Design
systems
at scale.
Twenty years building named innovation platforms at global scale — from early-stage material research through enterprise adoption. Each platform a designed system, IP-backed, built to outlast the season.
Innovation
Platforms
Innovation VP Roles
US & EU
Nike
Forward
"The biggest Nike apparel innovation since Dri-FIT."
Five years in development, Nike Forward rewrote the rules of fleece construction. By hacking industrial punch-needle machines to turn fiber directly into textile — bypassing traditional knit and woven processes — the platform achieved a 75% reduction in carbon footprint compared to conventional knit fleece. Built on 70% recycled content and designed from the start for circularity, Nike Forward became the most significant sustainability-led material innovation in Nike's apparel history.
Nike
(M)
Nike's first maternity platform — designed and tested by mothers, for mothers and so much more.
Three years in development, Nike (M) was built on 150,000+ body scans comparing pregnant and non-pregnant women — the most comprehensive body-mapping study Nike had ever conducted for a single collection. The team tested 70 materials before narrowing to nine, including recycled polyester composites ranging from 78% to 88% recycled content. The result: a four-piece system — bra, tank, tight, and pullover — engineered to adapt to a changing body across all stages of pregnancy and postpartum. The Nike (M) Swoosh Bra became the first Nike bra designed for both sport and nursing. Developed in collaboration with 30 pregnant and postpartum athletes, Nike (M) expanded from a North American capsule launch into a global platform with the Nike (M)ove Like a Mother program.
Nike
Aerogami
A jacket that thinks. Venting that responds in real time to the body.
Aerogami solved one of running's oldest problems: how to stay warm at the start and cool at pace. The platform's moisture-reactive vents autonomously open upon sensing sweat and close as the body cools — no zippers, no adjustments, no distraction. Informed by heat and sweat mapping from the Nike Sport Research Lab, vent placement was differentiated by gender to accommodate anatomy and sports bra placement. Aerogami represents Nike's vision for apparel that adapts to the athlete in real time.
Nike
Pro
Where the lab becomes the design brief. Science-led baselayer systems built for the highest level of sport.
Nike Pro defined a generation of performance baselayers — Hypercool, Hyperwarm, and Pro Combat — each engineered through direct partnership with the Nike Sport Research Lab. Design decisions were driven by thermal imaging, body scanning, sweat mapping, and impact analysis, translating athlete data into zoned construction: differentiated knit densities for warmth, mesh ventilation for cooling, and Dri-FIT Max positioning calibrated by sport and position. The NFL Points of Impact program mapped collision data by position to inform padding architecture. This was design embedded in the research lab — prototypes tested in environmental chambers, validated on thermal manikins, and iterated until the science said they were right.
Additional Platforms
Protection: Period
Before Nike
Design-led aspirational world-building for Ralph Lauren's performance and outdoor line. Developed immersive physical rigs and seasonal narratives that connected technical outerwear to brand storytelling — an early education in how design systems carry meaning beyond the product itself.
Hands-on product creation from brief to production, including factory collaboration in Asia. Built foundational fluency in garment construction, manufacturing constraints, and the discipline of designing within tight commercial parameters — skills that would later underpin large-scale platform development.
Building
platforms
that last.
These platforms represent a thread running through 20+ years of innovation work: the conviction that design systems — named, scalable, IP-backed — create more lasting value than seasonal product. The brief changes. The methodology doesn't.
The next chapter is about applying that methodology beyond apparel — to physical-digital experiences, play systems, and products where material innovation meets imagination. The most interesting problems are the ones that haven't been framed yet.
carmen@zolman.net