The Future of Performance Apparel Is Here

The boldest ideas don’t begin with guarantees. They begin with a dream — and an audacious commitment to make it real. That’s exactly how Nike FlyWeb, the company’s newest performance material, came to life. The first-of-its-kind 3D-printing innovation was born through years of experimentation and a resolve to do what had never been done before. 

Nike FlyWeb represents a radical shift in how performance apparel is made and what it can feel like.

Unlike traditional athletic apparel, which is typically knit or woven from yarn, FlyWeb is made from TPU — a soft, pliable polymer — and 3D-printed to form the desired product. 

Three-dimensional printing is nothing new for the footwear industry or Nike. This is, however, the first time Nike has applied the manufacturing method to high-performance sports apparel for an athlete, says Janett Nichol, Nike VP of Innovation. 

“What works on a shoe doesn’t just translate to something you wear on your body,” she explains. “It took years of re-engineering — not just the materials but the design approach itself — to make FlyWeb feel soft, breathable and beautiful enough for apparel.”

The first product Nike design teams chose to tackle in the new material? One that hasn’t changed in material form since its inception: the bra.

The Nike FlyWeb bra is an ode to minimalism. The FlyWeb material is one single, seamless layer, built through computational design so that Nike designers could control the fit and support down to the millimeter, adjusting density, airflow and stretch across different zones of the garment.

“We had to re-engineer everything — dismantling what we knew, then putting it back together — to make it wearable next to skin,” says Nichol.

The result is something athletes have never felt before. The Nike FlyWeb bra doesn’t just reduce bulk or manage moisture more efficiently. It creates an entire sensory shift. For women athletes, it eliminates the multi-layer barrier found in most sports bras, unlocking airflow and comfort in ways traditional construction simply can’t.

“It’s soft. It’s light — so light, it feels like you’re not wearing anything at all,” adds Nichol. “That’s the No. 1 thing testers tell us: It disappears on your body yet somehow delivers incredible support.”

That support doesn’t come from compression or layering but rather from the structure itself: The computationally-designed pattern is specifically engineered to be denser in areas that need more containment.

Nike FlyWeb fluidly engages when the athlete moves, creating responsive athletic support without relying on seams, straps or extra material. That means pure freedom of movement.

“You can actually feel the air on your chest,” says Nichol. “Most women have never experienced that while running. We don’t even think about it because it’s just not something we’ve ever expected to feel.”

On June 26 in Paris, Faith Kipyegon will attempt to become the first woman in history to break the 4-minute mile, an effort that’s been dubbed “Breaking4.” And as she takes to the track for the legacy-defining attempt, she’ll be wearing a one-of-one sports bra made from the breakthrough material.

It was her ambition — and the scale of that goal — that helped push Nike FlyWeb from bra prototype to bespoke product.

“Everyone was a thought partner; we really put our heads together,” says Lisa Gibson, Senior Product Manager, Apparel Innovation. “And when you have a team working in synergy, believing in Faith and this moment, that’s when things start to magically unlock. It’s that Nike magic.”

FlyWeb’s debut isn’t only a material milestone. It’s the start of a new era in how performance apparel is made.

What began as a moonshot of its own — an experiment to reimagine how we think about apparel — quickly accelerated into a breakthrough once Kipyegon’s goal came into view. 

“We knew that it was an opportunity for us to look at what we had in our arsenal and what we could really use to help her break this goal,” says Nichol. “We realized a gift had been dropped in our laps, and it was up to us to rise to the moment.”

Now that the material is here, its potential is beginning to unfold. 

"We’re just scratching the surface," says Nichol. "This is a true unlock, not just for bras but for how we design and build high-performance apparel going forward. It opens the door to entirely new ideas for how athletes experience sport through what they wear."