{"id":360,"date":"2026-04-28T13:47:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kudoscript.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/28\/nikes-air-lab-lands-at-milan-design-week-and-its-really-all-air\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T13:47:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:47:30","slug":"nikes-air-lab-lands-at-milan-design-week-and-its-really-all-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kudoscript.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/28\/nikes-air-lab-lands-at-milan-design-week-and-its-really-all-air\/","title":{"rendered":"Nike\u2019s Air Lab Lands at Milan Design Week \u2014 and It\u2019s Really All Air"},"content":{"rendered":"

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How does one give form to what can\u2019t be seen? Nike does it at the Air Lab<\/a> during Milan Design Week<\/a>, with a helping hand from Dropcity, a new player in the city\u2019s architecture and design scene, set inside a ~40,000 m\u00b2 labyrinth of former railway tunnels under Milan\u2019s central station. The lucky few who got in saw it as a one-week-only glimpse into a shared experiment. But don\u2019t get too sentimental about the \u201cpop-up\u201d label, it\u2019s already halfway to permanence. Air Lab is staying put at Dropcity once their doors officially open this fall.<\/p>\n

\"Nike
Courtesy of Nike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, the whole thing is based on Nike\u2019s long-standing relationship with\u2026 well, air. Think nearly 100 never-before-seen prototypes. Air Archives tracing Frank Rudy\u2019s early experiments. The development of Air Liquid Max, FlyWeb, Radical AirFlow, Therma-FIT Air Milano. Eight tool stations exploring air as a design medium, visualizing (air as evidence), forming (air as shape), deforming (air as transformation), pumping (air as expansion), suctioning (air as void), calibrating (air as impulse), cooling (air as subtraction) and blasting (air as force). The Air Library, a lounge that turns a massive bubble into something you can sit on. Workshops that somehow manage to challenge the power of air too, through robotics, music, even breathing.<\/p>\n

\"Nike
Courtesy of Nike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What once lived inside the sole is now moving across the body, with Nike using air in garments that inflate, deflate, and adjust in real time. Take it from Radical AirFlow, a long-sleeve piece with small, cyclone-like cutouts that pushes air across the skin, turning it into a wearable cooling system. It\u2019s tested under heat in a lab setup where athletes run in place while sensors quietly measure how hot they get. And it\u2019s already picked up praise from athletes who crossed the finish line first wearing it, while everyone else in the background is still in short sleeves.<\/p>\n

\"Nike
Courtesy of Nike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Who would\u2019ve thought the invisible would be taken this far? \u201cNike has always had an experimental, hands-on culture of making, so on our first visit to Dropcity a year ago, it immediately felt both familiar and energizing,\u201d says Golnaz Armin, VP, Design Studio Excellence. \u201cPrototyping is a daily practice \u2014 an instinct to make, test and refine in real time, where ideas are meant to be worn, experienced and challenged through doing. As much as we embrace the latest digital capabilities, the craft of creating physical product through an iterative process remains essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Nike\u2019s Air Lab Lands at Milan Design Week \u2014 and It\u2019s Really All Air<\/a> appeared first on Our Culture<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How does one give form to what can\u2019t be seen? Nike does it at the Air Lab during Milan Design Week, with a helping hand from Dropcity, a new player in the city\u2019s architecture and design scene, set<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fashion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kudoscript.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kudoscript.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kudoscript.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kudoscript.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/kudoscript.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kudoscript.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kudoscript.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kudoscript.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}