Architects were presented with a challenge: put the Nike Sport Research Lab on the top floor of the building. And make sure the force plates, which measure an athlete’s every move, don’t pick up any outside interference. Their solution? The same one Bill Bowerman came up with almost 45 years earlier.

Meghan Simmons headshot

Meghan SimmonsSr. Director of NSRL

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Audio Transcript

“So we have force platforms here. And it’s the world’s largest installation ever of these force platforms. And they need to be on a very stable, secure ground. So that there’s no noise and interruption in the signal that we’re receiving. It’s a very fragile type of piece of equipment. And so they created a sub concrete floor that the force plates would sit on. Then there is an air gap and another floor. And we asked the architects, ‘What would it take to make sure that that subfloor does not move and can handle the structure that it needs to be able to keep the force plates nice and still?’ And they came back with a waffle pattern. And the waffle pattern was the best way to keep these force platforms as stable as possible. And it just so happens that that’s how this company started. It’s just very serendipitous.” – Meghan Simmons

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