Research And Design

Nike Business Structure:

After 30 years Nike continues to lead innovation in footware, apparel and equipment.

Nike's mission has always been to provide a competitive edge and to help athletes perform better. Beyond shoes Nike apparel unifies innovative designs and high performance fabrics, like FIT technologies that manage temperature and moisture to help athletes train and compete in any conditions. In Nike's products, for three decades Nike has been committed to giving athletes of every make, model, and body style, which competes and recreate in wats never before imagined, the very best performance products. There are 30 plus men and women that work in the Nike sport research lab. They collaborate with many designers to bring to market, products that take athletic performance beyond the next level. Nike's lab is 13,000 square feet with state of the art research equipment. There are three primary areas that the researchers work on: biomechanics- the study of human movement and related force, physiology- the study of the integration of the body's energy systems and responses to environmental stresses and senory/preception- sobjective evaluation of product attributes, usability and durability. Reseachers must take into account the nauances of at least four different factors 1) geography- runners in the U.S. often run hard surfaces while runners in Europe prefer trails which leads to different cushioning demands and different potential injuries. 2) gender- on average, for every shoe size, women tend to weigh ten to fifty percent less than men which means different structural needs. 3) age- children learning to walk have different stability needs then those of a master athlete. 4) skill level- there is differences between a high school athlete and a pro athlete. With plenty of years of exprience as a lab reseachers you can move up the chain in Nike and become the