5 Minutes with Nathan Jobe of Nike
Running parallel with the release of Nike’s Sneakerboot campaign, we caught up with Nathan Jobe, Senior Design Director of Nike NSW Footwear.
Where did the original idea for the Sneakerboot come from?
Our consumers have been asking Nike for a while to create versions of their favorite sneakers that they can wear throughout the winter. This is a new concept for us where we are not trying to create a boot that looks like a AM90 but a AM90 that performs like a boot. It looks like the original but addresses water proof, visibility, traction, and warmth.
What is the inspiration behind this year’s Nike Sneakerboots Collection?
The original inspiration for the season came from our rich history in ACG (All Conditions Gear). It was product that had street/sport but still had weather protective properties that was ready for any condition. Beyond the original inspiration “SneakerBoots” became it’s own entity, from NSW, as a cross category story that is all about seasonal innovation.
Do they have elements from the Nike ACG range of footwear? If so which particular features, and do you often look in the vaults at the features for ideas that may have just featured for one season?
As a team we concentrated on the basic core values from the original qualities of our history of Warmth, Traction, and water resistant/proof. Then we added in a few new qualities to the toolbox that made sense from modern nike, like visibility and sneaker inspired color ways.
You have managed to combine aesthetic with functionality, which took priority?
They both went hand in hand for the team when creating the range. We worked as a cross category team(NSW is made up of several teams that align with our major sport categories) to address all the attributes we were shooting for. In the end each team added their own flavor on key silhouettes (AM1, AM90, AF1, etc.) to make each item special but still come together as a collection.
What’s next for the Sneakerboots?
NSW has an obsession with our global urban consumer. Primarily around big cities like Paris, Rio, Shanghai, London, Paris and New York. We look for insights to solve for these big city consumers with their busy 24/7 lifestyles. They need product that they can depend on and in different seasons as well as keep up with their busy lifestyles. As a group we will continue to identify new insights seasonally from consumers around the world to make our product newer and better with each collection to come.
The Nike Sneakerboot collection is available online here and in all size? stores now.