Blurs of neon light in the shape of runners fly by, racing towards the far end of the dark Nike Speed Tunnel. These aren’t just any shapes — they’re the outlines of Nick Symmonds, Andrew Wheating and Christian Smith@@nameschecked@@ as they battle out the last few strides of the 800 meters at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials. This speed tunnel is just one of many attractions offered by Nike’s Camp Victory,@@http://www.nikeblog.com/2012/06/22/video-tour-of-nike-camp-victory-at-us-olympic-trials/@@ an interactive exhibit that harkens to its storied Olympic past while also looking toward the future.
“(It) is an experience people can walk through and truly get a sense of how fast these athletes actually are,” Nikeya Green, a Camp Victory employee, said. “It’s in real time, it’s real data and it takes the form of a digital avatar. You can see them running across these different screens.”
The speed tunnel will be updated daily to showcase new races. It allows the viewer to watch races from previous days from a new, up-close perspective.
The Nike Plus tent encourages everyone to compete. A record board, showing pictures of the people who ran the farthest and fastest in a 30-second treadmill challenge, lights up the west wall.
“You come to Eugene to be number one,” Brandon O’Malley@@can’t find anything@@ said after his name moved to number one on the leader board. “This is my one goal for the weekend. I’m going to be checking this every day to make sure I still have it.”
A map of Eugene shows where Nike Plus members have run in the last day, week and month. The touch screen can identify individual runners and show which trails members ran the most. Recently, the most common loop was Pre’s Trail.
“Nike Plus is a way to track, measure and compare your runs,” Jenny Campbell@@http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jenny-campbell/4/b9/1a9@@ said. “[The devices] track your runs, they give you your mileage and your pace and then there is a whole motivation and community aspect to it.”
Nike Plus wants people to share their runs with anybody, from other Nike Plus users to Facebook friends.
Camp Victory also includes a Nike store stocked with Olympic Trials gear, USA Olympic team memorabilia and Eugene-themed shirts. The shoe lab next door allows visitors to try on two of Nike’s never-before-seen shoes, the LunarGlide 4@@http://www.nicekicks.com/tag/lunarglide-4/@@ and the Flyknit trainer.@@http://sneakernews.com/tag/nike-htm-flyknit-trainer/@@
Many people were in awe of the technology Nike was using, including Eugene citizen Ron Green and his wife Nancy.@@can’t find anything@@
“The Nike booths are phenomenal with their electronics and their graphics and everything,” Green said. “That’s been the most impressive thing so far.”