Nike will present its first-ever museum show at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Titled “Nike: Form Follows Motion,” the exhibition will run from September 21, 2024 to May 4, 2025. Most of the items in the exhibition will be sourced from the Department of Nike Archives, which contains more than 200,000 pieces.
The exhibition will feature a wide array of Nike’s products and innovations, tracing the brand’s history and influence over five decades. Visitors can expect to see early prototypes of the Waffle Trainer and Air Force One. It will also feature collaborative pieces from designers including Marc Newson and Virgil Abloh. The show will also highlight contributions from athletes who have helped shape Nike’s design legacy.
“When we approached Nike, we learned more about their incredible design archive—a huge treasure that had never been presented in an exhibition,” said Mateo Kries, director of the Vitra Design Museum. “That was how the idea of this exhibition was born. The show offers a unique opportunity to focus on design through the lens of a single brand and to display fascinating objects that illustrate the process of design development—some of which have never been shown before.”
“Form Follows Motion” features four distinct chronological sections, each focusing on different eras and aspects of Nike’s development. The first section, “Track,” explores the brand’s origins in the 1960s, highlighting stories like the development of the first Waffle Sole by co-founder Bill Bowerman. The subsequent section, “Air,” covers the 1980s rise through partnerships with athletes like Michael Jordan and innovations such as the Nike Air brand.
The third section, “Sensation,” explores the technological and material innovations at Nike. This will include insights from the Nike Sport Research Lab. The fourth section dives into the cultural impact of the brand, examining how Nike has intertwined with pop culture.
“We will look at the larger social and historical context surrounding Nike,” said curator Glenn Adamson. “Over the past 50 years, sport has had a tremendous impact on our perception of the human body, beyond the track and the court—for example, on conceptions of gender roles. Our exhibition will show how the company has both instigated and responded to these changing dynamics, from its initial emphasis on performance and optimization to greater diversity and inclusion.”
