From Michael Jordan fan to head designer: the Swiss who pulls the strings at Nike

What was the first-ever Nike product that Martin Lotti bought? A pair of Air Max 180 sneakers – and a poster of basketball legend Michael Jordan. That was all the Swiss 16-year-old, then an exchange student in the United States, could afford. The poster hung above his bed for years.

Today, Lotti is head designer at Nike. He has met Michael Jordan in person several times and designed collections with him. “That was a surreal moment,” says Lotti.

The Americans in Weil am Rhein

Nike is the world’s leading sporting goods manufacturer. The company has an annual turnover of $50 billion (CHF44.2 billion). How did Nike become so successful? One reason is the design, which has played a decisive role in shaping sneaker culture as we know it today.

An exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, is exploring the company’s five-decade ascent from a grassroots start-up to a global phenomenon and shedding light on Nike’s design history. Lotti has travelled from the US to take part. He has lived with his family in the state of Oregon for years.

The Swiss designer is hardly known in his home country. The Fribourg native rarely gives interviews. He prefers to speak in English. “My Swiss German is rusty,” he admits.

Lotti oozes coolness in his white ‘Jordan’ shirt, oversized cargo trousers and Nike trainers – of course.

He likes to drop soundbites like ‘trends emerge at midnight’. With Lotti as its ambassador, Nike could easily pass for a start-up, which the billion-dollar company has long ceased to be.

Goodbye Adidas and Puma

The story of the sportwear giant began with graduate and college athlete Phil Knight. In the 1960s, he began selling Japanese running shoes in the US to compete with the German market leaders Adidas and Puma.

Later, Knight brought his former coach, Bill Bowerman, on board. Bowerman liked to tinker. His idea was to make lighter and faster running shoes. The two therefore decided to set up their own company.

In 1971, they founded Nike, named after the Greek goddess of victory. The beginnings were modest: they sold their running shoes only at athletics competitions.

World-famous tick

The iconic “tick” didn’t initially appeal to the founder. “I don’t love it, but I’ll get used to it,” Phil Knight is quoted as saying.

Chance played a role in the rise of both Nike and designer Martin Lotti. The simple curved “swoosh” went on to become a world-famous design.

Lotti was fortunate to meet a woman who recommended an internship at Nike after his industrial design studies. “I applied for it, but Nike offered me a job straight away instead,” said Lotti in an earlier interview. The woman in question is now his wife; she also works for Nike.

“I had never designed a shoe before in my life,” he said. They told him: “Just do it!”.

Inspiration

Over 27 years later, Lotti is still designing shoes and clothing. “Being a good designer means being a good listener,” he says.

What inspires him? First and foremost, it’s about the athletes. “I don’t ask myself ‘what am I going to draw today’, but ‘what problem of an athlete am I going to solve today’,” says Lotti.

He regularly organises trips for his team. “We take inspiration from nature or architecture. We look at everything. But definitely not shoes,” he explains.

Why? “People have a tendency to repeat what they see,” says Lotti. It takes up to 18 months to design a sneaker.

Waffle iron

He likes to stress that Nike is still a young company: it’s not over 50 years old. Which designs have helped Nike achieve its breakthrough?

The oldest is the waffle sole. Coach Bill Bowerman designed the ribbed rubber sole at the breakfast table, inspired by the waffles he was eating.

He experimented by pouring rubber into the waffle iron. Unfortunately, the kitchen appliance broke, but the successful sole was born. It provided better grip on the running track.

From a technological point of view, the “Air” sole was another milestone. A small airbag in the sole of the shoe cushioned the impact. But it was a new, transparent design that made the shoe successful – the “Air Max”.

The most famous Nike model is the “Air Jordan” sneaker. In 1984, Nike launched it together with the then up-and-coming basketball player Michael Jordan.

The black-and-red basketball shoes violated NBA regulations, however, and Jordan was fined every time he wore them. Air Jordans later become a massive fashion trend.

Too smooth?

Nike’s design history sometimes reads like a typical American rags-to-riches story: from the garage to a sporting behemoth thanks to hard work.

But Nike has also experienced its own fair share of failures. But they are probably repackaged via good storytelling – and a colossal marketing budget.

Occasionally, Lotti’s sentences sound very polished: “As my grandmother used to say: the harder you work, the luckier you get.”

Hidden fingerprints

In contrast, it is refreshing when he talks about his design hide-and-seek game. There is the “Nike Kyoto”, which has a hidden Swiss cross in the sole.

Or the “Air Max 360”. He immortalised his son’s date of birth in the heel tab with dots and lines. “Details that probably nobody notices. But they mean a lot to me,” he admits.

Or there is the Brazilian national football team shirt. He had the team’s slogan, “born to play football”, embroidered on the inside. “It gave the jersey more soul,” says Lotti.

These are also good stories. And they’re probably good marketing for the brand too. But Lotti’s playfulness comes across as authentic. “Designing is more than just a job, it’s my passion,” he says.

Adapted from German by DeepL/amva/sb