explore NIKE’s archives and research lab in oregon with photographs by alastair philip wiper

Alastair Philip Wiper captures NIKE’s facility in Oregon, USA

Alastair Philip Wiper heads inside NIKE’s facility, center, and research lab in Oregon, USA to photograph the brand’s comprehensive archives, machinery, and shoe-making processes. Shown in the first ever museum exhibition about NIKE at the Vitra Design Museum, these images may capture the depth of NIKE’s 60-year presence, far beyond the five-decade ascend of the brand in the exhibition. From the hub of rapid shoe prototyping, which has led NIKE to produce its series 3D printed concept sneakers in Paris back in April 2024, to machines that make the footwear and testing facilities for the athletes, Alastair Philip Wiper has caught them all on camera.

all images courtesy of Alastair Philip Wiper

Rapid prototyping machinery for footwear caught on camera

There are five spaces that Alastair Philip Wiper visits for his NIKE compendium. His lens first shoots the Nike Advanced Product Creation Center (APCC), located in Beaverton, Oregon. Its the home to the brand’s product design innovation, which includes the rapid prototyping machinery that can allow shoe designers to quickly test and refine ideas for their new footwear and apparel. The photographer’s images catch a glimpse of the development process: the stacks of prototype shoes to be tested and fitted, the hundreds of wires and tubes pumping and operating to speed the process of the shoe making, the container of powder used to refine the freshly printed shoes, and a UV oven that cures a primed outsole in preparation for shoe assembly.

inside NIKE’s Bowerman Footwear Lab (BFL)

facilities and an archive section with over 200,000 artifacts

Still in Beaverton, Alastair Philip Wiper brings his camera to the Department of NIKE Archives (DNA). Here, he is bombarded with over 200,000 rare artifacts, prototypes, sketches, and memorabilia the brand has treasured through decades. They range from the first Nike Swoosh design to early mechanical Shox prototypes, match shoes worn by Michael Jordan, Andre Agassi, and Tiger Woods, and much more. It’s an earned invitation for the photographer because the archive isn’t open to the public. But for the viewers who want to look inside, at least parts of the archive facility, Alastair Philip Wiper’s photographs are part of the exhibition and the accompanying book of Nike: Form Follows Motion at the Vitra Design Museum.

NIKE’s facility in Oregon, USA

The Nike Air Manufacturing Innovation (Air MI) facility is the home of the machines. Rows of them play the main character in producing NIKE’s Air technology and its air-cushioning system. Equipment towers over Alastair Philip Wiper, and the consistent noise of the machines whirs like a soundtrack to his ears, but armed with his camera, he points at NIKE Air Max Dn units ready to be inflated and trimmed to get a closer look. Here, viewers can see up close the air flowing between two chambers, each of them tuned to different air pressures (usually higher in the back and lower in the front). Images like this allow the viewers to understand NIKE’s technology and what works under the feet every time they walk or run wearing the footwear.

vacuum forming tools and jigs

When it comes to developing and testing new NIKE shoe ideas, designers hole up at the Bowerman Foot Lab, which is named after the brand’s co-founder, Bill Bowerman. It is in this space that the design teams create and test new shoe designs fast using advanced prototyping machines. Engineers, designers, and athletes collaborate together, so they understand how, why, and where they need to refine and improve the performance, comfort, and durability of the next footwear. In this area, Alastair Philip Wiper also photographs the heel moulds that the brand uses, chilled to help cool down the material that has already been molded by heat and pressure. He also captures the polyurethane moulds used to create midsoles from scratch and the machinery at NIKE’s Pegasus testing lab that revolves continuously for days at a time to assess outsole durability.

a technician dusts the powder off a freshly printed prototype in the Advanced Product Creation Center (APCC)

NIKE’s research lab and facility quest may not be complete without Alastair Philip Wiper visiting the LeBron James Innovation Center. It houses the NIKE Sport Research Lab (NSRL), or the training environment for researchers, designers, and engineers to test their shoes with the athletes. The center comes equipped with 400 motion-capture cameras, 97 force plates, and even environmental chambers that can simulate various weather conditions, so the design teams can study how athletes perform in different environments.

3D-printed prototype for Erling Haaland as one of NIKE’s 13 A.I.R. (Athlete Imagined Revolution) concepts

The NIKE Sport Research Lab facility also features a full-size basketball court, a 200-meter endurance track, and a 100-meter incline ramp, all designed to monitor and analyze athletes’ movements at full speed and under real-world conditions. It is also here that NIKE explores mind sciences as their growing area of expertise alongside biomechanics, exercise physiology, and functional anatomy, all through images that Alastair Philip Wiper now shares with the viewers for them to experience these too.