Nike sponsored Tokion magazine’s first Creativity Now conference in New York and wanted the event to create  “buzz” around a new shoe called S.W.O.P. Featuring interchangeable covers, it was also the company president’s pet project.  The conference was attracting young creatives coming to hear star designers and artists like Matthew Barney and Peter Saville talk about their process. Called in three weeks before to collaborate with Nike’s team, I worked to ensure the exhibit was relevant to its audience.

Instead of just putting a shoe on a pedestal, S.W.O.P. was presented as a rare peek into Nike’s design process. Given unprecedented access to the shoe’s creators including the company president, we discovered that over its nearly decade-long development the shoe went from a concept of being barefoot in sneakers to shoes with interchangeable covers. Along the way it was likened to a tent, Buckminster Fuller’s Dimaxion car, hovercraft and hermit crabs and finally the key to the company’s future – only no one person at Nike knew S.W.O.P.’s full history.

With little time to create the exhibition, the designers tried out various ideas for displays, but I suggested another idea, one that would accommodate all the diverse influences, opinions and quotes about the shoe – an oversize house of cards. The card system fit the idea of modular shoes and allowed the audience to see all parts of the design process.