Nike Taps Melbourne’s Creative Champions For An Exhibition Full Of Endless Inspo

Marking the launch of the Air Max 720, Nike have refused to go small. In fact, the campaign calls itself ‘Just Go Bigger’ and urges you to do the same. Celebrating the shoe, which is huge in innovation and air unit proportion (it’s the tallest AIR unit design yet), Nike have rounded up some of Melbourne’s most experimental creatives for your inspirational gain.

A weekend of creative sessions from people we love — and who also happen to be Oyster contribs/fam — like Tristan Ceddia (of Never Now), James J. Robinson (photographer and filmmaker), Adriana Giuffrida (of POMS), will culminate in an immersive exhibition that shows off the weekend workshops’ results. It’s not just a place for looking at this crew’s genius work, there’s also an opportunity to participate. For instance, experimental design studio Artefact will be hanging out with their 3D printer, and other contributors will be around to talk shop.

Fashion stylist Gadir Rajab will be holding a Material Exploration workshop as part of the program and in the lead-up, he’s tapped frequent collaborator Hunter Ryan to shoot a story that explores his knack for cool shapes and unconventional proportion, exclusively for Oyster and Nike.

All models wear Nike Air Max 720 (AUD $260) throughout. 

“Creativity truly comes into play when we allow ourselves to leave our comfort zones and surpass what we deem possible”

— Hunter Ryan, photographer

The shoot features the Air Max 720 and draws directly from its palette, which is inspired by the Aurora Borealis in Iceland. But it’s the contorted shapes that informed Hunter’s approach to photographing the story.

“The future sci-fi warped droplet components encompassed in the Air Max 720 led me to experiment with perspective and distortion — mirroring the design elements on the shoe in a clean simplistic way,” Hunter explains. “The 720’s new innovative aesthetic has been paralleled across multiple components – diverse casting, future deconstructed garments/styling and style of capture”

“Creativity truly comes into play when we allow ourselves to leave our comfort zones and surpass what we deem possible.”

“I always try and go bigger with my ideas. Bigger for me means being a bit more ‘weird’ and not conforming… and looking globally for my inspirations, as Nike does.”

– Gadir Rajab, stylist

Gadir also drew on the colours and innovative elements of the new 720 when developing the styling direction. “The shoe is unconventional, so I went in that direction for styling,” he explained. The styling itself is also very experimental and innovative, with Gadir customising Nike pieces for a unique look.  “I always try and go bigger with my ideas. Bigger for me means being a bit more ‘weird’ and not conforming to the Australian commercial market — and looking globally for my inspirations, as Nike does.”

You can join in the fun and support the Melbourne creative community this weekend at Nike ON AIR Presents ‘The Melbourne Department’. Open to the public from 11am-3pm Sunday 24 March at FAB9, 90 Maribyrnong Street, Footscray, the exhibition will showcase Hunter and Gadir’s images IRL, along with other works from the workshop hosts and their workshop participants. So, if you’ve got a flame for stuff like colour design, typography, industrial design, material exploration, accessories design and film, you need to tap this link and register your interest.