Keely Hodgkinson's head-turning Nike speed suit functions as a futuristic 'second skin'
The hooded ensemble, a first for Nike since 2000, is a careful calibration of style and science, nine months in the making. Here's how it was developed
Out of all track and field world records, the women’s outdoor 800 metres has remained uncontested the longest, thanks to the blazing time of 1:53:28 set by Czech middle-distance runner Jarmila Kratochvílová way back in 1983.
British track phenom Keely Hodgkinson is excruciatingly close. In February, she shattered the women’s indoor record. Then, in June, she clocked 1:54:33 in Stockholm – a British national record and the 6th-fastest women’s outdoor time in history.
Hodgkinson runs her final race of the season tonight at Athlos, a star-studded women’s-only track and field meet taking place at London’s StoneX Stadium. And while her dreams of being the 800 metre GOAT may be on hold due to injury, Hodgkinson is stepping up to the line in swiftness and style, thanks to a show-stopping custom Nike speed suit.
The fierce black ensemble features a full-length silhouette, an open back and a hood designed to make Hodgkinson as aerodynamic and unencumbered as possible as she flies around the track. Equally important though, according to Dan Farron, Nike’s vice president of innovation apparel product design, was the ability of the suit to make the Olympic champion feel powerful. ‘She has her own style and her own aesthetic. We cannot compromise that,’ he says.
Farron and his team began working with Hodgkinson on the one-of-a-kind uniform earlier this year. While Nike has designed plenty of bespoke speed suits (take Faith Kipyegon's knee-length kit worn during her attempt to run the world’s first sub-four minute women’s mile) the 800 metre – considered one of track’s most grueling events – presented a very different beast: ‘Is it sprint? Is it distance? It's a bit of both. Like, it's the last tipping point before we get into endurance,’ Farron says. ‘That as a challenge is incredibly exciting.’
The designers needed to develop a specialised kit that could strike the perfect balance between thermoregulation, speed, mobility and comfort. The Nike team, based on the company’s years of product engineering, research and testing, presented a radical hypothesis to Hodgkinson, Farron recalls: ‘We think we can make you faster if we cover more skin.’
Hodgkinson was all in.
Using a 3D scan, Nike was able to create a digital avatar of Hodgkinson’s body so that they could develop prototypes without the need for Hodgkinson to travel to Nike’s HQ in Beaverton, Oregon from her training facility in Manchester.
Nike incorporated a number of technical innovations to reduce drag. ‘Although it looks like one slick second skin, there are different materials in different zones,’ Fallon explains. The polyknit fabric, for instance, incorporates mini vortex generators – tiny, wing-shaped 3D protrusions across the fabric– to allow the athlete to slice through the air. Strategic cut-outs in the underarms and back assist with mobility and temperature regulation. Finger gloves eliminate fabric creases and decrease wind resistance. Superfluous elements, like a zipper, were also removed.
One compromise the team wasn’t willing to make was taming Hodgkinson’s signature ponytail. Enter an element that Nike hasn’t revisited since the 2000 Sydney Olympics: a hood. ‘The hair can create a lot of turbulence, so we've curated this hood to be perfect for her,’ Farron says – which includes an opening to allow for her ponytail to fly behind her.
‘It’s drastically different to what she normally wears,’ Farron says. ‘It stands out from what you're going to see at the starting line.’
According to Fallon, Hodgkinson is thrilled with the results – and that enthusiasm, perhaps, might be the final winning ingredient.
