Nike has been working on some strange new ideas. The first is a pair of shoes that activate your mind body connection through receptors in your feet. The second are powered sneakers. Oh, and there’s also an inflatable coat and a super-cooling shirt.
The unveiling of the futuristic products coincides with Nike’s announcement of its “Sport Offense” initiative, which unites the innovation, design, and product teams across Nike, Converse and Jordan Brand.
The first shoe line features styles called Mind 001, a slip-in mule, and Mind 002, a sneaker. The bottom of each shoe has foam bumps on it, which Nike calls nodes. As the wearer walks, these nodes slide up and down, basically transferring the topography of the ground through the shoes to stimulate the foot. The company says that this action can help people “lock in their mindset before and after competition … helping ground them in their bodies and bring them back to the present moment.”
Nike
If that sounds a bit like a marketing gimmick, the Mind line has actually taken 10 years to develop through extensive studies monitoring the mind body connection in Nike’s labs, including five years of testing by Norwegian footballer, Erling Haaland. The shoes, which will be available in January 2026, are the first products released from Nike’s new Mind Science department.
“For 45 years, Nike has studied the body in motion – how muscles fire, how joints move, how oxygen fuels performance,” says Matthew Nurse, Nike’s Chief Science Officer. “Now, we’re expanding into the mind. By studying perception, attention and sensory feedback, we’re tapping into the brain-body connection in new ways. It’s not just about running faster – it’s about feeling more present, focused and resilient. That’s the next frontier of performance.”
Amplification
While the Mind shoes are soon to hit the market, the second footwear line Nike announced might take a bit longer to be commercially available. Called “Project Amplify,” it consists of a motor, drive belt, and cuff battery that attaches to a carbon-fiber-plated running shoe that gives a power assist for walkers and joggers.
The shoe itself can be worn with or without the gadget, which, Nike says, is meant to help people walk or run a bit farther and faster, much in the same way electric bikes have increased speed and distance for cyclists. The company says the development of Project Amplify is focused on athletes running between a 10- and 12-minute mile pace.
“Project Amplify started with a single question: What if we could find a way to help athletes move faster and farther with less energy and a lot more fun?,” says Michael Donaghu, VP of Create The Future, Emerging Sport and Innovation. “At its core, Project Amplify is about seamlessly adding a little more power to your stride. The fun comes from realizing you can do more than you thought you could – whatever ‘more’ means to you.”
Nike has created a prototype of the system by working with robotics manufacturer, Dephy, an MIT Media Lab spin-out, which has been developing an exoskeleton-like walking system called Sidekick for about a decade.
Nike says the system is like getting “a second set of calf muscles” and that it can make walking uphill feel like walking on flat ground. The Project Amplify system has already been tested by over 400 people, who’ve walked more than a combined 2.4 million steps. The company did not say when the system might be commercially available.
A true puffy coat and a really cool shirt
In addition to the footwear announcements, Nike also unveiled its Air Milano coat, a piece of outerwear “offering warmth levels that range from a hoodie to a mid-weight puffer.” That’s accomplished using Nike’s “Air” technology, which allows wearers to inflate baffles in the coat with the press of a button. The coats will be debuted by Team USA athletes at the Milan Winter Olympics in February next year.
Nike
Finally, the sportswear giant also unveiled a new t-shirt which, the company says, is “capable of channeling more than double the airflow of legacy Nike athletic apparel.” The goal is to keep athletes cooler in a steadily warming world. The shirts, which are made from 100% textile waste, will be given out to Nike-sponsored sports teams starting in 2026.
Nike
Source: Nike
