Hasta La Ideas

Innovations in sustainability and design unveiled and immediately remixed

As the most innovative company in athletic equipment and sporting lifestyle, Nike rarely leaves a year’s calendar unmarked by groundbreaking product launches. This time around the brand has just unveiled a slew of Olympic-focused, sustainably-driven innovations for the upcoming 2012 summer games in London. Of the products announced the ultra-lightweight Flyknit running shoes have drawn much attention weighing in at only 160g, with the HTM variant designed by the wonder-trio Hiroshi Fujiwara, Tinker Hatfield and Mark Parker taking center stage among those equally interested in performance and style.

To eliminate material waste during production the one piece upper on all Flyknits is constructed of a woven yarn specially engineered to produce an unbelievably lightweight, ultra-breathable, formfitting shoe that performs like a second skin. Upholding both the sustainability and performance hallmarks of the broad-release Flyknits, the HTM Flyknits are upgraded with a handful of tweaks to raise the design bar.

The marathon-centric HTM Racer maintains the standardized form and function while sporting the US Track and Field team shade of blue. Conversely, the HTM Trainer+ comes in two black-and-white variants and features the ever-comfortable Lunarlon midsole while also integrating the tongue into the shoe’s body for a glove-like fit. This adjustment also increases surface area for potential personalization with knit-in numbers.

Although not available yet, the Nike Flyknit technology will be released for general consumption by July 2012 in time for the London Summer Olympics.

photos by Josh Rubin

While many try to imitate the exemplary ski style of Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety, his panache off the slopes is also noteworthy and even more easily attainable. Shred Optics—Ligety’s line of sunglasses, goggles and helmets—are engineered for seriously pushing the limits and fashioned to reflect a buoyant sense of humor.

Inspired and designed entirely by athletes, the whole collection is great for hitting the slopes—but when Ligety stopped by Cool Hunting a few months ago we fell for the classic shape of his Akroid frames. The aptly titled series of sunglasses are made with the highest quality Italian plastic and scratch resistant lenses.

Known for shredding in pink goggles, Ligety is as freespirited as he is committed to his sport and his line of optics perfectly illustrates that. The Akroid sunglasses offer 100% UVA/UVB/UVC protection in four spirited colorways. They can be found at stores worldwide for $159.

London designers StudioSuperniche have designed a series of structures made of the blue fence that surrounded the Olympic Park site in east London during construction. (more…)