Sha'Carri Richardson on the Nike Atelier Look That Made Her Feel Invincible
- September 18, 2026
- Words:
When Sha’Carri Richardson stepped onto the red carpet at Athlos London this week, her coat ignited under the flash, reflected silver between each snap of the shutter, then settled back into something resembling a dense fog — just as it was built to do. Every Swarovski® crystal on the explosive two-time Olympic medalist’s custom look was applied by hand; every line of boning was sewn in to shape a silhouette no pattern alone could hold.
“It’s about adding a little bit of chaos, that unexpectedness, through the material,” says Nike’s Raffaella Barbey, the ensemble’s senior designer director. “You'll see it in the seams too, which have a wash effect that’s really beautiful.”
Richardson’s bespoke look is part of Nike Atelier, a vision that combines sport, innovation and premium craftsmanship to create extraordinary, one-of-a-kind expressions for athletes’ greatest moments. The reflective material in Richardson's coat, designed to be muted by day and flare to life at night, wasn’t the only element that stood out.
At the center of it all was a defining piece of Nike innovation: the FlyWeb Bra, a first-of-its-kind technology that trades traditional knit and woven construction for a single seamless layer, engineered zone by zone for fit and support. Layered beneath a gray ribbed knit corset, the bra — 3D-printed, with grid-patterned lattice — anchored the outfit at her chest.
"I feel invincible wearing it, like I was a knight provided with my armor."
Sha'Carri Richardson, two-time Olympic medalist
“Innovation is always the starting point,” Barbey explains of Nike Atelier projects. “From there, we ask: how can we build around that?”
To answer the question, Barbey and her team looked to the athlete herself.
In training and competition, Richardson is precise and methodical. Yet she also has a side to her that gives way to something more expressive, visible in her hairstyles, nails, clothing and artistic expression. Barbey and the Nike Atelier team wanted the look they created for the sprinter to hold both sides of her personality at once.
“We found that duality very interesting, and we wanted it represented in the designs we created,” she says. “With Sha’Carri, there’s the really disciplined athlete in terms of her training, her diet. She has to be in this game mode constantly. But then there’s also an element of distortion, of grit, of energy.”
Richardson felt it too, the moment she saw the finished look.
"My first reaction to the outfit was shock," she says. "It reminded me of something beautiful in disguise. I was very surprised, and truly in awe."
Discipline against disorder became a guiding principle for the outfit Barbey designed. The FlyWeb Bra brought a precise, structural element to the look, which the designers echoed through corsetry and tailoring in a fitted, ribbed knit bustier dress and matching micro shorts. Across the silhouette, those elements maintain “structured, strict lines,” Barbey says, while shaping and accentuating Richardson’s athletic form.
Then surface treatments broke those lines apart. A fading wash left the gray rib knit looking clouded and weathered, undercutting the precision everywhere else in the piece.
“We don’t want things to be too clean. We’re a disruptive brand, and we want that to show up in the design. It should have an element of grit to it.”
Raffaella Barbey, Senior Design Director Nike Atelier
The idea for the weathered effect traces back to the fact that athletes often live in cities and train on concrete as much as on a track. The look’s stark gray colors come from that concept, along with the reflectivity, brought to life through an image Barbey and her team kept returning to: the city after rain.
“It’s almost like you were on that morning run, with the droplets of rain dropping on your jacket,” Barbey says. “Then on the shoes, this idea of splashing in the puddles in the city.” The Swarovski crystals scattered across the coat are meant to invoke raindrops, thinning and gathering down toward the footwear as if they’d been kicked up from the pavement with each stride.
"The material shows a real depth once you pay attention: different layers, the way I feel like I have different layers as a person. You just have to look deeply."
Sha'Carri Richardson
Beyond the pavement metaphor, Richardson saw herself in the reflectiveness.
"That was the detail that felt most personal," she explains. "At first glance you'd think it was just gray, dark, until you look deeper, and you see the light coming through, the way you can find light even through a storm. That's my favorite element, and it reminded me of myself. The material shows a real depth once you pay attention: different layers, the way I feel like I have different layers as a person. You just have to look deeply."
The result is a look that’s deliberately imperfect — elegant without feeling too polished or pristine. The washed surfaces introduce a sense of edge, while the crystals, reflective samba-dyed nylon ripstop and tailored construction bring refinement.
“We don’t want things to be too clean. We’re a disruptive brand, and we want that to show up in the design. It should have an element of grit to it,” Barbey says.
That balance is also what separates the Nike Atelier pieces from their performance origins. The silhouettes themselves are recognizable: a track-inspired jacket, shorts, a crop top, a bustier dress, a running shoe. But each has been reimagined.
“I call it pattern manipulation,” Barbey says. “Taking something like a track top and manipulating it through proportion, volume and pattern.”
For the jacket, the sleeve volume was intentionally exaggerated. The pattern was developed with a tailor and tested through a toile — a rough mockup used to perfect the fit. Getting the proportions right took repeated amendments. Pleats add another layer of movement, while the long sleeveless garment underneath gives Richardson a more dramatic silhouette for the red carpet.
“It was about bringing softness and beauty into it,” Barbey says.
“We try to push the garment, and the athlete, into new spaces that people don’t always get to see.”
Raffaella Barbey
That same logic runs through the footwear. The shoe is a Vomero Premium, built with the same Air Zoom technology found in Nike’s track spikes, and its line is extended through a thigh-high, crystal-dusted sock, a familiar performance shape, stretched into something elongated and new.
Barbey says achieving successful Nike Atelier looks like Richardson’s comes down to listening to and understanding the athlete, however that unfolds.
“What’s amazing about Nike Atelier is that it doesn’t have a fixed aesthetic,” Barbey says. “It evolves and morphs with the athlete. We try to push the garment, and the athlete, into new spaces that people don’t always get to see. Sha'Carri fully trusted us to bring the vision to life.”
Richardson says the team made it easy to believe in the process.
"Working with the designers was seamless," she says. "The understanding they had of me as a person meant I could communicate less, because the concept they had was understood and respected from the beginning. It was less offering feedback and more just approving, acknowledging, loving, melding both sides of the partnership to bring out what I feel, what I stand for, through this look."
"These pieces reflect Nike being groundbreaking again, showing up as a partner that sees you as a human before an athlete — but also sees you as an athlete."
Sha'Carri Richardson
That long-term trust, built between the brand and its athletes, is the foundation of Nike Atelier. And for Richardson, Barbey's vision was "a sculptural goddess, structured and almost statue-like, softened by an ethereal train."
The athlete felt that power the moment she put it on.
"I feel invincible wearing it, like I was a knight provided with my armor," she says. "I am able to go into war, go into any scenario, knowing I can fully be myself and shine through it all." The look also represents her partnership with the brand, she adds. "These pieces reflect Nike being groundbreaking again, showing up as a partner that sees you as a human before an athlete — but also sees you as an athlete. As our partnership continues to grow, through it all we are always one team, one band, one sound."
Asked what she wants people to feel when they see her in the ensemble, Richardson doesn't hesitate.
"When people see me in this look, reflective, catching the light the way it does, I want them to think: what you see is what you get. That's me. I'm going to keep thriving, keep blossoming. Sometimes I feel like sunshine, bright enough to blind. If you're in the middle of a storm, there's still something beautiful that can be created. Don't stop in a storm."
