“Good design is a marriage of science and art,” Mr. Avar said. “Telling a story is also really important.”
Like a Renaissance artist taking cues from a Medici family patron, Nike sneaker designer Eric Avar starts by listening to his star athlete.
When Kobe Bryant told Nike executives in 2006 that he wanted his namesake basketball shoe to be the lightest ever, a maverick low-top in a sport dominated by high-tops, Mr. Avar held hours of freeassociation chats with the Los Angeles Lakers star to imbue every curve with Mr. Bryant’s hypercompetitive personality.
Mr. Avar’s team eventually compiled a 20-page guidebook of Kobe-isms to forge the spirit of Mr. Bryant’s sneakers, ranging from the pinpoint precision of a laser-scoped rifle to the quick twitch of the snake that inspired Mr. Bryant’s nickname, Black Mamba.
Eric Avar is the Nike Performance Footwear Creative Director, overseeing projects in the Innovation Kitchen Pantry. Avar joined Nike in 1991 and has helped create some of Nike’s most innovative and award-winning designs of the past 20 years, including products within the Nike Basketball, Nike Free, Lunarlite and Kobe Bryant series of footwear.
Avar has served as the chief creator of all of Bryant’s signature footwear. The son of a fine artist and a mechanical engineer, Avar holds a Bachelor of Science in Fine Arts and Industrial Design from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Born in New York City and raised in Connecticut, he cites his parents and legendary Nike footwear designer Tinker Hatfield as his inspiration and mentors.