Nike

People who cannot bend, kneel, or use their hands buy Nike's FlyEase shoes to step into footwear without help -- but when Nike launched the GO FlyEase as a limited drop in 2021, resellers who hiked the price locked disabled buyers out of a shoe designed for them.

ENABLE Model location

• Builder-side Interventions → Design Accessible Experiences
• Builder-side Interventions → Iterate to Address Shortcomings
• Navigator-side Compensations → Create Workarounds
• Navigator-side Compensations → Switch to an Alternative

What it is

Nike's FlyEase line is a series of footwear technologies that replace laces, zippers, and manual fasteners with mechanisms disabled people can operate independently. The line originated in 2012 when Matthew Walzer, a 16-year-old with cerebral palsy from Florida, wrote a letter to Nike CEO Mark Parker explaining that he could not tie his own shoes. "Out of all the challenges I have overcome in my life, there is one that I am still trying to master: tying my shoes," Walzer wrote.¹ The letter went viral under the hashtag #NikeLetter, and Parker tasked designer Tobie Hatfield with building a solution.

The first FlyEase product shipped in 2015: a LeBron Zoom Soldier 8 with a wrap-around zipper opening at the heel. The line expanded through successive iterations, and by 2021, the GO FlyEase eliminated all hand-operated mechanisms entirely. A patent-pending bi-stable hinge and midsole tensioner allow the wearer to step in and press down -- fully hands-free.² FlyEase technologies have been deployed across more than 20 footwear styles spanning basketball, running, and sportswear.³

Nike employees with disabilities shaped the product. Richard Ramsay, a congenital arm amputee in Nike's footwear development since 2012, provided feedback drawn from lived experience: "I didn't have to put myself in the shoes of someone who only has the use of one hand. I've lived that way my entire life."⁴ Sarah Reinertsen, an above-knee amputee and former Paralympian, joined the design team in 2018 and helped shift the philosophy from inclusive design to universal design: "If I can make it easy for a person with no hands or one finger to get their shoes on, then I'm making it easier for anybody."⁴

Why it matters

Nike FlyEase is a case study in how builder-side design can deliver genuine care -- and how the business machinery around that design can undermine it.

The design is real care: Before FlyEase, people with cerebral palsy, arthritis, amputations, stroke-related paralysis, or back injuries that prevent bending had limited footwear options. Many relied on workarounds -- Velcro modifications, asking others for help, or buying shoes a size too large to slip into. FlyEase technology addressed this at the design level, eliminating the need for laces as a prerequisite for wearing athletic shoes. Ramsay described testing early prototypes: "It was this overwhelming feeling... this realization that if I'd had a shoe like this growing up, I wouldn't have had to go through a lot of embarrassment."⁴

The launch undermined the care: When Nike released the GO FlyEase in early 2021, it treated the shoe like any other limited sneaker drop -- restricted to select Nike members, with quantities undisclosed. Resellers bought pairs and listed them for $400 to $2,000 on secondary markets.⁵ Louie Lingard, a 19-year-old disabled user, said in a viral TikTok: "Nike could do more and could do better if they actually want the shoe to be accessible for people with disabilities... But they're making money either way, so why would they care?"⁶ Cooper Lewis, who has limited mobility after a stroke, called the FlyEase "really the only pair that I have that actually fit and stay on my feet" -- and couldn't get the new version.⁷ This precarity is a force that disables: when the distribution model for an accessibility product replicates the scarcity economics of hype culture, disabled people are forced to switch to alternatives or pay extortionate markups for access.

The word "disabled" was erased: Nike's marketing of the GO FlyEase never used the word "disabled." In Nike's "Behind the Design" video, designers said "adaptive athletes" rather than "disabled athletes," and only one disabled person appeared in the spot -- at the exact moment the narrator said the shoe is "for everyone."⁸ Critics, including disability scholars Jaipreet Virdi and Liz Jackson, invoked the #SayTheWord movement: when a company designs a product for disabled people but refuses to say so, it signals that disability is something to be euphemized rather than acknowledged.⁸ The product was born from a disabled teenager's letter, developed by disabled engineers, and tested by Paralympic athletes -- and then marketed as though disability had nothing to do with it.

Availability eventually improved: By 2023, Nike had expanded GO FlyEase production to multiple colorways available at standard retail, largely resolving the scarcity problem.⁹ The iteration from limited drop to general availability demonstrates that the initial launch model was a choice, not a constraint -- and that public pressure from disabled consumers changed that choice.

Real-world examples

In the news

Nike Accused Of 'Using Disability' To Hype New Hands-Free Sneaker (March 2021)
-- NPR

• NPR reported that disabled people who needed the GO FlyEase couldn't buy it because resellers had bought up the limited supply. Cooper Lewis, who has limited mobility after a stroke, called the shoes "the only pair that I have that actually fit." His husband Gabriel Riazi said: "They're using disability to sell to the masses while not giving those with disability the first access." Designer Sarah Reinertsen responded that Nike was "scaling" and asked for "everybody's patience." The gap between builder-side design care and distribution neglect turned an accessible product into an inaccessible purchase.

