34 college championships. 23 Olympic Medals. 40 World Records, including Nike’s first. With that track record, everyone should know the Tigerbelles. But most don’t. The Tigerbelles are a women’s track and field team that competed when Black people were far from being equal. No matter how many medals they won or records they set, their success barely made the news. And their story disappeared over the years. Nike wanted to make their legacy seen and ensure it’s never forgotten again.

To make the Tigerbelles’ monumental seen and remembered, Nike designed a intricately crafted ten foot tall, indestructible art installation using a material worn on the shoes of elite track and field athletes: the carbon steel track spike. 25,964 of them—the estimated number of people who witnessed the Tigerbelles first ever gold medal win in the 1956 Olympics. The piece itself was a recreation of one of the Tigerbelles’ historic moments at the National AAU Track and Field Championships in June 1978.

The Tigerbelles won Olympic medals and set world records, including Nike’s first. Yet few people know their legacy.

A legendary story like theirs needed to be told not just so the Tigerbelle's legacy wouldn't disappear but so it would inspire this generation and future ones to make history no matter who they are or where they are from.

We knew we needed to make their legacy last for as long as possible.

Knowing we wanted to design the installation with track spikes, we used pointillism to recreate that iconic Tigerbelles’ moment in 1978. We digitized our final design, which took 175,000 lines of code to map out each spike hole. It took 20 artists 490 hours to place all 25,964 spikes. From the polycarbonate background to the type of paint, each element in the installation was handpicked for its enduring qualities.

It was important to place the installation in a public spot where everyone could experience their legacy. The National Civil Rights Museum was the perfect location—a place where civil rights history is on display and where 250,000 people visit every year.

We partnered with the museum to curate an exhibit to honor the Tigerbelles. The installation, as well as an exhibit featuring Nike running apparel and archival team images, with our installation as the centerpiece.

The installation was unveiled at one of the most popular and historic museums in the US: the National Civil Rights Museum. A place where history happened in 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, which is now part of the museum. We invited former Tigerbelles and current athletes like Anna Cockrell, an Olympic Hurdler, to experience the team’s history like never before—enormous, enduring, and now impossible to ignore.

Nearly 250,000 people visit the National Civil Rights Museum every year, ensuring that the next generation sees and is inspired by the Tigerbelles’ story. We also shared the installation across social channels, garnering 4M impressions and further amplifying the Tigerbelles’ monumental legacy.