Mark Parker, former CEO and now Executive Chairman of Nike, is in the pantheon of Steve Jobs when it comes to design-forward innovation. He's one of the few designers to drive innovation at the level that he did from the chief spot. 

Reading this fascinating profile in Fast Company connected a few dots that I thought I'd mention to all you long-term readers out there. :-)

"In the mid-’70s, he was a champion runner for Penn State, part of what was then one of the most scientifically managed track-and-field programs in the country. At 6-foot-4, Parker brushed the scales at 130 pounds. “I looked like a praying mantis,” he says. He customized his own shoes by cutting the soles and experimenting with foam and homemade sock liners. He turned, ironically, to sheets of Nike-made waffle-sole material that he got from local shoe-supply shops. “I might run in an Asics Tiger shoe and put a waffle bottom on it,” he says. “The cushioning was so much better.”"

Sounds like somebody else we've studied, doesn't it?  The realization that struck me when I saw his tendency to tinker was, just as experiments beget experiments (I often say "the best experiments beget next experiments"), so also do experimenters beget experimenters. OK, so he's not Bowerman's biological son, so maybe "beget" is a little strong... attract? The point is, of course he found a home at Nike! The fanatic experimentation that founded the company was already in his DNA.

"He regularly hosts dinners for about 25 artist friends just to talk and kick around ideas." 

I was of course reminded of Benjamin Franklin's Junto, a regular gathering of leather-aproned workers to discuss issues of craft and society. From the FastCo piece, Parker clearly treats inspiration as a discipline:

"By the time Jordan dazzled on the 1992 Olympic Dream Team, the world wanted to be like Mike. There was no one better poised to amplify the sneaker’s aesthetic appeal than Parker... (who) found a natural source of inspiration in his artist network, including graffiti artists Stash and Futura 2000, artist and toy designer Kaws, and even rapper Kanye West. The company began churning out artist retakes of classic Nike shoes, all highly collectible, deftly creating scarcity by meting out limited supply to small specialty stores and ultrahip fashion retailers."

Parker is an inspiration junkie, much like Steve Jobs was.

Perhaps my favorite anecdote reminded me of Robin Williams and Jerry Seinfeld, notebooks in hand, at the ready the moment inspiration strikes:

"Kobe Bryant, fresh from the Lakers’ playoff victory and his MVP award in June, describes meeting Parker, then Nike copresident, in 2003 and watching him whip out his notebook to sketch while they talked. “I knew right from that that we were on the same page,” Bryant says. “He’s not doing things just for (novelty's) sake. He truly wants to optimize my performance.”"

Click here to subscribe to Paint & Pipette, the weekly digest of these daily posts.