Identify Yourself, Nike tells us to Just Design It
Molly Kleiman
With the launch of its Nike ID website, Nike created a brand for individuality. This site potentially offers creative control to the average sneaker buyer, who has the power to color, style, and reconfigure his or her favorite trainers. It is the perfect program, giving buyers the illusion of design freedom while keeping them within prescriptive parameters–artistic freedom within reason. That’s what we really want right? June1, the advertising geniuses behind this program introduced a new, extant venue, a boutique design studio for sneakers. This ain’t footlocker. Mysterious and exclusive (qualities that can make things undeniably appealing), this shop coddles buyers–cheese, wine, a personal design consultants who would never think of wearing a referee outfit–as they design their new shoes.
The Nike designers have adopted appealing artistic metaphors; as a first step, a buyer must choose a sneaker style from five "blank canvases," not white blanks (those would look like a normal tennis shoes) but soft grey monochromatic bases. The process is inventive, if limited–when intending to make a distinctive shoe, the danger is always to create an ugly one.
In the NY Times article reporting on this "monument to personalization as [much as] it is to exclusivity," celebrities were invited to design a shoe. But by the writer’s own account, Vince Carter, Sarah Morris, and Narciso Rodriguez chose simple designs. On my visit, artist Deanne Cheuk painted her sneaker-canvas black with only a swoosh of purple. Is this the hand of the artist? Perhaps she does reveal her professionalism; she knows how to avoid overdoing it just for the sake of individuality.
There is one reason the public should not be snarky or disdainful about this new encroachment of corporate America on hip youth culture: Nike ID only flirts with the illusion of exclusivity. In a surprise to most, the prices are not much higher than the cost of their internet-bought counterparts; and a visit to the store, while difficult to book, is free. But striving to create the ideal sneaker, one that is different and still handsome, can be frustrating. So, why not opt out and mark your individuality by wearing the classy grey blanks?
The Nike ID store is located at 255 Elizabeth St
Play on the online design studio at www.nikeid.com
