On Tuesday May 15th Artist Tom Sachs opened the Space Program: MARS Exhibition at the Park Avenue
Armory in New York. Occupying 55,000 square feet of the Park Avenue Armory, Space Program: MARS is an immense space oddessy that explores a path to discovery through a journey to the red planet.

Partnering with Tom Sachs to create a unique collection that is the culmination of sport performance and space travel coming together, Nike and Tom Sachs present Tom Sachs: NIKECraft within the context of the Space Program: MARS.

Visit nikecraft.com for more information. The Space Program: MARS is open to the public at the Park Avenue Armory from May 16-June 17.

Kicking off this Saturday, 5.19.12, Bowery Stadium will play host to the Flyknit Collective project, a series of workshops led by architectural designer, artist and educator Jenny Sabin on Lightness, Sustainability, Form-fitting and the core benefits of the Nike Flyknit.

To join the workshops, you must apply before May 17th at flyknitcollectiveny@nikestadiums.com

Launched on the eve of Tom’s SPACE PROGRAM: Mars, this joint venture between Tom and the Nike design team fuses, in several significant ways, the design sensibility Sachs brings to space travel.

Astronauts must be as fit as an elite athlete to even withstand the rigors of exiting the earth’s atmosphere. Their daily tasks require a substantial effort and endurance. Equally, their equipment must be up to the task of performing under the most unforgiving conditions.

The journey itself would end up inspiring the Tom Sachs: NIKECraft collection – The Mars Yard Shoe, the Trench, The Marsfly Jacket, and the Lightweight Tote. Nike design and Sachs applied materials that have never been used in sportswear, taken from automotive air bags, mainsails for boats and the space suit itself. Each piece is packed with functionality that would prove useful in the voyage through space. Zipper pulls that double as storage containers, paracord that can be fashioned as a tourniquet and embellishments like the periodic table of elements screened on the inside of a jacket – they all merge visual interest with purpose.

Starting May 16, 2012, come experience Tom Sachs’ SPACE PROGRAM: Mars at the Park Avenue Armory where this limited NIKECraft collection will also be available for purchase.

Park Avenue Armory:

643 Park Avenue

New York

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ahead of the last HTM Flyknit release at 1948 London, we screened the incredibly moving documentary Town Of Runners. Filmed over four years it’s is an intimate portrait of young athletes from the town of Bekoji, Ethiopia. With over fifty people in attendance we were also joined by the films producer Dan Demissie and Coach Sentayehu Eshetu who took part in a lively and inspiring Q&A hosted by Run Dem Crew team leader Charlie Dark. Saturday also saw the unveiling of our second Flyknit installation, on show until mid-May, it showcases the design and aesthetics of Flyknit HTM Racer and HTM Trainer+.

On Sunday, to co-incide with the London race, we dropped the final release of the HTM Flyknit Trainer + in Grey and Volt and Black and White. With well over forty people queuing up in the rain from Saturday night, the shoe sold out within thirty minutes of the doors opening and many worn right out the door! The final and possibly the most coveted of three, the Total Orange HTM Racer was released on Tuesday at 12pm and sold out within ten minutes.

Tuesday also saw an awards ceremony ahead of Run Dem Crew’s weekly run. Awarding those that part took in the recent London race, it was an emotional moment for everyone in attendance as team leader Charlie Dark shared each persons journey to the room to the sounds of rapturous applause, appreciation and a few tears as they collected their medals. Every year RDC pick one person who they deem the most improved and this year they received a pair of Grey/Volt HTM Flyknit Trainer +.

Check out the gallery below and get down to 1948 now to see the new Flyknit installation now, up until May 17th.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the afternoon, a workshop on the three benefits of Flyknit was giving them the opportunity to get all necessary insights and knowledge in order to shape an ultimate design project for the runners of Milan.

The brief of the workshop was :

“Based on what you’ve learned from your run and the workshop session, we’re asking you to draft a project where design and innovation meet with running in Milan. This project should be inspired by the 3 benefits of Flyknit: LIGHTNESS, SUSTAINABILITY AND FORMFITTING. It should be replicable easily for the running key spots of the city”.

Designer Odoardo Fioravanti, Carlo Antonelli (editor-in-chief of Wired magazine), Joseph Grima (editor-in-chief of Domus magazine), Ben Shaffer (Nike innovation director and designer of the Nike Flyknit), Martin Lotti (Nike creative director on the London games) and Neville Wakefield (curator of the Flyknit collective project) were leading the conversation, feeding the participants with contents, story telling and driving them to unexpected thoughts through brainstorms around the concepts of lightness, sustainability and formfitting adapted to the fields of creativity and design.

Participants have now until 4PM on Saturday to bring back their contributions. At 6PM Nike and Odoardo Fioravanti will announce the names of the selected participants. On April 28, only one should remain and the selected participant will work on its project under Odoardo Fioravanti’s tutorship between May and the end of July. Then, the project will be executed.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A 5Km run through the streets of Corso Como, Corso Garibaldi and Parco Sempione before starting brainstorming and going deeper on the three benefits of Flyknit with Odoardo Fioravanti, Carlo Antonelli, Joseph Grima, Ben Shaffer, Martin Lotti and Neville Wakefield and being ready to shape their design projects for runners of Milan.

Niccolo Valcavi
Marco Neroni
Mehmet Eren Özyoldaş
Esther Barragan
Luca Villani
Nicole Galeone
Pietro Mazza
Nicolas Mousallem
Paul Rabinowitz
Gintare Buikaskaute
Nicola Zanotti
Sofia Girelli
Eugenia Sivilotti
Matteo Sansoni
Matteo Orlandi
Gopalkrishna Pai Kane
Luca Ruggeri
Edoardo Longoni
Carlos Canali
Carlo Lunelli
Mahmet Eren Ozyoldas
Giada Chervatin