A brand exhibition for Nike at Centre Pompidou

To mark Paris’ Summer of Sport ’24, Nike partnered with the city’s contemporary art museum Centre Pompidou – the iconic building whose exterior inspired the design of the first Air Max 1 shoe.

Coming full circle nearly 40 years after the invention of the brand’s Air technology, we designed an exhibition called ‘Art of Victory’ inside gallery 4 of Centre Pompidou. Tracing the evolution of Air to look towards the future, the space sets in motion the story of how Nike innovation helps athletes win.

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Decked out in a bright, saturated orange, the entrance corridor of the exhibition immerses visitors into Nike’s world with a sonic experience that introduces them to the drive behind the brand’s innovation: to help athletes achieve their dreams.

In a contrasting futuristic, minimalist room, the second space hosts an archival installation showcasing Air technology through the years. Over a thousand transparent illuminated air units line the walls which contain a series of 25 sunken, illuminated cabinets exhibiting shoes from the Nike DNA archives.

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Through the different objects, the room presents a rich chronology of the technology’s lifespan accented by quotes and anecdotes projected on the walls. From the first ever design all the way to Air’s latest iteration, the installation also includes shoes that have made sport’s history bringing to light the impact of Air technology out in the field.

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The final room Future on A.I.R adopts a future perspective using Artificial Intelligence to dream-up a speculative design tailored to some of the world’s best athletes, presented through a choreographed scenography.

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13 frosted vitrines present a line of AI-generated shoes, each custom-made for a specific athlete. Based on the unique characteristics of contemporary icons such as Sha’Carri Richardson and Mbappé, the frosted glass vitrines – illuminated from the inside – contain the shoe as well as mini-prototypes that seemingly float above, showing different iterations of the design process.

The story of each athlete and their career continues with content projected on the back wall. Cycling through each of the 13 stories, each shoe vitrine illuminates one by one in correspondence with the wall content.