Interview: Tinker Hatfield Breaks Down the Self-Lacing Nike HyperAdapt

Tinker Hatfield opens up on his most future-proof release to date.

tinker hyperadapt
Nike

Image via Nike

tinker hyperadapt

Tinker Hatfield, bona fide legend of Nike’s Oregon campus, dropped in to Niketown London to talk about his most future-proof project to date. Freshly dropped in the UK, Nike Hyper Adapt is the first retailing self-lacing shoe since the limited Air Mag release of 2012.

Indeed, Hatfield confesses the Back to the Future storyboards for the Air Mag played a critical role in making the Hyper Adapt dream into a reality. At Niketown, Nike’s chief designer spoke about why the time is right for self-lacing technology, why all athletes will be on board in future and his life at Beaverton.  

Tinker says "Nike’s always been about pushing boundaries" and a looking at these sneakers is an exciting glimpse into the future of active wear. After a Virtual Reality tour of Tinker’s Oregon studio, by a digital version of the man himself, we sat down with him to find out more about the Nike Hyper Adapt.

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COMPLEX: The HyperAdapt has been a long time coming. Can you talk about how it feels to have this project finally coming onto the shelf after 10 years? 

Tinker:  Jeez, there was a tremendous amount of work by teams of engineers and project managers to make this shoe come to life. I drew it up, but that’s just the very first step. So, we’ve made a lot of changes along the way. Mark Parker as well, the CEO, he’s been a cool design partner of mine over the years. So anyway, it’s now exciting to see something come to life and to watch the reaction. Especially when people try it on for the first time, they go: “wow, that’s insane” and I think that’s been fun. 

So, the dream-team of Tiffany Beers, yourself and Mark Parker…how do you guys play off each other creatively? 

I think the best work is usually collaborative. Take writing for example…you’ve got a story, an editor and anyone else involved in the process.  The same is very true in design, I may have an original concept but I always like to send the sketches to Mark. First of all I respect him immensely, and he’s creative too, and he may have a few suggestions so we go back and forth like that all the time. 

You know what, where the rubber meets the road in life – in general – is how do you execute an idea, you know? How do you get it started, develop and how does it finish. So you have to have people like Tiffany, who are cracking the whip with teams everyday. Tiffany’s an engineer as well so she understands a lot of the technology. So, that’s how good work ultimately kind-of happens.

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You’d mentioned previously how the Pompidou Centre in Paris inspired you. When you’ve been to London before have you found anything architecturally stimulating?

I haven’t been back to London for three or four years and it’s just, wow, a British expression would be ‘gobsmacked’! I’m gobsmacked by the number of new towers that are popping up and it looks to me like, unlike in most cities, there are people taking some risks. In the end, you have to move forward.

Talking about the more technical side of Nike, is there a reason for leaving out flyknit on the Hyper Adapt?

That's a good question. I personally have designed so many shoes – like I have 20 shoes that are being developed right now! So it’s a particularly busy time. I think that we have so many flyknit products and that's for a good reason, but I think sometimes that flyknit is maybe too loose…and too open and more about lightweight breathability. Conversely, these shoes are actually meant to be worn in a broader variety of conditions. This ‘Hyper Weave’ as we call it is actually very high tech also, but it's a much tighter construction. So there is a little more protection from the elements. 

So finally to wrap it all up, what’s next for Tinker Hatfield?

Oh man, well, it’s my job to make people nervous and to be disruptive. This certainly did that, so I have a lot of other projects that are in the same realm. They’re going to be different and people are going to wonder about them and hopefully generate some more interest and excitement.  Hopefully this will help us continue to be the leader. It’s hard to be the leader if you’re not taking some risks. So that’s my job, to keep pushing it.

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The Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 is coming to London – to find out where and when you can try it on and purchase, download and stay tuned to the Nike SNEAKRS App.