Capstone Concept Abstracts
Concept #1: History and Unified Customization of Nike Air Jordan’s
Intro: The birth of sneakers we know of in today’s world took place in Nike’s Headquarters in 1984 when the company took a shot on designing a sneaker line specifically for a basketball player that had never played a professional game, Michael Jordan. Nike hoped to bring in $3 million in three years, but ended up raking in over $125 million in the first year of sales alone. The market exploded and created a community that people wanted to be a part of. The Air Jordan’s have become a significant piece of pop culture in every decade since they were created, and are still viewed as the best sneaker to ever be made. This project explores the history and cultural significance of the Nike Air Jordan, while also giving users the opportunity to explore the variety of forms the shoe has taken over the years and create their own custom Jordan shoe. Nike currently does something similar in terms of commerce (view Nike by You) where certain sneaker styles can be customized uniquely by each consumer. This project takes that idea a step further and allows users to match parts of different shoes along with their custom combination of color in order to have a fully unique pair of Jordan’s. Additionally, users will be able to view the customizations that other users have created and be able to build off of them for their own creation.
Abstract: The Air Jordan Customization Platform (new name to come) is an interactive interface that allows users to explore the history and cultural significance of the shoe that started sneaker culture we know today by customizing a unique pair of the sneakers with parts of the shoes from throughout the four decades since its inception. Taking inspiration from Nike’s “Nike by You” shoe customization for purchase, the interface gives users customization of a pair of sneakers and allows them to share them with other users that use the interface, creating a sense of community art sharing that gives users the opportunity to view other sneakers that users have made and be able to build off of them to create their own. This project researches the intersection between community and commerce and explores how the opportunity to incorporate the two at a higher level will impact both. This project was created for a digital touch screen with swiping mechanisms that give users and easier way to interact with the interface.
Concept #2: AR Application Exploring Moments in Sports History That Enacted Real-World Change
Sports have been played for an estimated 4,000 years, dating back to a form of wrestling being the first recorded sport being played in 2,000 BCE. Sports are often viewed as just a game to many people, whether it be European football, American football, basketball, baseball, or countless others, and are often overlooked in terms of carrying some kind of cultural and societal impact other than entertainment. Yet, there are moments in sports that have led to real-world change, causing shifts in politics, international relations, social and racial equality, and much more. Jesse Owens, a Black man from America, winning Olympic Gold in 1936 in the arena that Hitler’s empire built; Jesse Robinson breaking the racial segregation in the sport of baseball in 1947; John Carlos and Tommie Smith giving a Black Power Salute during America’s National Anthem at the 1968 Olympics; President George W. Bush throwing the first pitch at a New York Yankees game just days after the 9/11 terrorist attack; North and South Korea competing together as one team at the 2018 Winter Olympics. All of these moments, and countless others, carry more weight than just the game. This project explores these moments in history by connecting them to physical objects from the era. The AR Application allows users to activate a story highlighting the importance of these moments in sports history in video format, while giving a physical representation of the events that users can also interact with.
Concept #3: Interactive Game That Starts From Nothing and Builds Its Own Way to Play as Users Input Their Own Rules For The Game
Sports have been played for over 4,000 years. Currently, there are over 800 different sports across the world. Throughout history, different cultures in different countries have used their position and history to create their own unique sport — some being more popular than others. This project allows users to start a new sport from scratch, adding to the hundreds of sports that exist in the world. The first user creates one guideline to the sport to start, whether it be a field, arena, rule, or kind of ball. Then, each subsequent user will continue to add their own ideas of what they want this new world sport to be. The ultimate end goal is a cumulative sport that has been created by a collection of people from around the world, incorporating people’s different cultures, backgrounds, and experiences. While a project similar to this doesn’t seem to exist, this concept will be certain to provide an opportunity for a wide variety of people to experience the birth of a new sport together that is able to represent people from everywhere in the world.
