Nike CEO Mark Parker
Host: I just learn there is a so-called
the innovation kitchen, right?
Tell us something about that kitchen.
Mark: Yeah, the innovation kitchen is
one of serveral what we call advanced R&D groups.
So these groups are working on
very innovative future concepts—
things you may not see in the marketplace
for two or three or four years from now.
They're sitting together in innovation kitchen
working with the support of sport researchists,
with the engineers, exercise physiologists
plus chemical experts, materials experts,
and really creating the future of innovational performance.
So the small group is sitting on the Nike campus.
But one of serveral groups
is committed to the future innovation of performance.
Host: The story started with Phil's kitchen
in his own home, right?
Mark: It was actually Bill Bowerman.
Bill Bowerman was a track coach
with focus on creating products
or fining customerized shoes for his athletes
to help them perform better.
So one of the things he did was actually
use his waffle iron to actually create an outsole
which is the bottom surface of the shoe.
And creating an outsole will help a shoe push in better
and give the shoe more attraction.
He was always thinking about the new ways to solve problems
and everything around him was...
Host: connected with shoes.
Mark: He was obsessed in a good way about innovation.
And again that really formed
the early foundation of Nike's culture as a company.
I came in Nike because I like design.
When I was a runner at Penn state,
I would modify my own shoes to try to make them better.
Change the outsoles of shoes and other things
to make them work better for me.
I'd never thought
that I'd be designing shoes as a job, as a career.
But when the opportunity came up,
I thought it would be fun
to mix an advocation of personal interest with the career.
So that was my early days at Nike.