Researching China's next generation of cultural visionaries to shape how Nike builds the future alongside them
Leading the Future with Chinese Visionaries
In 2021, with the world genuinely up for reinvention, Nike wanted to know who China's next generation of cultural leaders actually were, not celebrities, but the people already shaping sport, fashion, music, and art from the inside. We ran interviews, online exercises, and co-creation sessions with nine established visionaries (spanning fashion design, music, sustainability, and contemporary art) and twenty-four rising talents across sport, gender, sustainability, and design.
What we found didn't look like the West's version of a visionary. China's version was open rather than fixed, comfortable with a fluid identity, practical rather than grandiose, favoring steady progress over big gestures, global, most having lived or studied abroad, and courageous, willing to go against the room. They didn't want to be spoken for, especially on gender, diversity, and sustainability, where they were skeptical of performative gestures and wanted proof over slogans.
What they actually wanted wasn't a brand speaking for them, it was one building alongside them, putting real resources behind the future they were already trying to create. So the work moved past a research report into a set of directions for how Nike partners with these visionaries directly, letting them shape the programs instead of just appearing in them.
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