With «Nike: Form Follows Motion» the Vitra Design Museum will present the first ever comprehensive museum exhibition about Nike, the world’s most revered sports brand. The exhibition will explore the company’s five-decade ascent from a grassroots start-up to a global phenomenon. Nike’s Chief Design Officer, Martin Lotti, who hails from Switzerland, has been a transformative force in the world of design. His tenure at Nike has seen him influence a wide range of design aspects, from innovative footwear and apparel to comprehensive brand and retail concepts.

VDM: What was your first encounter with Nike?

Martin Lotti: When I was an exchange student, my host family brought me to the Niketown in Portland. I walked into that store, then walked out of that store, completely frustrated. Everything in there, I wanted. So I sat down, counted my money. What can I afford? Then I went back into the store and bought a pair of Air Max 180s and a Jordan Wings poster. Never would I have imagined that I years later, I would get to design the next Air Max. It’s been quite the journey. Nike keeps throwing you in at the deep end of the pool. They say, ‘Just do it.’ It’s not just a slogan, it’s a way of working, a way of life.

One of the biggest projects you’ve undertaken at Nike had to do with the 2012 London Olympics. What everybody remembers about that event is the rollout of Volt across the whole range of sports, that bright yellow color.

It’s a story of how to create impact with a limited set of tools. Nike was not a sponsor of the event, so we had to follow many rules and regulations. You could see this as restrictive, but I truly believe that limits force the designer to be more creative. I thought, what if we pick just one color across all federations, and use the color that is the most visible to your eye? That happens to be the color Volt. It's the same as a fluorescent safety jacket. Traditionally, the approach would’ve been to match apparel and footwear. But what if we actually use one color as a tool to unify all the federations?

Looking back at your time with the company, what would you say the main drivers of change have been?

Over the past 27 years, a lot has changed. But believe it or not, it’s probably more similar than different. The methodology has really not changed throughout the years. Yes, the athletes will push you, as they push themselves. They really are at the front end. So if they’re doing it, we should be doing it, too. Even the emotional side of it: before MJ people were playing basketball, after Michael Jordan, people were living basketball. That dance between performance and emotion has always been there.

Now what has changed is the tools. When I first started, we were faxing our patterns to the factories and now we can design them in 3D. Before, you were limited in time; you drew something, then you had to send it to a factory, they built it and it came back. It was quite a lot of back-and-forth, so time was a constraint. Now your only constraint is your imagination.

How do you balance digital and physical elements in your work? 

The more digital you go, the more physical you have to go, too. At least that’s my opinion. I think the juxtaposition of the two worlds is interesting: if you just work digitally, at some point it really feels cold. So I think it’s going from both ends of the spectrum and then you meet in-between. It starts with a problem that you’re trying to solve, listening to the athletes, bringing cultural insight into it, getting inspired by either athletes or culture, and then envisioning it through digital and physical tools.

One last question. How do you think designing for Nike compares with automotive design, furniture design, fashion, interior design?

I do think there are a lot of similarities. I think a good designer is a good listener. You have to serve a concept, then you design the product, and then you tell the story around it. I would venture to say that the approach is more similar than it is different. Because at the end of the day, it’s to make a functional yet emotional product to fall in love with.

‘Nike: Form Follows Motion’ on view until 4 May 2025 at the Vitra Design Museum. An accompanying publication features most of the exhibits, as well as essays by scholars Sam Grawe, Adam Bradley, William Myers, Jared Dalcourt and Ligaya Salazar. The book is lavishly illustrated with around 300 historic and contemporary images, which portray design and production facilities at the Nike headquarters and the Department of Nike Archives (DNA).