Commissioned exclusively to host high-level influencers and press, the installation needed to be an unforgettable storytelling experience.

Since the AF1’s design has remained entirely untouched for thirty years, the most delicate challenge was to reconcile the purity of the shoe’s heritage with the introduction of the revolutionary new Lunar sole.

Above all else, we were asked to imagine a “world” in which this shoe belongs. In order to design an emotional experience around the LF1, we needed to first clarify the product’s position relative to its legendary predecessor, then invent an aesthetic language to tell the story.

We took visitors on a journey back from the moon. In a timeless, suspended atmosphere they encountered the first-ever LF1, its sole still attached to a sample of lunar rock, floating mid-air.

In the shuttle, fourteen intricately mapped screens acted as “windows” to a surrounding spacescape film. Enhanced by a sound installation, the screens provided the emotion of space-travel. Seats mounted symmetrically on ceilings and floors intensified the anti-gravity sensation.

The screens also served as portals to past and present, both displaying a film about the shoe’s history and connecting with LF1 designer Marc Dolce, live from Nike’s design studio.

The installation attracted editors from every menswear and lifestyle publication on the team’s target list. Most importantly, resulting press coverage revealed that visitors emerged with a nuanced understanding of LF1’s role as the “Future of Force”, and of Nike as a sophisticated story-teller.

As GQ’s Fashion Director Madeline Weeks raved, “(It was) the perfect setting for the new Nike Lunar Force One sneakers, set on moon rock pedestals and lit from below - it was fantastic. You could walk onto the shuttle and be transported into space, feeling like you were inside something both futuristic, yet very classic and iconic.”