First Things First
Excited to share this very special project I recently did with Nike for their European Headquarters, a sculpture made out of more than 2000 pairs of recycled shoes!
This new sculpture recently installed at the new campus is my second public art project in the new installations of the brand.
The artwork shows a soccer player upside down focusing on a flower growing up from the ground and it wants to make us consider our dialogue with nature through its message and construction in Nike Grind, a material entirely made of recycled shoes that the brand uses for different purposes from running tracks or basketball courts to create furniture.
I used one of the company's mottos to create a guideline for the project: "No Planet, No Sports" that reflects the commitment of the brand with sustainability. In the end it’s all about priorities so we must strike a balance somehow.
It’s the first time that a sculpture is made of Nike Grind (a material made of recycled shoes mostly that they use to build running tracks, furniture, etc.) and we faced a few challenges during the fabrication.
After collecting the recycled material, the team from Colossus Printers tested the material in order to know the resistance and feasibility of the project. Once approved, they 3D printed my model, then I hand painted the key elements of the artwork while the rest of the sculpture shows the raw material polished. If you look close enough you can appreciate the tiny chunks of shoes. It’s crazy!
Shout out to Renee @theoneprojectrecycling @colossusprinters Wouter and David for making it possible.
You can check it out at the public area of the Nike Campus, located in Hilversum, NL. Next to the skatepark and my other sculpture there, the Bounce.
Massive thanks to Nike for believing in me for this project.
It’s cool that we all as individuals take part and do our thing for the planet but I think the big companies are really the ones that can make a change. I’m sure there’s always room to improve but it’s been great to see in first person how Nike is taking it very seriously through countless initiatives.
Hope you like it!
