#SNEAKERSTORYSUNDAYTHE NIKE ULTRAFLIGHTWITH AARON COOPER

Aaron’s purpose as a shoe designer is to serve people at an empathetic level — to provide something an athlete didn’t know they even needed. In his years working with the most extreme athletic freaks to ever walk this planet, it’s their collective reaction of “surprise and delight” that gets his juices flowing, adding “there’s no better feeling than revealing a shoe to an athlete, and they’re telling me ‘wow, I didn’t even know that was possible’.”
 
His strategy for taking on seemingly impossible tasks is to gather what he’s absorbed from his years — traveling the world, working with athletes, admiring good design — and putting it all in a metaphorical blender. He pieces together the truths and adds that distinct Aaron Cooper vision with a perfect weighted balance of form and function. “That balance…all built for the human body, is Nike at its best. That’s how it all started. That’s Bowerman.”
 
This merging of balance, empathy, and surprise is at the core of the Zoom Ultraflight. Originally dropping in 2003 and worn by the greatest wizards to manipulate a basketball, the Ultraflight is evidence of Aaron’s effective design as well as how his past findings informs the present and future of Nike’s performance innovation.

Our third installment of #SNEAKERSTORYSUNDAY begins just ahead, but be sure to follow @aaron.ac.cooper on Instagram to continue on his storytelling journey.

Aaron worked closely with the speediest guards in the NBA. He described Gary Payton, Steve Nash, and Jason Kidd as “Ferraris on the court” for their ability to go 100 miles per hour on a court and turn on a dime. GP, Nash, and J-Kidd were the rare type of elite guard that blew by defenders and had the ball kiss off the glass for two before the opponents even had a chance to gather.
 
Aaron liked to use cars as a performance analogy, often asking himself if what was possible on the road was possible for the hardwood. Could he and the team create a shoe that can go at full speed and turn on a dime? How can we serve these extreme athletes like Jason Kidd, who can split open the side of the foam of a sneaker with one of his cuts? Could we create a performance vehicle for the court?

Going back to the “glass slipper” that was being created by Nike’s Track & Field team, Aaron and the team created their own transparent sneaker he calls a “foot bucket”. The widespread feedback from the wear-testers was that they were too painful to wear; each test lasted literal seconds. No amount or special type of socks could protect the foot. Aaron prefers learning through his own experience, but he was unable to try the prototype on his own because it was only made in a testing size (Aaron is a 12.5).
 
Aaron believes creating good product for others requires empathy, and in this case Aaron had to listen to the testers to properly evolve the shoe. Aaron calls this one of the most challenging process because he could not experience it for himself, but mostly because the task was deemed “not possible”. How do you create something playable and set a new performance standard on the basketball court…from a non-wearable prototype?

The Zoom Ultraflight’s injection mold was one of the most expensive ever made because it was the largest injection mold ever created. It required the utmost in precision because it had to be injected twice to achieve one mold, and perfecting that automation process is costly.
 
This is where pricing is a matter of balancing the numbers. Like the Air Foamposite One and even the Shox VC1, Nike may lose a margin on a product that features new tech and engineering, but will make it back and profit in the long run once the manufacturing processes get more efficient. As stated in the Shox VC1 feature, Nike is best in establishing a fair value, a valid statement considering the Zoom Ultraflight only cost $125 at MSRP.

The Zoom Ultraflight debuted back in 2003, but its influence on modern basketball shoes still persists. As mentioned earlier, Aaron and the team intended for a drop-in, removable insole that was full-length Zoom Air with maximum coverage. That original idea is viewed as one of the earlier dominos that led to the creation of the full-length Zoom strobel, which is now the standard for Nike’s high-end performance basketball models. Pictured below are four modern day examples of basketball shoes that have utilized the full-length cushion.
 
This is just another example of Aaron’s “Sponge, Dominos, Butterflies” principle and how important it is to creative positive momentum regardless of whether or not you get the credit for something later on.

Here’s an awesome fact: did you know Nike created a chrome version of the Zoom Ultraflight? This was a true one-of-one that was gifted to Aaron for the great work he was doing for the brand. The translucent “bucket” was replaced with a shiny metallic chrome and even featured Aaron’s personal logo and signature on the tongue.
 
He ended up gifting them back to Nike’s Department of Archives as he viewed them as an important piece of brand history. There aren’t many sneakers in history out there like this one, and in this era where shoes are selling for high prices on auction houses like Sotheby’s, can you imagine what this rare piece of history would go for?

Read more from the #SNEAKERSTORYSUNDAY mini-series here: Shox VC1 / Shox Stunner