Nike Considered Design creates performance innovation products that minimize environmental impact by reducing waste throughout the design and development process, using environmentally preferred materials and eliminating toxics. Nike designers make smart, sustainable design choices at the start of their creative process, working to achieve breakthroughs to solve the big problems that hinder progress toward a sustainable future.
We begin with comprehensive systems thinking around the domains of design, manufacturing and the life cycle of a product, including the possibilities for closing the loop on materials, product use and end-of-life. Innovation takes off after catching sight of radical technological shifts. We debuted a more sustainable product in 2005 with the Considered Boot: a single shoe lace woven between the leather parts of the upper, stitching that secured the upper to the sole, eliminating adhesives and allowing for easier disassembly.
Design insights gained from this work helped inform future innovations such as the pinnacle Air Jordan XXIII, launched in January 2008, and the Nike Trash Talk, made from post-manufacturing waste.
We also began incorporating Considered Design in all of Nike's key categories: basketball, running, football (soccer), women's training, men's training and sportswear, as well as in tennis and ACG (All Conditions Gear).
Our long-term vision for Considered is to design products that are fully closed loop: produced using the fewest possible materials and designed for easy disassembly, while allowing them to be recycled into new product or safely returned to nature at the end of their life.
To make this vision a reality, we've broken it into a number of smaller attainable steps. The first step is having our entire product meet baseline Considered Design standards. We aim to have all Nike footwear, newly developed out of WHQ, meet Considered baseline design standards by 2011; all apparel products, newly developed out of WHQ, EHQ and Hong Kong, meet Considered baseline design standards by 2015; and, in equipment, all top-volume retail product, newly developed, out of WHQ, meet Considered baseline standards by FY20. At a minimum, top-volume retail product includes socks, bags, inflatable balls and gloves.
To achieve this goal, we believe we need new modes of collaboration and new ways of thinking, making, delivering, reclaiming and processing derived from scientific advancements in fields far beyond our industry.
We understand this work can't be done by Nike alone and we value collaboration. That's why we turned to The Natural Step to help create our future vision.
Internally, we work across product teams and with groups ranging from the hub of product design and creation - our Innovation Kitchen - to our advanced materials research function to influence the development of short-, mid- and long-range projects that make progress toward closed-loop products. Beyond Nike, we seek to incorporate the latest thinking from others through open-source platforms - posting problems that need to be solved, and requesting solutions from outside inventors, universities and companies. We know we don't have all the answers ourselves, and realize future effectiveness hinges on an increasingly open-sourced and interconnected world.