NIKE'S SPORTING FANTASY

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

 Runners have been known to try all kinds of weird and wonderful ways to keep up the motivation. My own favourite method might sound conventional- very loud power music- but when I tell you that I pretend I'm in a film, perhaps running to save the world from disaster, or fleeing from some stereotypical baddies then you may think I'm a bit strange. This is a method which works best in the dark, when you have the chill of the wintry air puffing against your face, unrelenting. It feels quite glamorous but I'm sure the reality is quite different from a bystander's perspective.

 These images created for Nike by comic artists Jan Duursema and Amanda Conner pretty much sum up where I am in my mind, as I run through the neat suburban streets of one of England's safest towns. Cartoons are never something I've been very into but I can totally see how the medium works perfectly to create a kind of fantasy image of how a girl might look and feel as she does her workout. Conner even says that she comes up with the characters she creates while she is running and doing karate, helping her to envisage who they are and how they'd move.

 The purpose of this series of images is to show how Nike had created winter workout gear which doesn't restrict you but will still keep the cold, wet and wind at bay. As always with Nike, there are lots of super-techy elements which go into the collection but the fantasy figure theme is carried through in names like the legend pant and victory bra. That is a very savvy story to tell which is already adding flourishes to my running daydream.