Thales once suggested that we do not truly live on the surface of solid earth, but at the bottom of an ocean of air: an invisible vastness that surrounds and embraces us, accompanying every athletic act while becoming, at once, both stage and participant. This vision resonates deeply with Nike’s past, present, and future, and Unlimited Air made that alignment unmistakable.

Across three futuristic galleries, transformed into laboratories and ateliers inspired both by the Swoosh and by the recent, significant resurgence of ACG, we explored the fifty-year relationship between the Oregon brand and the gaseous mixture that forms Earth’s atmosphere. The outcome of this lesson, capable of uniting science, design, art, and performance, was an ode to an invisible force: one deeply rooted in Nike’s heritage, and today more than ever a cornerstone of ACG innovations bordering on sporting science fiction.

From support under extreme heat, enabled by the breathable Radical AirFlow fabric, to coexistence with cold made possible by an object such as the Therma-Fit Air Milano Jacket, a manifesto of the Adapt – Inflate – Regulate technology. We reflected on intuitions and theories translated into matter, and matter transposed into avant-garde athletic support, together with Dan Farron, Vice President, Apparel Innovation Product Design.

His testimony guides us toward the core of Nike’s ever-iconic Air philosophy, while also revealing his personal relationship with the concept of air, right up to the union of scientific avant-garde and artistic desire that underpins every design signed by the Swoosh.

In Athleta Mag, we promote the idea that sport is synonymous with art and culture. In your view, how do product innovation, the iconic concept of AIR, and your own work fit into this convergence of worlds?

“When I joined Innovation, one of the first things I told my team was that we are deeply grounded in science, and we are deeply grounded in the athlete. That’s our big advantage. But we also have to make space for art. In our team, every project is filtered through three lenses: art, science, and the athlete. If it doesn’t meaningfully engage all three, it doesn’t move forward. A concept might begin with material science. It might begin with design and creative instinct. Or it might begin with a specific athlete insight that pushes us in an entirely new direction. But in the end, those elements have to come together in harmony to build something truly meaningful. You can see that convergence clearly in what we’re presenting today with the Therma-Fit Air Milano.”

We recently spoke with leading ACG trail runners and discussed the evolution of Radical AirFlow, a project you worked on directly. What are the key steps behind a breakthrough like that? 

“Breakthroughs like that take time: real time. There’s often an expectation that innovation happens on a yearly cycle, especially in apparel. The reality is different. A fabric like Radical AirFlow is a generational shift. It can take a decade before you see something comparable again. It required two to three years focused solely on material development, not storytelling, not marketing, just making sure the fabric functioned at a level that genuinely created performance differentiation. That timeline can feel long, but breakthrough innovation demands patience. The most exciting part of the process is when the product finally reaches the athlete. That’s when it becomes alive. You refine it with them, tune it with them, push it further together. That dialogue between concept and performance is the part I love most.”

We’ve been talking about sports culture, and here in this special Lab in the heart of Milan, we’re experiencing it firsthand. What kind of sports culture shaped your journey as a product innovator?

“That’s a great question. Most of my career was in global football, and being in Europe, I can confidently call it football. Football culture is deeply narrative. It’s rooted in tradition: federations, clubs, legacy, identity. Every jersey carries history. But at Nike, we also have to move at the speed of innovation. What shaped me was learning how to hold both worlds at once: honoring the emotional storytelling of a football kit while ensuring that, on pitch, it performs better than anything else out there. That balance taught me something fundamental: innovation and art are not separate forces. They are intertwined. I carry that with me into everything I do now. Innovation isn’t just about technical advancement. It’s also about beauty. The final expression, what the product looks and feels like, matters just as much as what it does.”

What does it feel like to help shape new directions in the aesthetics and performance of sport?

“It feels incredible, when it works. But innovation is inseparable from failure. For every success, there are experiments that don’t deliver what we hoped. And that’s necessary. You have to fail in order to explore. After twenty years in the industry, you start to develop a sense early on when something is special. But even then, the work isn’t done. You have to protect the idea. These projects take years, and along the way people can lose focus: even the team can lose energy from seeing it every day. The key is staying committed long enough to bring it all the way to the athlete. When it finally lands, when it performs, when it resonates… It’s a massive high. It’s a roller coaster. I’ve been fortunate to experience a few of those moments. And today, we’re showcasing two of them.”

We’ve heard this question come up a lot today: what does ‘Air’ mean to you? And how do you see it in relation to movement and the body in sport?

“That’s a question we’ve been asking ourselves a lot. As our portfolio of innovations has evolved, ‘air’ keeps reappearing. We use it for insulation. We use airflow for cooling. We’ve pushed aerodynamics in projects like Breaking4. Air keeps surfacing as a theme. But as apparel designers, we think about air differently than just the visible air unit. I think it’s just a moment in time where all of these innovations started to elevate at the same timing. For me, air is endless: it’s unlimited. And I’m excited that in one room it’s keeping you warm, and in another room it’s keeping you cool. There’s no different air in these two rooms. It’s the same air. But the way we’re really engineering and innovating around it, and using it to our advantage, I think challenges the way we build product.”