Sneaker News 
On the eve of the official unveiling of the Nike Doernbecher Freestyle Collection, Nike has given the sneaker community an inside look at just how a Doernbecher shoe is created from start to finish. A couple of years ago, we spoke with Cole Johanson, who designed the Air Jordan 3 Doernbecher in 2010; he gave us his account of just how the whole design process works, but Nike is going a step further and counting down the exact schedule of events. See the summary of it just below and read the full piece on Nike News.
Above: 2016 Doernbecher designer Andy Grass
December 2015: Nominations for the Doernbecher Freestyle program are submitted by OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, kicking off the 11-month process.
Above: 2016 Doernbecher designer Damien Philips
February 2016: OHSU Doernbecher delivers its list of six select patient-designers to Nike. From there, Nike taps its team for volunteers across footwear design, apparel design and product development.
Above: 2016 Doernbecher designer Corwin Carr
March 2016: The Nike design team meets with the kids at the hospital for the first time. There, the designers give each kid blank line art of different types of clothes to sketch out their initial ideas.
Above: 2016 Doernbecher designer Chehayla Hyatt
April 2016: The patient-designers and Nike reconvene at Nike HQ to begin refining their vision. As Nike doesn’t script the interactions, the amount of meetings they have is completely up to the kids and their families.
Above: 2016 Doernbecher designer Chase Swearingen
June 2016: The names of the six patient-designers are announced to the public, midway through the all-encompassing design and production process.
Above: 2016 Doernbecher designer Braylin Soon
September 2016: The designs are finalized, and each patient-designer gets a first look at the product. The kids also participate in a photo shoot with their collections.
October 2016: Nike and the patient-designers are days away from revealing their one-of-a-kind collections to the public. On October 28, Nike and OHSU Doernbecher will host the Doernbecher Freestyle XIII unveiling and auction at the Portland Art Museum. The shoe collection will release in November.
