They aren’t the most accessible people in the world but the world changes a bit during the Olympics. A couple of days after the 100m final, Nike’s chief innovation officer John Hoke and the brand’s chief design officer Martin Lotti were at the Centre Pompidou playing guide and chaperon for a group of content creators and influencers as they weaved through the brand’s Art of Victory exhibit at the Centre Pompidou. Not only were the two of them happily recalling how Centre Pompidou was the inspiration behind the brand’s successful Air technology and explaining how the technology has withstood the test of time without getting too nerdy or scientific, but they were there to also remind the audiences that their athletes in Paris were on the podium of the 100m races despite not bagging gold.

Hoke gave the group comprising some hardcore Nike fans (two were wearing orange skirts with a Nike Swoosh logo to work the zipper) a glimpse into what the future, obviously AI -powered, holds in store. Hoke says the brand works with top athletes to understand their needs and and goals and designs the shoes in conjunction with them and eventually these features are found in shoes that end up on the shelves.

Lotti, a Swiss by birth, who has worked with Nike in Oregon for 27 years now, thinks of himself as a global citizen. “I am Swiss but have been working out of Oregon for the last 27 years. I come to Paris often and have to travel a fair bit. I think of myself as a global citizen,” said Lotti, who was wearing a prototype of the Nike Air Zoom Pegasus Premium due to launch in January 2025.

Lotti says that even though the exhibit has just 13 future designs on display, the brand works with about 13,000 athletes and all their inputs are valuable. It’s not just shoes that the brand is working on. They work on everything that an athlete wears, including the clothes that could improve performance.