Nike reveals inflating Air Milano Jacket at 2026 Winter Olympics

Sportswear brand Nike has created an air-filled jacket that can be inflated and deflated, which is being worn by Team USA at this year's Olympics. Here, Nike chief design officer Martin Lotti explains why it's not a gimmick.

Showcased in an installation created in a series of railway arches in Milan during the Olympics this week, the Air Milano Jacket brings Nike's Air technology to a coat.

"We were looking at air as an underfoot performance technology that delivers upon cushioning – and we have done it for 50 years, but I would say, even in footwear, we're just scratching the surface," Nike chief design officer Martin Lotti told Dezeen.

"But then we started asking ourselves, as air is such an amazing ingredient – you can't even see it, that's the irony of it from a design perspective, to work with a medium that you can't even see, it's so intangible – it can have so many different benefits."

The jacket can be inflated or deflated by the wearer to regulate their temperature without taking off or adding layers.

Deflated, the Air Milano Jacket acts as a windbreaker, while when fully inflated, it is as warm as a mid-weight puffer jacket.

It is inflated with a small, battery-powered fan in around 20 seconds using a valve on the front of the jacket, and can be gradually deflated by pressing the same valve.

According to Lotti, the jacket solves a problem that many runners face, which is regulating temperature as they warm up during a run.

"In the morning, it's cold, and you run and get warm," he explained. "What do you do? You take off the jacket, you put it around your waist – it's so custom, we do it automatically without solving the actual problem."

"[Now] you can actually do it within one garment and adjust it on the fly within 20 seconds?" he continued. "So that's what I love about it. It's not a gimmick, because it actually solves a problem that athletes have every single time [they run]."

Given that the filling is air, the jacket is very light and also does not lose its insulation qualities if it gets wet.

"Air can deliver upon cushioning, can deliver upon cooling, and it turns out it's a very good insulator; hence, it solves a problem that athletes have every single time they go on a run," said Lotti.

"It's adaptable, it happens to be also super light, and because it's air, there's not anything like down, so it doesn't wet out. With a down puffer, when it rains, it gets wet, and then you lose all of the heat capacity," he continued.

"And then the weight-to-warmth ratio is incredible too – so that's another key benefit of it."

The jacket is a continuation of Nike's integration of air within its products that began in the late 1970s with the launch of the Nike Tailwind, which had encapsulated gas bags within its sole.

This continued with Nike making the air pockets visible with the hugely popular Nike Air Max series that began in the late 1980s.

Lotti acknowledges that it has taken a long time to translate that thinking from footwear to garments and explained that it was the creation of a material to contain the air that was "the breakthrough".

"We dabbled with it in apparel 20 years ago with an ACG jacket with air, but we didn't have a material that was suitable," he explained.

"That jacket had an airbag within a jacket, whereas now the airbag is the jacket. What took us so long was actually finding a fabric that contains the air, or can contain the air, but is supple," he continued.

"It sounds so simple to do, but it's incredibly hard. Then we discovered this two-layer membrane that actually can do that – that was the breakthrough. So yes, it took us a long time, and now I can't wait to explore it more."

According to Lotti, not having a filling has also allowed Nike to rethink the look of a puffer jacket as the structure is no longer constrained.

"I would say, from a design perspective, it also allows us to go to new places because with a puffer you're usually trying to contain feathers and they look a certain way," he said.

"But now all of a sudden, it's unconstrained."

A special version of the jacket was created for the Team USA at this year's Olympics, and the athletes will be wearing them during the medal ceremonies.

This customised version has several Olympic-specific details, including a flag, a patch on the arm, USA written on the back and an Olympic logo on the chest.

"I do believe a good design solves problems for our athletes," said Lotti. "It also has to evoke emotion."

"So, for example, on the Milano jacket, if you look at the inside of the jacket and you look at the graphics, it's the Garden of Gods, a mountain range in Colorado where the US team is based," he continued.

"There's an eagle there, and if you look really close at the feathers of the eagle, it does a victory sign – so there are so many little hidden things within it."

The jacket was created as part of the recently relaunched All Conditions Gear brand and uses the ACG logo rather than the Nike Swoosh. As part of the brand's relaunch, Nike created a branded train named the All Conditions Express.

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