2017
NIKE X Sucuk und Bratwurst
AM97 Relaunch
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It takes a strong person to stand in their truth. The Nike customer has always striven to live solely in the moment. That includes rapid cultural shifts. Partnering with the Berlin-based new media artist duo Sucuck und Bratwurst, we spent four months in an open dialogue about a special kind of Nike drop; what would the anticipated return of the AM97 look like if one lived inside their hard drive?
Experiential Retail Activation
Experiential & Production Lead
Context
The relaunch of the Air Max 97 took place at a moment when design, technology, and everyday life were increasingly understood as inseparable. The creative framing approached the Nike consumer not as a lifestyle archetype, but as someone living inside mediated systems; environments shaped by data, infrastructure, and digital residue. The work reflected an emerging Anthropocene sensibility: human experience filtered through technology, storage, and constant transmission.
This project translated a technically dense product layered engineering, performance logic, and cultural history into a spatial experience that allowed people to understand it through movement and proximity rather than instruction.
The goal was not to market innovation, but to make its structure felt at a human scale.
Concept
Rather than centering the product as a traditional hero object, the activation treated the sneaker as an artifact within a broader system — a physical object existing inside a “hard drive” of culture, memory, and media. The aesthetic language drew from new media art, digital materiality, and environmental textures, creating an experience that felt less like retail theater and more like an installation embedded in commerce.
Approach
The activation placed contemporary media-art thinking into unexpected retail contexts. Spatial design, materials, and presentation were intentionally stripped of conventional launch tropes, allowing the environment itself to communicate the idea of compressed, stored, and looped experience. The work asked audiences to encounter the product as part of a larger condition — one shaped by technology, consumption, and environmental awareness — rather than as a standalone commodity.
Production Leadership
I led production across the activation, translating the conceptual framework into physical execution. This included fabrication oversight, vendor coordination, spatial build-out, and on-site delivery, ensuring the integrity of the idea was preserved through every material and logistical decision. A key priority was maintaining conceptual clarity while operating within the constraints of live retail environments.
Outcome
The relaunch resonated with audiences attuned to emerging aesthetics in digital culture and contemporary art, positioning the Air Max 97 not just as a product, but as a reflection of how design and identity were evolving at the intersection of technology and everyday life.
