ISPA is a Nike design program named for four actions: Improvise, Scavenge, Protect, Adapt. Hypebeast reported in November 2018 that it came from Nike Sportswear’s special projects team. Its first shoe, the React LW WR Mid ISPA, put a deconstructed, water-resistant bootie on the React Element 87 sole and arrived in three colorways on November 21, 2018. We made it internally, Nike Brand Design EMEA with Nike Sportswear, and Nike Brand Design briefed and creative directed the outside agencies.
Why it looks like this
Four actions as principles. Nike describes ISPA as a philosophy whose four actions form “a set of design principles,” an experimental expression of Nike design. It says the resulting product “relays an optimism about the power of design, addressing the discreet needs of the city-dweller.”
The built environment. Hypebeast reported that the program aims to improve an athlete’s interaction with the built environment. Nike’s page breaks the principles down: improvise past the first answer, scavenge and reuse materials, protect against the problem, and adapt for versatility and durability.
The resulting product relays an optimism about the power of design.
Nike, ISPA program page, source
Press and sources
- Hypebeast: Nike Introduces Its Experiment-Driven ISPA Program
- Nike: What is ISPA?