A variety of lasts, jigs, silicon pads and fixtures at the Advanced Product Creation Center in Beaverton, Oregon show the signs of wear as part of the multiple stages of creating a shoe. (Photo by Alastair Philip Wiper)
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A Minute in Basel: Decades of Nike Design Innovation

October 5, 2024
Crafting a showcase of 50 years of design in a single space was the sole task for the curation team at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, just outside of Basel, Switzerland.

But this mission also involved a deep dive into Nike's vast archive of over 200,000 artifacts in order to display a visual chronology of the company's humble running origins of the 1960s to the design innovation of present day.

The result is "Form Follows Motion," an exhibition open to the public at Vitra until May 4 with a significant portion of the items being shown for the first time. Stepping into the space, visitors can expect to see prototypes, drawings, historic film footage and the actual tools that were influential in breaking the company into the running shoe landscape — en route to dominating the sports apparel space through design.

The tour of the museum is a self-guided trek of just four themes: Track, Air, Sensation and Relation — with an emphasis on chronology to shed light on the equal union of advancements in sports, innovation and culture.
The exhibit of the main level of the Vitra Design Museum is a look back at early Nike running shoes from the 1970s and matching track jackets.  (Photo by Bernhard Strauss)
At the Department of Nike Archives storage facility in Beaverton, Oregon, rolling racks contain thousands of archived shoes, clothes, samples, textiles and artifacts. More than 200,000 items are in the facility. The selections in the “Form Follows Motion” showcase were meticulously selected during a two year curation period.  (Photo by Alastair Philip Wiper)
Outside view of the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany. The museum, created in 1989, is famed architect Frank Gehry’s first building in Europe.  (Photo by Bernhard Strauss)
A collection of test molds and Air sole prototypes from Frank Rudy, who invented the Air Technology. Many of Rudy’s early sole artifacts are housed in the Department of Nike Archives in Beaverton, Oregon.  (Photo by Alastair Philip Wiper)
The lower level of the exhibit at the Vitra Design Museum features deconstructed mannequins showcasing the current era of Nike design and fashion — with some of the company’s current shoes, like the Alphafly 3.  (Photo by Bernhard Strauss)
With dozens of samples hanging on racks behind him, Bill Bowerman is seen crafting shoes by hand in his workshop at the Eugene Lab in 1980.  (Photo courtesy of Nike)
The upper level of the museum is a visual deep dive for sneakerheads, with one-off collaborations and rare shoes equally spaced apart — and encased in glass — on the floor.  (Photo by Bernhard Strauss)
The Moon Shoe (1972) was hand crafted by Bill Bowerman and is one of the first creations with his famed waffle sole.  (Photo by Unruh Jones)
The main exhibition space is a peek at the first running boom of the 1970s along with the tools (and fashion) that defined the era.  (Photo by Bernhard Strauss)
As running shoe technology evolved, products for other sports like basketball, tennis and soccer also benefitted from the latest footwear innovation. Design and fashion became synonymous with iconic shoes serving their primary function but also evoking emotion.  (Photo by Bernhard Strauss)

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