Nike treads old ground with Johnston100 typeface inspired sneakers
Sportwear giant Nike is going back to the future by taking inspiration from a century old typeface first introduced on the London underground for its latest Air Zoom Spiridon trainers.
In collaboration with Roundel Nike has graced the trainers with an alphabet-inspired design that gives pride of place to the Johnston100 typeface following a recent update of the historic lettering for the digital age by Monotype.
Nike product designer, Jupiter Desphy, explained: “Like many things, this collaboration was born out of pre-existing relationships. Andrew Bunney and Slam Jam, who began working with TFL on the Roundel apparel and product line, approached Nike about incorporating the Nike Air Max.
“It’s a shoe that has special meaning to London similar to that of the AF1 and NYC. This was the catalyst to the collaboration in December 2013 and we’ve stayed in touch. With 2016 being the 100th anniversary year of the TFL font it seemed like the perfect time to work together again.”
Incorporating an alphabet soup of letters and numbers the white and navy shoes include the trademark Nike Swoosh and a TFL roundel embroidered on the tongue of limited edition pairs.