Nike has long allowed at-home designers to tweak its sneakers through NIKEiD, the brand's online customization platform. It will level up that process this month with the Nike Makers’ Experience at the brand's 45 Grand space in New York City, which brings sneakers to life in a matter of hours.
Handled by Nike's Advanced Innovation team and VP of Innovation Special Projects, Mark Smith, the process offers a model called the Nike Presto X as a base. From there, graphic options from Nike's catalog, or what the brand calls "on-the-spot phrases," are used to generate graphics.
Most notably, the in-person design sessions work at warp speed in comparison with traditional footwear production.
"The intention of the project is to bring to life the collaborative design experience that we offer our athletes," said Smith in a piece at Nike News. "They love products that tell their story, so we wanted to combine that idea with a new process of live design and manufacturing that allows our guests to come into the space, work collaboratively with us, and leave with a special product in less than 90 minutes."
In what comes as a blow to the general public, the experience will only be available to Nike friends and family and select Nike+ users when it goes live this month.
