Oct, 19, 2026
Fashion Design
Phoenix Art Museum Announces Major Exhibition on History and Impact of Nike
Organized by the Vitra Design Museum and presented by PNC Bank, Nike: Form Follows Motion at PhxArt opens in April 2027 and explores five decades of Nike innovation and cultural influence
Image credit: 3D grown shoe from the experimental series »The Nature of Motion«, Nikita Troufanov, 2016 © Nike, Inc.
(Oct. 19, 2026 – PHOENIX) Next spring, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) presents the Southwest premiere of Nike: Form Follows Motion, becoming only the second institution in the U.S. to present the comprehensive exhibition that traces the 50-year evolution of Nike from a small Oregon running company into a global cultural force.
Organized by the Vitra Design Museum and drawn primarily from the Department of Nike Archives (DNA)—a collection of more than 200,000 objects never before accessible to the public in this depth—the exhibition brings audiences behind the scenes into Nike’s unparalleled design lab, where sports research, scientific study, design innovation, and aesthetic sensibility converge.
Featured objects and artifacts include experimental prototypes, original design studies, rarities, and one-offs showcased alongside iconic Nike designs such as the Waffle Trainer, the Air Force 1, the Air Jordan, the Air Max, Flyknit, and the Vaporfly.
Nike: Form Follows Motion will be on view in Steele Gallery from April 14 – September 26, 2027.
“As one of few art museums in the U.S. to regularly exhibit, collect, and preserve fashion as part of our core collecting priorities, Phoenix Art Museum is thrilled to bring Nike: Form Follows Motion to the Valley of the Sun so that Arizona audiences can engage with the story of how the revered sports brand has united athletics, design, and contemporary culture to influence style and self-expression across generations,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Sybil Harrington Director and CEO of Phoenix Art Museum. “This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition provides a first-time view into Nike’s long history, highlighting how the brand simultaneously responded to the needs of athletes while driving cutting-edge design and trends for the masses. This is much more than a striking display of sneakers and sportswear; it’s a story about an idea that started on the track and grew to shape everything from street to mainstream culture.”
Presented by PNC Bank, Nike: Form Follows Motion at Phoenix Art Museum unfolds across four chronological sections in the institution’s premier Steele Gallery:
- Track sheds light on Nike’s origins in the 1960s, when the company was founded by Phil Knight, a former college runner, and his coach, Bill Bowerman. Visitors discover how Bowerman’s early experiments in his kitchen led to the first Waffle Sole, while also encountering founding-era artifacts and the story of the Tennessee State University Tigerbelles, a track team of Black women who dominated the sport during the civil rights era in the U.S.
- Air highlights the 1980s, when Nike vaulted from running specialist to cultural force. The section centers on the invention of the visible Air Sole, introduced in the 1987 Air Max, and includes engineer Frank Rudy’s original testing machine alongside air-bag prototypes that inspired the iconic design of a sealed capsule of pressurized gas that you can view through a window in the side of a shoe. The section also traces Nike’s foray into basketball, tennis, global football, and skateboarding, while highlighting partnerships with athletes such as Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, and LeBron James that turned product into mythology.
- Sensation opens the doors of the Nike Sport Research Lab, one of the world’s most advanced facilities for studying the body in motion. Visitors discover the science behind Nike Free, the Vaporfly and the sub-two-hour marathon, and the material breakthroughs—including Flyknit—that have reshaped both performance and the conversation about sustainability in footwear. The section closes on Nike’s ongoing work in circular manufacturing, ethical sourcing, and recycled materials.
- Relation ends the exhibition by charting how a sports brand became a global cultural phenomenon. Visitors navigate a maze-like display of 50 examples of groundbreaking footwear born from high-profile artistic partnerships and community-driven projects. By explicitly focusing on Nike’s impact on popular culture and counterculture, this section sheds light on the public’s almost mythical devotion to sneaker culture and is supplemented by music videos and social media artifacts that demonstrate how Nike drew inspiration from global subcultures to become a prime mover of street style.
“At PNC, we understand the critical role the arts play in the continued success, stability and growth of our community,” said Kyle Steinbuch, PNC regional president and head of Corporate Banking for Arizona. “At its core, the Nike: Form Follows Motion exhibition is about people, creativity and the evolution of ideas. We’re excited to support this opportunity for museum visitors to see the intersection of sports, design and culture in a new way.”
Nike: Form Follows Motion is accompanied by a major 356-page publication featuring essays by scholars Sam Grawe, Adam Bradley, William Myers, Jared Dalcourt, and Ligaya Salazar. Illustrated with nearly 300 historic and contemporary images, the book will be available for purchase at The Museum Store, inside Phoenix Art Museum, along with a selection of exclusive exhibition-related merchandise.
About the Exhibition
Nike: Form Follows Motion is organized by the Vitra Design Museum in Germany and is curated by Glenn Adamson and assistant curator Marcella Hanika with exhibition design by JA Projects and graphic design by Daniel Streat, Visual Fields.
The presentation of Nike: Form Follows Motion at Phoenix Art Museum is coordinated by Summer Rye, Fashion Curatorial Assistant, and Rebekah Monahan, Fashion Collection Manager, and presented by PNC Bank. It is also made possible through the generosity of Men’s Arts Council.
In-kind support is provided by Kimpton Hotel Palomar Phoenix.
All exhibitions at Phoenix Art Museum are underwritten by the Phoenix Art Museum Exhibition Excellence Fund, founded by The Opatrny Family Foundation with additional major support provided by Joan Cremin.
About PNC Bank
PNC Bank, National Association, is a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC). PNC is one of the largest diversified financial services institutions in the United States, organized around its customers and communities for strong relationships and local delivery of retail and business banking including a full range of lending products; specialized services for corporations and government entities, including corporate banking, real estate finance and asset-based lending; wealth management and asset management. For information about PNC, visit www.pnc.com.
About Phoenix Art Museum
Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) has engaged millions of visitors with the art of our region and world. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, PhxArt creates spaces of exchange and belonging for all audiences through dynamic exhibitions, collections, and experiences with art. Each year, 300,000 guests on average engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 21,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern, and contemporary art and fashion design, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. PhxArt also presents live performances, outstanding examples of global cinema, arts-education programs and workshops, a monthly live-music series, and more for the community. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602-257-1880.
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