Designing for Athletes

Scholastic Art: What is your job?

John Hoke: As vice president, chief design officer at Nike Inc., I lead a large global studio of designers to bring innovation and inspiration to athletes and consumers all over the world through design. Specifically, the products include performance footwear, street footwear, uniforms, athletic clothing, and accessories. 

SA: How do you design a new performance shoe?

JH: I begin by listening to the athletes to understand their needs. Basketball players have different needs from runners, and runners from tennis players, and so forth. Then we sketch and make models using a variety of technologies, such as 3-D printing, and using different materials, such as foam. We get feedback about a model and refine it. Then, finally, we go into production. Depending on the shoe, the process can take three months or two years.

SA: What are your goals when designing performance footwear?

JH: The goal for me is always to marry function with form. So what is the goal of the athlete? If the athlete wants to jump higher, we work on creating a design to serve that function—that helps catapult the athlete into the air. But we also need to create a shoe that is beautiful and that people will want to wear.

SA: What skills do you need to succeed as a Nike designer?

JH: We use design to solve the problems athletes face in achieving whatever they want to achieve, whether it’s wanting to run faster or longer or something else. So a Nike designer has to have problem-solving skills and has to be able to listen to the athlete, understand what the problem is, and then solve that problem through drawing and the use of technology and models to bring the design to life.

SA: How did you get your job at Nike?

JH: As a kid, I was a runner. One summer, when I was 12, I was relaxing on an air mattress in a pool thinking about how I could redesign my sneakers for better cushioning. I thought, “What if I could shrink two air mattresses and put them under my feet as I ran.” I sketched out some ideas and showed them to my dad. He encouraged me to send them to Nike. Believe it or not, they wrote back! They told me to contact them when I was older and ready to work for them. And that’s exactly what I did.