Nike Space Hippie

Nike, a leading global sportswear brand, has always emphasized the performance of their shoes and athletic gear. In 20-teens, the company set out to also add sustainability to their corporate goals. A small innovation team in the company aimed to create a shoe, the Space Hippie, with the lowest possible carbon footprint using post-industrial waste from Nike’s operations. The team had to rethink traditional material sourcing, production processes, and collaborations with both internal stakeholders and external manufacturing partners.

Challenges in producing the Space Hippie were multifaceted. The team needed to ensure that the recycled materials maintained requisite performance and durability while achieving significant reductions in carbon emissions. They encountered issues like bio-contaminants in recycled yarns and the need for new purification standards since industry benchmarks did not exist. Additionally, they had to convince Nike’s marketing and manufacturing teams of the viability and marketability of the shoe's unconventional design and name, "Space Hippie".

After overcoming these obstacles, the project prompted internal reflection on the balance between innovative material use, market readiness, and the broader implications for Nike's sustainability narrative. Nike wondered what elements of the Space Hippie project could be institutionalized for future products and how the lessons learned could influence broader corporate practices and environmental objectives.