Melitta Baumeister and Nike Introduce a Sculptural Rift Rocker in Latest Collection
The second chapter of the collaboration was presented in a five-room performance focused on an artist and athlete’s unseen moments
On Thursday evening, Melitta Baumeister and Nike presented the second chapter of their collaboration with a five-room performance inside 72 Walker Street. The presentation, led by Patricia Black, focused on the work artists and athletes do behind the scenes to achieve greatness, leaning into the theme that the greats aren’t born; they’re built.
Guests watched as sculptor Colleen Litchfield worked and reworked clay 35 times while attempting to craft a body. In another room, tumbler Paola Castro eventually found her footing on a couch but did not attempt to hide her initial stumbles. Kembra Pfahler attempted to play a tuba the wrong way, while the final leg of the tour featured a calisthenics athlete disguised as a shopkeeper keeping watch while dancers melted out of puffer jackets. Black closed the performance, which included a podium, with a speech thanking the moments of imperfection that nobody sees.
The performance marked the introduction of the new Nike Rift Rocker, the sole of which Melitta sculpted in her Greenpoint studio. “Everyone sees the finished leg,” Melitta said. “Nobody sees the 35 noses it took to get there. We put artists and athletes on pedestals and call it talent. I wanted to show the opposite: the work, the failing, and the dedication it takes to keep going. Neither is born. Both are built.” As such, every zipper pull, snap, and cord stop in the collection was shaped in clay by Melitta.
The collection, available in both Black and Yukon Brown, also includes an oversized reversible puffer with hidden hand graphics and underarm slits, which also wears as a backpack and comes with a removable shawl, a banana that unfolds into a tote, and a passport pocket.
The full “Molded by Dedication” collection, which also includes a track jacket with a detachable ribbed balaclava and molded clay Swoosh, as well as track pants with a clay carabiner with Melitta’s “Nose” key ring, and split toe tabi socks, will be available beginning November 5.
