Nike Shows Us Future of Footwear Design In Mixed Reality

Nike is stepping feet first into the future. With the help of Dell and Meta, the global athletic wear company just released an “aggressive” video showing the potential for VR, mixed reality, and more in the future of design.

Using Dell’s Canvas tablet computer, the video highlights Nike’s innovative vision for the future of design, including voice control, mixed reality, and haptic technology to streamline the footwear design process.

When it comes to footwear design, the difference between working on a flat 2D surface versus a 3D model can be significant. The “demo” video shows everything from swapping materials in real-time to testing a 3D model impacting different terrain. It’s inspiring.

Although this future isn’t quite a reality yet, Nike has begun introducing different aspects of the technology to their current design process. “They’re using this incredible haptic technology which allows them to create a holographic image of what they’re designing and feel the texture of the fabrics as they’re designing,” said Dell EVP and CMO Jeremy Burton.

By using mixed reality and 3D modeling, Nike believes that creators and designers will feel inspired, instead of limited by, their tools. While taking massive strides to innovate the creative process behind designing, Nike is also pushing for a “manufacturing revolution.” The experimental process showcased can improve the development time, utilizing physical product that can be examined and tested far before it gets to the production stage.

Nike’s VP of Digital Design Transformation, Ken Black, has no doubt that the technology will allow Nike’s one thousand plus designers to continue to create on a level higher than their competitors. “There’s a generation who is already working like this, and there is a generation coming who will work and create like this as if it’s how they breathe. So we are aggressive on pursuing the environment in which they can create, and I will say this: We have the best designers, best athletes, best data. We’re going to use technology like this to enable us to go faster and we quite frankly embrace those like you and others who are creating the tools that are going to help unleash the imagination of our creators and the potential of athletes.”

The vision, summed up as “wild stuff” by Burton, has no set timeline, but Nike’s attitude towards the project indicates that it will be implemented as quickly as time and technology allows.