From Portlad TEDx

• I’m one of the most anti-corporate people out there. I get in trouble a lot. That’s a choice I made a long time ago.
• When I first came to Nike, I was switching from being an architecture to being a designer.
• I had to decide how I was going to approach that crossroads, and I decided “I’m going to be a provocateur, a storyteller.”
• Luckily, I got hooked up with Michael Jordon. He was a leader and a provocateur.
• We all knew what he was as a basketball player.
• You can design for people as atheletes, but something else happens when you get to know them as a person.
• [photo of him going skiing with Michael Jordon at Deer Valley, Utah]
• One of my favorite products was the Air Jordon 20
• At some point, how long do you keep trying to be current and do things, vs. when do you become a mentor and let other people do it.
• I’ve already come to that point.
• Michael Jordon loves motorcycles. he’s a high performance athlete. he loves high performance things.
• there’s a lot of amazing stuff to be inspired by in the realm of motorcycles, from tires to gear to bike design.
• there were a lot of parallels between motorcycle tires and sneakers: cornering ability, speed, tread design.
• Air Jordon 20 Outside Inspiration – Trumpet designed by David Monet, here in Portland. Known as best trumpet maker in the world.
• He built this trumpet, and inscribed in the outside the story of the trumpet player’s life.
• This was the inspiration for the final touches on the Air Jordon.
• Talked with Michael Jordon, getting the stories of his life. Put together 20 symbols that each represented something in Michael Jordon’s life. e.g. “The black cat”. the car silhouette: a time when Michael Jordon’s mother sent him to sit in the car all day.
• Each shoe has 200 symbols on it, each representing something from Michael’s life.