industry
Inside the Palais, guests walked through gallery-style rooms that evoked the sounds, sights and feelings of the rich history and limitless future of Nike Air — its genealogy, culture and reinvention — and highlighted the company’s product innovations in running, basketball, global football, skate, breakdancing and lifestyle. Here, attendees could see a first look at the 2024 national uniforms and kits athletes will wear on the fields of play in Paris this summer. Nike is proud to partner with more than 100 federations across team and individual sports, as well as support hundreds of individual athletes who will compete in the games. The company also unveiled previews of the captivating Air products to come, including the sculpted Air unit in the new Pegasus Premium, Nike’s biggest breakthrough in Air since its revolutionary VaporMax line and Alphafly super-shoe system of speed. Contoured to the natural profile of the foot, the sculpted Air Zoom unit in the Pegasus Premium carries a runner’s power through their transition from heel to toe, giving a super-shoe-like ride to the everyday runner.

Nike’s proprietary Air technology is its differentiator
Complementing the Air immersion rooms was the Nike On Air performance. Forty elite athletes from around the world joined Nike to unveil the latest Nike Air footwear and team kits for the summer and present the future of athlete co-creation with iconic and visionary looks that highlighted their self-expression and incredible athleticism.

In the finale of the show, 13 athletes declared their visions of the future of Air through radical AI-explored, 3D-printed, one-of-one footwear that Nike’s innovation teams helped bring to life in a project called A.I.R. — Athlete-Imagined Revolution. 

“These groundbreaking Nike Air designs forecast the future of performance footwear, co-created to the exact specification of championship athletes,” says Heidi O’Neill, NIKE, Inc. President, Consumer, Product & Brand. “At the heart of all we do is the athlete. We exist to push boundaries and take risks on their behalf. This summer, the difference-maker is the massive energy return of Nike Air — what you’ll see athletes wear on the road, court, pitch and track. A multiyear cycle of Nike innovation is upon us, and here in Paris, we’ve shown only the beginning of what’s to come.”

The event represented 46 years of research and innovation of Nike Air. Since Air debuted in performance product in 1978, Nike innovation and design teams have consistently found new tools and methods to enhance what it can do. Air is the window into Nike; it represents the company’s constant reinvention and never-ending progress.

That progress is what Nike On Air signaled for this summer and beyond. As shown by A.I.R., for Nike, the best is always yet to come. With expanding digital capabilities and the expertise, creativity and passion of Nike teams, the company is giving all athletes more support, more choice and more inspiration than ever to make their dreams real.

As it always has, Nike Air flows in one direction — toward the new frontier of innovation.