By MSU News Service MSU NEWS SERVICE
John Hoke III, who spent decades at Nike spearheading sportswear design for Olympic athletes and consumers, will visit Montana State University for a free lecture on Monday, Nov. 2.
The lecture, titled “The Power of Design,” will take place at 5:30 p.m. in Leon Johnson Hall, Room 339, and online via Webex, followed by a discussion. Hoke will explore design as a force for innovation and change, drawing on work and experiences from his 33 years at Nike. He will also examine the evolving relationship between design, technology and human imagination.
Hoke joined Nike, a global sportswear brand, in 1993 and took on several leadership roles in the following years, including chief innovation officer and vice president of global design. He helped design sportswear for multiple Olympic Games, including a shoe in 2021 that Paralympians and Olympians in Japan could slip on without using their hands and singlets made from recycled polyester and water bottles that athletes wore in the 2000 Olympic Games in Australia.
His position at Nike fulfilled a childhood dream. At age 12, he mailed a shoe design to Nike that was inspired by a pool raft and would cushion athletes’ feet. He received a reply from the company that he interpreted as encouragement to work for Nike when he was older. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture and gaining experience in the field, he pursued a design career.
Currently, Hoke is board chair of MillerKnoll, a global collective of design brands.
Hoke’s lecture is presented by the College of Arts and Architecture, Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering and MSU Athletics.
