'Air-powered' shoes highlight Nike's latest 'Blueprint Pack'

MANILA, Philippines -- Sports brand Nike is set to release its “most innovative, influential products ever” ahead of the Paris Olympics in July with its Nike Blueprint Pack.

In a statement, the brand said that the Blueprint Pack will include their Air-powered product offerings, including track shoes Nike Victory 2 and Nike Maxfly 2, basketball shoe Nike G.T. Hustle 3 and the “most premium” boot for footballers to date, the 2024 Nike Mercurial.

The pack will feature applications of the sports company’s signature “Air,” thanks to Nike’s access to elite athletes and testing through Nike Sports Research laboratory.

“At the heart of all we do is the athlete — we exist to push boundaries and take risks on their behalf,” Nike chief design officer Martin Lotti said.

“This summer, the difference-maker is the massive energy return of Nike Air. With these Air-powered products, I’m inspired not just by what we created in service of athletes, but also by the feeling that we’re at the beginning of an incredible new journey,” he added.

The colorway, the company said, is inspired by its co-founder Bill Bowerman and “his obsession with enabling the best possible athlete performance.”

“Bowerman was so focused on optimization that he would take a ballpoint pen and 'dot' a Swoosh on the side of his athletes’ spikes to save the weight from stitching on a logo,” it said.

“Nike designers were inspired by his sketchbooks, and for the Nike Blueprint Pack they created a typography based on his actual notes. Nodding back to the person who created 'the blueprint for serving athletes' seemed right as the best in the world head to Paris this summer,” it added, saying the design will cover 13 shoes, including spikes, basketball shoes, a football boot and a lifestyle shoe.

The brand said that in the Olympics, they will celebrate what 'Air' and sports science, design, manufacturing and imagination behind it, can produce.

"Air was an idea right out of the future then, and in this vanguard Nike Blueprint Pack powered by Nike Air, it’s giving athletes the ability to write the future of sports now.”

It will be available at nike.com and retails on July 3, ahead of the Paris Olympics, which will