Erik Hernandez
Five outsole sketches in grey with flowing lug bands, some with red and white heel and arch sections.
Side-view renders of the boot in two colorways, deep red for the opening ceremony and cream for the closing ceremony.
Color CAD of the cream boot in front, lateral, back, and medial views, with color swatches, collar cross-sections, and a red sockliner.
Bottom-unit tooling blueprint with medial, bottom, lateral, heel, and toe views, dimensioned cross-sections, and a material legend.
Revision board with upper pattern line art, marked-up pullover sample photos, outsole texture notes, material swatches, and a color-coded outsole map.
Outsoles of a pair of cream boots with wave-shaped lugs and red heel rubber, seen from above on concrete.
Close-up of the cream boot on foot, with a striped rope lace, translucent midsole wrap, and sawtooth lugs.
Two athletes in red Team Canada puffer coats dancing against a red backdrop, wearing the red opening ceremony boots.
Two athletes in cream Team Canada uniforms reclining on a cream backdrop, wearing the cream closing ceremony boots.
An athlete in a red knit top, leggings, and beanie mid-jump against a red backdrop, wearing the red boots.

Brief

lululemon outfitted Team Canada for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and asked us to design the boots the team would wear into the opening and closing ceremonies. Unique men’s and women’s designs had to stay warm and stable through a long night outdoors, match the rest of the uniform, and read as Canada’s from across the stadium.

Process

Early concepts explored laced, zipped, and sock-collared boots, alongside outsole studies that worked lululemon’s curved logo into flowing lug bands. The direction narrowed to sneaker boots with quilted, puffer-style panels and a thick rope lace, in deep red for the opening ceremony and cream for the closing ceremony. The rubber outsole is co-molded to the foam midsole, with translucent TPU bumpers at the toe and heel.