This Is the Weirdest Nike Sneaker Ever

When you’re constantly looking to innovate and push the boundaries of design, you tend to do quite a bit of experimentation. In a recent postby NikeLab on its Instagram account, a photo was shared of one of these experiments and what could possibly be the weirdest Nike sneaker ever seen.

The sneaker, titled “EXPERIMENT 2015_11_01600,” was developed to replicate the sensation of running on pine needles and was born of a challenge that stemmed from Jeff Johnson, Nike’s first employee, and his thoughts on the sensation of running on pine needles. The challenge was posed to designers from Nike’s running and Innovation teams to experiment and to explore what type of sensation they could achieve with their own models. Using the Flyknit Superfly as the base, Nike’s designers created some truly unique models that not only serve as visual eye candy, but also gives us a glimpse at how they approach design and innovation.

This particular model and several others will be on display at Nike’s Nature of Motion exhibition during Milano Design Week during the week of April 12-17. For those that won’t be able to make it out, check out Nike’s video below, “The Nature of Motion: A Free Revolution.”