Nike Move to Zero

'Move to Zero’ is the Nike initiative designing a zero-carbon and zero-waste future for the brand. From material innovation to rethinking manufacturing, Nike is building a vision of sport that keeps pace with the world’s needs. As long term collaborators, the Nike brand team asked us to build a design system to thread together all their sustainability work in a sub-brand for public recognition. 

‍

Nike wanted to build a unified space to house their wider sustainability work. And, more importantly, weave together the collective power of their innovative work. So they needed an expressive design system that created cohesion and inspired action. 

‍

Our challenge was to develop an identity with the brands principles of reduction, function and responsibility at the core. Inspired by Nike's original sunburst logo, designed by their first employee Jeff Johnson and finished by Geoff Hollister in 1976, we created a custom lockup with chopped letterforms to give the impression of reduced material impact.

‍

We also deconstructed existing components, reducing the identity to its core elements. The introduction of a diminishing grid system with modules reducing in scale from left to right instils the principles of ‘Move to Zero’ throughout the design. To highlight the urgency of the project, Nike’s volt green became hazard stripes, reminiscent of the kind used on emergency vehicles. From campaign worthy imagery to mobile sized motion, our design system frees Nike to push and flex their sustainability story across every touchpoint, now and far into the future. 

‍

When Nike asked athletes’ advice on how they could meaningfully support local sport, they suggested reimagining a communal recreational space in Belgrade’s Blok 70 area. We helped Nike close the loop on the regeneration of a beloved local basketball court and play area, bringing together locally donated sneakers, Serbian-inspired typography and a reverence for utility.

‍

As co-originators of the Move To Zero brand, we had a deep understanding of what was required: protecting the future of basketball through the creation of a world-class, locally relevant court, while reimagining waste. To this, we added our own intentions: to create an experience that would reflect the neighbourhood back to itself, and test our design limits, just as local players would gather here to test their physical ones. 

‍

The court’s surface uses Nike Grind, a material made from reclaimed sneakers. We set out to push beyond circularity to zero-mile donations, devising a scheme that would literally embed the local community in the project. We created a collection scheme, rolled out across Nike stores from the local area to major cities, inviting people to drop off or mail in their worn-out trainers to be reconstituted as the court surface. It captured the collective imagination, with more than 20,000 pairs of donated trainers collected in the neighbourhood’s dedicated bin resurfacing Blok 70’s court.

‍

Recognising that the project’s success depended on its sensitivity to context, as Design Director Nigel Cottier says, ‘we hacked the Move To Zero brand language to be location-specific.’ Taking inspiration from Barbara Stauffacher Solomon’s supergraphics and Constructivist design, we imagined the court’s graphics read from above and experienced on the ground, a system of bold, hand-drawn lettering and striking graphic chevrons in Move To Zero’s signature neon. The design also had to work practically, balancing visual impact with legibility, and considering sightlines, safety and shade in the reworked playground. 

‍

“We had an interesting exercise that challenged our thinking of spaces for sport: what if we break down the essential ingredients of a basketball court and reimagine the traditional court layout? How can we create a fun and unexpected space, while retaining legibility and playability?”

‍

Reborn, Blok 70 has been locally embraced and globally lauded. Its success spurred Nike on to increasingly localised activations. For us, it catalysed a fresh appreciation of utility in design and detail in delivery, and a deeper desire for work that generates tangible impact and collective pride.