FUNCTIONAL FASHION
It was one small step for man, one giant step for humankind’s functional fashion. One of NASA’s many technology spin-offs was the revolution of safety suits and footwear around the world. Back in the early 1970s, engineers at Johnson Space Center were asked by the nation’s fire chiefs to use their knowledge of astronaut spacesuit life-support systems to give their fire suits an upgrade, which at the time weighed around 14 kilograms. It took NASA four years, but engineers managed to create firefighter outfits that were around one-third of their original weight. Taking these spacesuit adaptations a step further, NASA developed a process called ‘blow rubber moulding’, inadvertently creating a new wave of athletic shoes. Initially created to make space helmets, the process involves blowing air into heated plastic or rubber to form a hollow mould. In the case of shoe development, this allows hollow soles to be made and filled with shockabsorbing material. It was a concept that athletic shoe manufacturer Nike found attractive. In 1978 the company launched the first-ever Nike Air, which encapsulated dense gases into rubber membranes to create an ‘air’ bag.