more on these soon, but some info on these just launched on our site:
i love the motto. i have to say for me the t4g stands out the most, but a part of that could be its colors…
Congrats Yo, sweet piece of work, dude you must be stoked!
Peace
TOMfoolery
Thanks. Some more details from the site:
Yo, very nice work. the shot of the underside of the sole is stunning. I am wrapping up the design work for the Northwave Snowboard Boot project , and after three or four weeks of looking at them am again inspired by your post. Keep posting for us out here.
nice. very ‘back to the future pt II’.
Is that real carbon fiber I see on the heel-achiles area?
The sole pattern is very cool. It reminds me of something but I can’t remeber what. Did you develop that in 3d CAD or 2D drawings-sections?
Thanks, def trying to return to the future a bit… that heel is real “fiber” 
It was all done 2d with section, the 3d was done in Asia and I revised it 2 dimensionally.
more shots:
I really like the material use.
It’s been said, that outsole is sick. For some reaon, it makes me think of the movie event horizon.
mother of god, they are amazing. what did you mean about the fibre on the heel?
whatever KE
spacecadet, I see what you mean with the event horizon perspective.
anyway, some more shots with some sketches.
Hi Yo,
These kicks are looking great.
I was wondering about the outsole and how you aproach the design process. How do you arrive at the functionality and performance aspects of the shoe? Being based in the UK my knowledge of Bball is limited, obviously know 23 though. Is this a more athleisure driven range or performance based.
I am really interested in biomechanics and how foot function for various sports can be built into a shoe. Then how that can be packaged into great skin applied aesthetics as you have shown.
Thanks Yo
Is that Tar Heel blue in a suade-like material… or am I just seeing things?!
Either way, very nice!
noooiice! that outsole is sweet as well. were these done/ developed concurrently?
@ JB- The T4g was done first and the sjow’m followed. The show’m is the successor to the work’m so it had to have similar performance characteristics, but family with th T4g…
@ southpaw- that most definitely is Tarheel blue… we call it university blue tho…
@ bespoke- most of the hardpoints on the outsole and midsole are determined by product testing from past shoes. Flex notch positioning, forefoot sidewall heights, traction wraps… on-top of that are experiments like the flex notches in the forefoot of the T4g, even though it is similar to other nike products, it is constructed in a way to be more appropriate for basketball, so that stuff has to be tested and retested. On-top of that it is just connecting the dots in as unique a way as possible in a way that makes sense functionally and aesthetically.
but i wasnt being sarcastic! theyre awesome. how am i gonna hate on these?!!
sheesh…
Thanks for the insight YO, it is a really great sollution. I am really interested in this so I hope you don’t mind me asking you some more questions and I apprecaite that there may be an element of confidentaillity involved.
When your designing the outsole, do you have any prototypes made, functional or non-functional before you cut the mould. If they are functional do you undertake any wearer trials with athletes to build upon on the knowledge base of previous shoes.
At Nike, (I presume you are at NIke) say you wanted to consult a specialist in biomechanics because you wanted to design a shoe that once the athlete landed ensured that all the forces are directed away from the knee and spread through the outsole: would you get the time and resource to do this?
With the outsole did you specify the shore stiffness of the materials and what they are, say TPU 1 as an example.
If possible would you be able to give me/us a breakdown of how you work on a project, how long you get to design a shoe from start to sample to final production. I appreciate some of this may be secret but I am just trying to get a feel for the performance brands and how designers work within the business model and seaosnal deadlines. Thanks
@ KE, I’m still not sue if you are being sarcastic…
@ Bespoke, no worries dude ask away.
We have lots of rounds of function prototypes made in various sizes. They are wear tested by a pool of athletes of varying skill levels in different conditions depending on the sport. We use this data to adjust the design throughout the process.
We have a few biomechanics specialists on staff as well as a pretty extensive in house testing lab with all kinds of tricks in it, can’t really go into details.
Yes we specify the stiffness of the materials. It is a balancing act and depends on functions of course. The softer the foam, the more comfortable, the quicker it breaks dow. Certain parts are nylon like strap d-rings and what not, for durability.
It is generally 18 months sketch to shelf. About a month of ideation, then technical drawings, and then about 5 rounds of samples and revisions…
Thanks again Yo, do you have a rapid prototyping set up at Nike? I have tried some of the rubber based materials that are going into the machines now but they just breakdown so quickly that you can not get any meaningfull wearer trials.
Have you tried the metal sinetring method yet for making moulds, you can make amazing designs much more complexed and intricut than being machined out. I am trying to do some work with it now for performance soccer footwear so I will keep you posted on that.
I was wondering if I could ask you about the last, do you design this as well? does it change every season? Do you have a last making facility at Nike HQ that you can tap into. The way I like to work is set up my last then digitise it in and work on it in Rhino. Setting down my design lines, panels etc then I can pull this off and make a direct pattern from it.
Sory for flooding you with questions. It is just great to get an insight into how others work. I have been working freelance for five years now in performance soccer footwear with elite athletes however really want to move into a brand now to push my concepts further and harder with more realistic budgets. I have to typically do stuff on peanuts due to the clients resource. The one thing that is kinda of putting me off is that I have such a self initiated design process, I am slightly concerned I wouldn’t be able to apply that in a bigger organisation. 4 weeks seems like a nice time frame to get ideas down, before that idea creation do you get a time frame to get reference and research the direction you want to go. EG: Build reference book, spend a week with apparel because you looking at building in articulation at the flex, go to a bball team trainning camp to see how the footwear exists etc.
Thanks,