A simple, innocuous curved line changed everything. Nike’s famous symbol not only represents the brand but has become part of the collective imagination. The exhibition NIKE. Design in Motion, which summarizes the company’s history and impact on the worlds of design and pop culture, will close its doors on April 5. You still have time to visit it at TeamLabs/ (Plaza de San Martín, 1).
The exhibition is open during the following hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM; Friday and Saturday from 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Private guided tours are available (except Friday afternoons, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays) and can be booked online. Additionally, throughout January, the audio guide tour will cost €1, and a duo pack (two tickets for €13.50 each) and a family pack (admission for four people) will be available for €12.50 per ticket.
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NIKE. Design in Motion is a journey through its nearly six decades of constantly evolving history (here are some of our favorite pieces): from the iconic Swoosh logo to cutting-edge innovations like the Air sole, collaborations with athletes and designers (Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, Virgil Abloh, Comme des Garçons…)or the brand’s culturalimpact in films and TV series (Forrest Gump, Stranger Things, Back to the Future…). Currently , Nike generates over $50 billion in annual revenue with products designed at its headquarters on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon.
Curated by Glenn Adamson (an American historian specializing in contemporary art), the exhibition is coming to Spain for the first time following its opening last year at one of the world’s leading design centers: the Vitra Design Museum, located in Weil am Rhein. There, we’ll be able to step inside and see what goes on in their labs and learn about the work of engineers, designers, scientists…
What will we find at the Nike exhibition?
How did Nike turn sportswear into fashion? How did it manage to change the rules of design? To answer these questions, the exhibition brings together objects including experimental prototypes of models (such as the Waffle Trainer, Air Force 1, and Shox), historical images and videos, design sketches… All of these items belong to the Department of Nike Archives, the company’s internal archive described as “a place where you’ll find inspiration in the past to imagine the future,” and are being exhibited in Spain for the first time.
The exhibition, organized into four sections, features numerous exhibits and interactive experiences.
The first section, Track, tells the story of Nike’s origins(a name referencing the Greek goddess of victory), a brand founded by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman in the early 1960s as a local business by sports enthusiasts for sports enthusiasts. Knight was a runner and Bowerman his coach, and the first employees were athletes. This first part summarizes the key moments in its history, highlighting the intense and close relationship between Nike and athletes, research, and design.
The second part, Air, is a journey through the 1980s, a time when the brand burst onto the international market and expanded beyond the world of track and field to include skateboarding, soccer, tennis, basketball… with its now-iconic collaborations with athletes like Michael Jordan and Andre Agassi. This was also the moment when pop culture (and especially the arrival of the 1987 Air Max model) broke into the mainstream far beyond the realm of sports.
The third room, Sensation, focuses on the 1990s, a decade that was pivotal for the brand’s technological development with the opening of the Nike Sport Research Lab. A laboratory that delves into the science of the body and movement to refine the brand’s designs, research sustainability, and explore new materials.
The final era (Relation) takes us to pop culture, mass culture, and global design icons such as Marc Newson, Tinker Hatfield, and Virgil Abloh (and some fifty other collaborations) who have connected and continue to connect Nike with the daily lives of its customers and fans. How? Through fashion, music videos, and even films. Nikeas a form of expression and identity-building.
