As you all know, i was a winner of the 1st annual NIKE Futuresole Design Competition
my assignment was to create a NIKE Flight basketball shoe, and Ben(the other winner) had to create Force
i had to make it as lightweight as possible
i call it the Nike Flight Comanche, due to the inspiration i took from the Comanche helicopter
THIS WAS MY DESIGN, all done in photoshop
lateral side:
medial side:
backside pair:
tooling:
inner sockliner:
NIKE paid for everything
we stayed in the Ace Hotel in Portland (which is five stars)
this was our room, and they had a present waiting for me!
it was a box that consisted of the following
2 Nike hats with the futuresole logo embroidered on them
2 shirts with the futuresole logo on them
"Just Do It" (a novel)
2 sketch books
a hoodie w/ the logo on it
our passes for the campus
and a pair of AF1 mids w/ the futuresole logo lasered on the heel, and my signature lasered on the strap
DAY 2:
this was the big day, we started early at 8 a.m., when the Navigator picked us up and took us to the campus
where we were met by a camera crew
there we had breakfast with my competitor, our 2 mentors Justin Taylor, and Marc Dolce
and the 2 main organizers of the contest, Ginny Hopkirk, and D'Wayne Edwards(who designed the XXII and ALL of the Carmelos)
after breakfast we split up, and i went with my mentor, Marc Dolce, and he went w/ his
Marc took me to his office and showed me around his building, which was COVERED in sneakers!
and there i saw them, in his office, THE YEEZYS
no sample sizes though, all samples were made in his size, a 13 i believe
here he was showing me how he layed out my designs on the presentation board
and he hooked me up with 2 pairs of SAMPLES! (pick up post)
and here he was showing me some future releases which i have to keep confidential
after that, we met back up with Ben and we took a tour of the whole campus
this is me and him in the auditorium, which is in the Tiger Woods building
outside:
this is the display for the olympics, where they have created shoes for ALL sports, even the most obscure
they mad kayak shoes, and little gymnastics things that are just a pad for the bottom of your foot
These Olympic VIIs were worn by Michael Jordan in 1992
and these by Scottie Pippen
Outside the Michael Jordan Building
at Nike,they have a Time Capsule, that they put in 1992, and it will be opened in 2012
and noone's really sure whats in there
so the tour was over, and we went into the conference room where we were going to present to wait for the judges to arrive, there, they surprised us with 3D models of our shoes!
*SHOWTIME*
Ben went first, he really understood basketball and the players and he had this BRILLIANT speech about evolution and the inspiration of his shoe
SO I WAS REALLY NERVOUS
i didnt talk as much as he did, but i guess my design spoke for itself
(btw, those judges we were speaking to were REALLY IMPORTANT PEOPLE)
so then when we were both done, we went outside to wait for the judges to deliberate
outside they had beer and sodas, and a barbeque complete with a DJ
and we were getting snapped by various photographers, and Sole Collector
AND THEN THE JUDGES CAME OUT!!!, then they went back inside to talk some more, at this point i'm sweating bullets
SO THEY FINALLY CAME OUT TO DECLARE THE WINNER
this gentleman(who designed the XVIs, all the way to the XXIs) began by introducing us and thanking the sponsors
the Dwayne Edwards came out and was announcing the winner when he said "YOU BOTH WON!"
which is SOOO GREAT, cause not only did we win the Macbook, which was the grand prize, but we also get the 80gb Ipod, which was second prize!
then Ginny Hopkirk came to announce the prizes and a special surprise prize
she read from a letter that said something along the lines of:
"Congratulations Futuresole winner, as part of your prize, in the near future, there will be a special meeting set up between you and I.
signed, TINKER HATFIELD"!!!!!!!!
OOHHHH SSHHHHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! right ?
*THE WINNERS CIRCLE*
as you can kinda tell, my model is kinda incomplete, it has no laces, so to make it up to me, my mentor made me 2 more, one black with the corrections, and a WHITE colorway!
and they gave me this cool poster that they made
the perfect ending to the perfect day!
DAY 4*
time to hit up the Employee Store!!!!!!
pretty successful day of shopping
(pick up post)
then back to the hotel to pack and catch our flight home
WHAT A SPECTACULOR EXPERIENCE
Nike and its employees are the most genuine, generous people ive ever dealt with
I enjoyed every second i spent at that campus
I met so many people and got so many bussiness cards, this opened SO many doors for me
Thank Yous:
Marc Dolce: my mentor who helped me along the way and got all of my designs printed up and hooked me up with all that cool stuff, one of the coolest guys ill ever meet
Dwayne Edwards: Jordan designer and Contest organizer who showed me his office and gave me advice and told me some secrets about the future of Jordan
Ginny Hopkirk: Founder of the contest, who started organizing it a year and a half ago, and made all the arrangements for us
Ben Adams-Keane: my competitor who did a hell of a job, and deserved it
THANK YOU NIKE!!!!!
my dude is doing big things! Watch out Tinker!!
Here's a Kanye bear he hooked me up with a couple months ago.
