Nike Offers Sustainable Guidelines for all Designers
The aim of Circularity: Guiding the Future of Design is to provide designers and product creators across the industry with a common language for circularity.
The guide was created in collaboration with the students and staff of Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London and with inspiration from Global Fashion Agenda. It follows on the notion that the future of design is one of opportunity. Belief in that conviction is crucial to Nike's design ethos, in which creating the future of sport is a fundamental cornerstone.
Over the years, Nike’s view to solving problems has broadened from one that considered just the intersection of athlete and product to one that views the entire athlete ecology holistically — which is where issues of sustainability become hugely important.
One example of sustainable design at Nike is new thinking of how to improve the material palette — proving that sustainability is not a constraint, but a catalyst for innovation. A platform like Flyleather is an example of creating a lower-impact and more-durable alternatives to old standards.
This is just one instance of how new technologies are helping the discovery of fresh perspective. While it promotes a head start, there is always the belief in opportunity to do things better. The aim is to create products that promote circularity — products that last longer and are designed with the end in mind.
"We have an obligation to consider the complete design solution, inclusive of how we source it, make it, use it, return it and, ultimately, how we reimagine it," says John Hoke, Nike's Chief Design Officer.
Circularity: Guiding the Future of Design inspires conversation by sharing 10 key principles:
These principles are starting points from which to tear down norms and reconsider the process of craft and design. The hope is that the workbook helps to inspire considered choices that will shift the world forward.