Our Pioneer in Portland, Oregon, USA: Niek Pulles

This week 'Pioneers' takes us across the Atlantic Ocean to Portland, Oregon, where we touch base with Niek Pulles, founder of studio HEYNIEK and designer at Nike FUEL / Special projects and innovation. What should we absolutely know about life in Oregon, and can we learn from what life is like out there? What is it about his experience abroad that is creatively inspirational and different? In this series of articles, created in collaboration with Nils Adriaans, we take a look at these questions and ask our Pioneers for five personal messages in a bottle – one for every day of the week.

What makes you feel at home?

This picture above says it all… they are my passion and obsession. My lady and Mount Hood definitely make me feel home here. The ultimate gezelligheid is going into nature with my Oregonian boo Marta King. We just bought a house with MT. Hood in our backyard. It’s a dream location, and since we are working from home since March 2020, it’s the best office I’ve ever worked in. No offence to the Nike WHQ, that is an amazing place too, and the Nike family definitely helped me feel at home when I just moved here in 2016, but having my own spot with my partner is next level preciousness.

What stands out the most there (professionally)?

TEAM TEAM TEAM TEAM TEAM TEAM.

When I joined the Nike Fuel team aka Special projects and Innovation (NikeLab) in 2016 we started this Instagram account as an experiment, to show what we do as a team and how we work together, showing the power of team spirit. My team makes me smile every day. It’s such a blessing to be in a diverse and very talented team with many different cultural and educational backgrounds. You can see the results in the projects, from the ISPA products and experiences to what we do with collaborators. Being pioneers and wild children in a big corporate environment is a very special feeling. I truly hope we can stay in this post for a while…

What is your Random Pic(k) Of The Week?

CAR CRASHES! They have been my visual obsession since I moved here, they are everywhere! It’s as if you see a John Chamberlain piece on every corner of the street. The museum Dia Beacon in New York showcases a few of his wonderful objects. Through living in Portland and knowing the driving skills are ‘different’ than in Europe, it feels like I’m surprised on a daily basis by a new piece of art. I started to collect random fenders that I found on the side of the road, just to start my own sculpture garden. You can find a selection of car crash crushes on HEYNIEK.

Who's the most radical creative over there?

Can I mention three? Lee Kelly is a sculptor based in Oregon City, check his work. I had the pleasure to meet him at his studio in an old milk factory in the middle of the woods. His gigantic metal sculptures are breathtaking. He definitely became my local hero and a big inspiration for how I would like to see myself as a sculptor some day! I think it’s all about SPACE / SPACE / SPACE, which there is plenty of in the States! They call Lee the Sculptor of Oregon as he has work all over this State. He reuses old metal to craft his projects and stores most of it in that milk factory. It was such a pleasure to see it.

Another Local hero is our own Nike designer Wilson Smith III, he designed the Air Uptempo, my first basketball shoe! Meeting him at the Nike DNA archive was mind blowing. To hear about the olden days and him designing for Agassi and others is just pure joy. He is an explosion of energy and creativity!

And last but not least, our own Dutch friend Hoyte van Hoytema! I had the pleasure of meeting him in Los Angeles at the warehouse where he keeps all his movie equipment. Hearing his stories about engineering and technology in the movie industry is very impressive. The day I met him, it was my birthday. He took me out for lunch – it was a very surreal and memorable birthday. We talked for hours and exchanged a bunch of wild ideas. Last week I saw the movie TENET in a very small local cinema by the Oregon coast. Knowing that he filmed it makes you look at a movie so differently, just noticing all the details and quality is very very satisfying. The same with Dunkirk and Interstellar… I watched Dunkirk in a small cinema in Banff, Canada when I went on a little road trip (since it’s relatively close by ;)). Same story, Hoyte told me all about the behind the scenes and the process of that movie and then seeing it made it even more thrilling.

OH and have you heard of MEOW WOLF? I can go on forever actually. So much good stuff.

But I’ll stop here. No wait… Julia Watson is also a hero! But based in NYC, check her book Lo-TEK on Design by Radical Indigenism is brilliant. I invited her to talk at the Nike design community and it blew everyone away. READ IT!

What ‘souvenir’ would you bring home?

My team at Nike brought me here, and I have a lot to thank them for. I’ve been given so much room for personal creative exploration, but also the people and industries I’ve been introduced to through my team is amazing. So as a souvenir, I would bring this sculpture of multiple Nike shoes. It is a great memory for all the wonderful journeys and work experiences I’ve had over the years, as well as meeting a clash of great people. This shoe sculpture represents my years here in Oregon – it feels like a trophy or even an Oscar for the work that we’ve achieved as a team.