The inspiration behind Nike’s latest sneaker happened more than 20 years ago in a research lab at the University of Calgary. It was the early 2000s, and a young researcher named Matthew Nurse had discovered that subtle changes to the sensations athletes feel on the bottoms of their feet can alter how muscles fire. It got Nurse wondering—could the feeling of an insole help people run faster, jump higher and move better than ever before?

Two decades later, that same idea is at the core of Nike’s latest sneaker line. Nurse’s work is also part of a push across the company to revive its struggling image and share price. 

After years of slowing growth and fading cultural relevance, Nike is in the midst of a reset. Under new CEO Elliott Hill, who stepped down as president of consumer and marketplace in 2020 after more than 30 years at the firm only to return in October 2024, the company is refocusing on innovation. Hill’s return followed a turbulent stretch under John Donahoe, who oversaw an ill-fated switch to lifestyle over sport. 

As Nike faded, others filled the void with the likes of On and Hoka snapping up market share by doing what Nike once did best: combining performance research with sharp designs and clever marketing. By the pandemic’s end, Nike had ceded ground in key running and training categories. The new strategy, Hill told investors upon his return last year, was to reignite “our obsession with sport.” 

At the centre of this work is a group of Canadian scientists and designers whose research has quietly shaped Nike’s comeback strategy. The Nike Sport Research Lab, which is based at the company’s headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., is led by Nurse, who has spent nearly 23 years in various roles at the firm. And Nurse, who grew up in Brampton, Ont., has found himself surrounded by a bunch of other Canadian researchers.

“There’s so much momentum around the work we’re doing,” said Janett Nichol, head of apparel innovation. Nichol, from Toronto, said Hill’s return has set the company back on track. “From an innovation perspective, it feels amazing.” 

In the past month, Nike has unveiled a host of new products, including a motorized sneaker, cooling fabric made from recycled waste, and nervous system calming shoes. The products draw directly from discoveries made in its research lab, with their rollout accompanied by a new internal mission statement: “Create epic shit, make athletes better.”

Behind some of these releases is the new Mind Science team, a division of Nurse’s research lab. The group studies how the brain and body interact during sport and works with product developers to turn their science into stuff Nike can sell. The team unveiled two new shoes as part of the company’s launch blitz, a sneaker and a mule, partly based on Nurse’s PhD research in Calgary. 

It’s one of several Nike teams led or staffed by Canadians—a network of scientists, designers and engineers from north of the border who’ve become central to the company’s attempted turnaround.

“I get accused a lot of having too many Canadians,” said Nurse when we spoke the day before Nike unveiled the new Mind Science team and products. “It’s an ongoing joke.” Two of his recruits are neuroscientist Graeme Moffat, a former University of Toronto Munk School fellow who leads the Mind Science team, and Trevor Barss, a PhD in kinesiology and neuroscience from the University of Victoria in B.C., who studies how athletes’ brains respond to footwear. 

Neither Nurse nor Nichol could say exactly how many Canadians they work with. “There’s quite a few of us,” said Nichol, recalling a presentation she gave last month where a group of about five employees showed up sporting Blue Jays jerseys in support of the team’s World Series run. 

While Nurse said he doesn’t consciously look for Canadian talent, he said researchers trained in the country often share traits he looks for. “I try to hire creative scientists,” he said. “We don’t want book smarts. We need people who can use science to solve problems, not just answer questions. I find a lot of Canadians are very applied, very creative, very solutions-oriented.”

Nurse’s creative approach to research traces back to the University of Calgary’s Human Performance Lab, which was founded in the 1980s by Swiss-born biomechanist Benno Nigg. Along with Nike, the lab’s alumni now hold research and design roles at companies including Adidas, Puma and Lululemon. Nigg estimates 20 or 30 of his researchers have gone on to work for Nike. 

“The goal was always twofold,” said Nigg, who’s 87 and still works at the lab a few days each week. “Invent new things, and train people who can go out and lead.” His lab was one of the first in the world to bring together engineers, physiologists, psychologists and materials scientists under one roof to study movement. Along with producing some of the industry’s most coveted researchers, the lab makes discoveries that often end up in new sneakers. “If a shoe comes out with something new, there’s about a 50 per cent chance that we have been involved,” said Nigg. 

For all the science being built into Nike’s new products, the company’s turnaround plan will ultimately be measured in sales and margins. In its most recent quarter, it reported US$11.7 billion in revenue, up one per cent from a year earlier and ending a five-quarter run of declines. Still, the company faces real challenges—including rising costs as it shifts back to more wholesale business, and a US$1.5-billion annual hit from tariffs on imports from China and other Asian countries—showing that turning lab breakthroughs into business results is rarely straightforward.

Industry observers are cautiously optimistic about Nike’s turnaround progress. Sam Poser, an equity analyst with Williams Trading, told CNBC last month that the company’s focus on innovation is the right one—but it still needs to prove its new products can win over consumers. Jefferies analyst Randal Konik agreed that the company has started on the right track. “Nike is in the early innings of its turnaround and momentum is building,” he said. 

Nurse knows these things take time, and that a breakthrough in the lab doesn’t mean the job is finished. “It’s not innovation until somebody buys it,” he said.