A number of renowned Nike designers have recently left the company, as initially reported by Complex‘s Brendan Dunne.
The departures include Sergio Lozano, Nate Jobe, Chad Knight, and Tom Rushbrook. According to Complex‘s sources, the designers left the company in November.
Lozano started with the Swoosh in 1990 and is well-known for his creation of the Air Max 95, among other contribtions. Jobe was a senior footwear design director who executed Virgil Abloh’s “The Ten” collection. Knight joined the company in 2016 and served as a director of 3D footwear design. Rushbrook was the global senior design director for men’s sports style innovation since joining in 2011.
Lozano, Jobe, and Rushbrook declined to comment. Nike also declined to comment on the departures.
Knight, who has made a name for himself in the NFT space, is the new head of cyber-wear for the Wilder World metaverse.
“I want to help create that future and that was not an opportunity at Nike given the old guard’s and MBA’s lack of interest in ideas that aren’t their own,” said Knight in a statement to Complex. “Unfortunately you cannot have ideas about subject matter unless you possess knowledge of it.”
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