Beyond just the All Conditions Gear (ACG) product, Nike’s influence has been considerable in the outdoor market, considering the company is mostly seen
as just a competitive sports brand.
Before Nike entered the fray in 1981, with their approach shoes, the Magma, Approach and Lava Dome, few corporations had really shown much interest
in the outdoor industry. (As always there were exceptions: Outdoor Sports Industries Inc did take over the Gerry brand in the lat 60's, and Johnson Wax
did acquire Eureka! and CampTrails in 1973. But it would be another seven years before Odyssey would acquire The North Face and Sierra Designs, and
even then Odyssey was co-founded by Bill Simon, who was behind the outdoor start-ups Snowline/Snow Lion and Black Ice.) Nike’s engagement with the
outdoor market caused many other non-outdoor enterprises to turn their gaze to this industry. The end result of which has seen the outdoor market of
today, by and large, swallowed up by large trading corporations. These days aside from a handful of cottage industry business, nearly all major North
American and British outdoor brands are owned by enterprises that have a stable of sports related labels (The likes of Patagonia and Osprey being rare
examples of where the company is still owned by its founder).
But Nike’s contribution has also been significant in other related ways.
Nike’s co-founder Bill Bowerman would go on to mentor Julie Lewis, helping her launch Deja Shoe, the world’s first environmental footwear company.
Although Deja Shoe’s run was short-lived, it did have a far-reaching influence thinking in the outdoor footwear market: worker welfare, sustainable and
recycled material content, non toxic adhesives and finishes, etc. And indeed, Nike has had their own 'Considered' range of more environmentally sensitive
footwear.
Deja Shoe’s influence would still be at play years later when in 2007 Andrew Estey, a former global design director at Nike, would co-found END
(Environmentally Neutral Design) footwear.
Nike itself embraced recycled PET as a material in 2000 when it provided recycled polyester shirts of Sydney olympic athletes. It has since diverted 2
billion PET bottles from landfill by using the the material in their products. They reckon that “Considered” products went into 82 percent of the track
uniforms for the London Olympics.
In similar vein, Nike has been the stomping ground for many of the key staff of Nau, the outdoor lifestyle clothing company who came to market saying
their product aspired to three guiding principles: Performance, Beauty and Sustainability. For example, Ian Yolles, Nau co-founder and former vice
president of marketing and brand communication has previously done time as Nike’s director of brand marketing. Chris Van Dyke spent 16 years at Nike
including time as General Manager of ACG followed by a stint as Vice President of Marketing and Product Development at Patagonia, before holding the
title of President and CEO of Nau. Peter Kallen, current Nau’s Design Director of mens apparel was previously a designer at Nike working on their ACG and
Aqua Gear lines.