Ever since 1996, Nike has looked to utilize the grand stage that is the Summer Olympics to launch new innovations and products for the world’s greatest athletes to highlight across a spectrum of different sports. 

Tobie Hatfield, now the Senior Director of Nike Athlete Innovation, remembers the 1996 Atlanta Olympics well. The iconic gold track spikes worn by Michael Johnson were one of the very first projects he worked on with the company, and are continually highlighted every four years as a key Olympic product moment. 

Now, Nike is looking to take its innovation even further beyond the cosmetic and aesthetic with the launch of the Nike x Hyperice Boot, a first-of-its-kind pre- and post-game recovery boot.

The Nike x Hyperice Boot

The high-top silhouette features Hyperice’s Normatec system, a dual-bladder format that provides on-demand heating, cooling, and compression throughout the shoe via a series of button controls located on the inner heel. 

“We’re all trying to connect with an athlete where we can enhance their craft,” said Anthony Katz, Founder and President of Hyperice. “The craft is not just what happens on the court, on the field, or on the pitch. The craft is everything that goes into it.”

For more than two years, the Nike and Hyperice teams have been working towards a comprehensive collaboration that marries their technologies into one product. Both the recovery boot and a new vest launching this year are just the starting point of what is expected to be a future family of Nike x Hyperice products.

A look at the control buttons for the recovery boot.

“These are two great companies that put the athlete at the center of everything,” Hatfield described. “Hyperice are experts at the recovery space. We’re pretty good experts on the competition side of things. This is where 1+1 = 3. There’s a multiplier effect.”

Hatfield jokes that the exploratory stages of the design process reminded him more of Frankenstein’s monster, with cords and parts protruding from the early sample shoes that were looking to first prove out the technology. Athletes were immediately confirming a benefit to the product, which Katz describes as providing relief to the feet, ankles, and calves in as quick as five-minute increments up a wearer’s leg. 

Both brands knew that the key would be packaging the technology and system into a visual that looked futuristic yet still simple. 

“I grew up watching Nike and Apple,” said Katz. “Apple changed how we live with products and what we imagine products to be, and Nike is the most aspirational brand. We had to figure out a way to do this in an elegant way.”

Athletes wear-test the Nike x Hyperice Boot.

There’s a focus on a clean toe down, as the wearer will be looking down from that perspective while the shoe is operating. Over the last year, both LeBron James and A’ja Wilson were incorporated into the testing and feedback process along the way ahead of their summer leading USA Basketball’s men’s and women’s teams in Paris. 

Wilson is also Nike’s next signature athlete, while James will follow up his summer play with his 22nd NBA season. A longtime avid wearer of the Normatec leg sleeves, James said he knew the Nike x Hyperice Boots “were going to change the game for athletes’ warm-up and recovery” right after testing them out.    

“Taking care of my body has always been an important part of my preparation as a basketball player,” said James. “That commitment is what has allowed me to maintain a high level of play for more than 21 years now.”

LeBron James wearing the boots.

Last month, James posted the boots in use on his Instagram story, as he’ll be a key headliner utilizing the product. 

“I don’t play about my recovery process,” he captioned. “Treat your body how you treated the first car you bought.” 

With the Paris Olympics serving as the starting point for athletes using the Nike x Hyperice Boot before and after competition, both brands envision a world where technical products like this can be adopted by athletes at all levels and general consumers simply looking to recharge and take better care of their bodies. 

“They say timing is everything,” said Hatfield. "It was a really big impetus for us to move towards, while certainly not skipping steps or anything. We knew that if we could do this together for a huge moment like the Paris Olympics — and for all athletes in all sports — that was a huge driver for us.”

A’ja Wilson’s long-awaited Nike signature collection has been in the works for over a year, and one of the first steps towards the eventual unveiling of the A’One shoe took place this week, as Wilson’s signature "A" logo was officially unveiled.

Featured across a T-shirt and matching necklace pendant donned by Wilson, the rounded logo draws inspiration from her longtime routine of creating a star within the "A" of her written signature. The logo blends together a slanted and offset "A" and a left-leaning star point that merges into her first initial.

“From my logo to the look of the shoe and the pieces throughout the collection, we’ve worked to make sure every detail is perfectly tuned to my game and style,” said Wilson.

Read more on A’ja Wilson’s upcoming Nike signature logo >>

• Rigorer has signed Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski to a multi-year shoe deal. The All-Rookie first-teamer joins Lakers guard Austin Reaves as the lone brand ambassadors for the 10-year-old Chinese basketball company. Podziemski will also be creating his own signature Rigorer shoe for this upcoming season.
  
  
• As part of their Black Community Commitment Fund, Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand matched donation grants to the tune of $8 million over the weekend, providing resources to a web of 37 organizations around the United States committed to community impact initiatives.
  
  The fund was launched in 2020 with a joint and equal $50 million contribution each from Jordan personally and the brand. Grant recipients will receive the $100 million total over a 10-year period.
  
  
• Iconic streetball brand AND1 officially introduced its first female athlete signing during a brand activation over the weekend, as former LSU champion and current Harlem Globetrotters player Alexis Morris helped host the AND1 Open Run in Coney Island.
  
  
• After signing a multi-year shoe deal with New Balance a year ago, Los Angeles Dodgers sensation Shohei Ohtani is releasing his own signature collection of baseball cleats and casual apparel with the company this month.

Puma Stewie 3 “City of Love”

6/28 on puma.com

Just before heading off to Paris for yet another Olympics appearance, the decorated Breanna Stewart will launch her third signature Puma sneaker in a clean white and blue colorway inspired by the “City of Love.” The pair takes on Parisian influence throughout, with a floral print along the upper, as Stewart is expected to lace up this Stewie 3 during the upcoming Olympics.

Adidas adiFOM Crazy IIInfinity Mule

7/1 on adidas.com

The name is a mouthful, but the injection foam design is a simplified silhouette inspired by the early 2000s design language of Kobe Bryant’s “The Kobe” signature series with Adidas, now in slide form. Priced at $50, this black pair is first up, with the anticipated silver edition expected to drop later this fall.

Nike Ja 1 “Reverse Scratch”

7/1 on nike.com

As Nike begins to reintegrate Ja Morant into its orbit or activations around the globe — with Morant attending its annual NY vs NY showcase at Gersh Park in Brooklyn earlier this week — the brand will also be releasing one of the more well-received colorways of his signature Ja 1. After wearing the teal “Scratch” pair during the season, this reverse-themed pair will be coming to retail in a home white edition of the throwback Grizzlies uniform colors.

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