Nike Free 2014 Collection | Presenting a Decade of Development

As a moderate runner (or perhaps ‘jogger’ is a better description) I’ve been coveting some Nike running shoes for a while, so the opportunity to hear a talk on the 2014 Nike Free collection from their Vice President and Creative Director - Sean McDowell - was too good to miss.

A basement in Central London doesn’t seem the most natural place for an exhibition of running shoes. Three flights of concrete stairs down into a dimly lit Victorian warren, the only sign that this was the right place came from the wristband given at the door and the two girls comparing running injuries on the stairs.

As usual, Nike had gone to town. This was part exhibition, part art installation, part nightclub. The bright, almost psychedelic, colours that have become synonymous with Nike’s running shoes illuminated the walls between each dark corner. Pairs of trainers hung from the ceiling in patterns emulating a running stride alongside a strange set of oddly-shaped plaster cast feet. A homage to the hexagon played out on every stage.

The relevance of the hexagons became clear during Sean McDowell’s talk. Nike’s focus on natural motion has seen every element of their running shoes altered, changed, and adapted to support the natural movement of the human foot. With Nike Free, this change is particularly noticeable in the make-up of sole, which has evolved from their ‘ice-cube tray’ mould (first developed by pouring rubber into a waffle iron, apparently) to the hexagonal flex grooves of their latest shoe.

This development allows the trainers to bend in more than one direction at once, moving with your individual stride, rather than forcing your foot to move in a particular way, and so making the shoe suitable for runners of every kind.

It’s clear from such a detailed presentation that Nike are investing time and effort to research and understand the needs of runners, with examples given of the inspiration they have taken from both professional and grassroots athletics around the world. While the talk went on, the developments and innovations of the past decade were passed around the room, with some testing and probing questions being fired back at Sean McDowell - most so technical that they were lost on me.

Of course, development never stops with running technology and improvements can still be made. There was an admittance of issues with past Nike Free trainers, particularly a lack of rain protection when the original Flyknit material was used in the shoes - a problem apparently now resolved. There were also interesting insights into the future; for instance, the idea that all Nike stores will offer custom measuring services for running shoes, a service currently available for pro athletes only.

After the talks had finished, an organised run was available for those interested. Strangely, most people were - I was content with the prosecco and prosciutto at the bar.

Hopefully in the next couple of months I’ll get myself a pair of Nike Free 5.0 - this brand new pair to be precise. Does anyone already have a pair? If so, what’s the verdict? - Nik

Also see Nik's review of Nike FuelBand.

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