words // Brandon Richard

Nike officially releases the second episode in their Tales From the Kitchen animated video series, which started with the Hyperfuse story last July. Tales From The Kitchen Episode 2 takes a fun look inside the story of the birth of one of it’s best “recipes,” Nike Free.

The story starts with Tobie Hatfield, Innovation Director in Nike’s Innovation Kitchen. To Hatfield’s credit are shoes like Michael Johnson’s Gold Medal Olympic sprint spikes from 1996 and the classic Air Presto.

In the early 2000s, Tobie and a group of colleagues began the process of finding a way to bring to life the concept of training barefoot, a commonly used technique that helps strengthen the foot. The goal was to create a product that not only replicated barefoot training, but offered the support and traction of a lightweight performance shoe as well.

With those ideas in place, Nike Free was born. Since then, the technology has gone on to revolutionize running footwear as we know it. Check out the video below for the story behind the birth of Nike Free.