In the news

How the Nike Go FlyEase upended the world of adaptive fashion (May 2021)
-- CBC News

• CBC documented how FlyEase catalyzed the broader adaptive fashion industry, citing Tommy Hilfiger's adaptive line (2018) and Zappos Adaptive (2017). But the piece also noted the GO FlyEase's limited release was "snatched up and out of reach of those who most need it." The tension between innovation and access illustrates how builder-side design alone is insufficient -- requirement-setting around distribution matters too.

In the news

The Disabled Community Is Unhappy With Nike's Hands-Free GO FlyEase Sneaker (May 2021)
-- Hypebae

• Louie Lingard's TikTok criticizing Nike's limited release went viral, crystallizing disabled consumers' frustration. Lingard, 19, said: "The shoe itself has been so hyped up and praised for its inclusiveness and its accessibility for people like myself with a disability that it's become limited and resellers and bots have got ahold of all the pairs and gouged the price up." The viral backlash represents navigator-side protest that ultimately pressured Nike to expand production.

• Matthew Walzer's 2012 letter to Nike CEO Mark Parker launched a three-year collaboration that produced the first FlyEase shoe in 2015, establishing that disabled consumer advocacy can catalyze builder-side design when leadership listens.¹
• Richard Ramsay, a congenital arm amputee, worked on FlyEase at Nike from 2012, bringing lived experience that shaped technical decisions: "If I'd had a shoe like this growing up, I wouldn't have had to go through a lot of embarrassment."⁴
• Nike's Accessibility Center of Excellence runs programs including an Accessible Design Sprint and disability inclusion initiatives in Japan and Korea (launched FY24), though the center's influence on distribution decisions like the GO FlyEase launch is unclear.³
• Nike has achieved a perfect score on the Disability:IN Disability Equality Index and partners with Disability:IN on workplace inclusion practices.³
• Stephanie Thomas, founder of adaptive fashion consultancy Cur8able, argued that mainstream popularity of FlyEase could normalize accessible fashion: "We need everyone to buy into this so we can have more options."⁷

What care sounds like (builder-side interventions)

Care at the design level involves centering disabled users in the development process:

• "I didn't have to put myself in the shoes of someone who only has the use of one hand. I've lived that way my entire life." -- Richard Ramsay, FlyEase designer and amputee⁴
• "If I can make it easy for a person with no hands or one finger to get their shoes on, then I'm making it easier for anybody." -- Sarah Reinertsen, FlyEase designer and Paralympian⁴
• "We're hiring disabled athletes as designers, not just as testers -- they shape the product from the beginning."
• "FlyEase isn't a sub-brand. It's a technology that ships across 20+ styles because access should be standard, not niche."

What neglect sounds like (builder-side interventions)

Neglect involves designing for disabled people while distributing as though they don't exist:

• "The GO FlyEase is a limited release, available to select Nike members." (While disabled people who need it can't buy it.)
• "This shoe is for everybody." (While never saying the word "disabled.")
• "We're scaling and we just also ask for everybody's patience." -- Sarah Reinertsen, after disabled buyers couldn't access the launch⁷
• "The market will determine the price." (While resellers list a $120 accessibility shoe for $2,000.)

What compensation sounds like (navigator-side compensations)

Compensation describes the labor disabled people undertake when accessible products are made inaccessible by distribution:

• "They're the only pair that I have that actually fit and stay on my feet." -- Cooper Lewis, on why FlyEase matters after his stroke⁷
• "They're using disability to sell to the masses while not giving those with disability the first access." -- Gabriel Riazi⁷
• "Nike could do more and could do better if they actually want the shoe to be accessible for people with disabilities. But they're making money either way, so why would they care?" -- Louie Lingard⁶
• "I buy my shoes two sizes too large so I can slide them on. It looks ridiculous, but at least I don't need help."
• "My mom still ties my shoes for me every morning. I'm 16 years old." -- the experience that prompted Matthew Walzer's letter¹

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All observations occur within the context of the global athletic footwear industry, where Nike's FlyEase represents genuine design innovation for disabled users coexisting with distribution and marketing practices that initially replicated the exclusion the product was built to solve.

Footnotes

1. Today.com: Man with cerebral palsy reflects on letter that helped inspire Nike's hands-free shoe ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Hypebeast: The Story Behind Nike's Hands-Free Go FlyEase ↩

3. Nike: Enabling Accessibility ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Amplitude: Amputee Innovators Helped Design Nike FlyEase ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

5. Hypebeast: People Are Unhappy With the $400+ USD Resale of the Nike Go FlyEase ↩

6. Hypebae: The Disabled Community Is Unhappy With Nike's Hands-Free GO FlyEase Sneaker ↩ ↩²

7. NPR: Nike Accused Of 'Using Disability' To Hype New Hands-Free Sneaker ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

8. Slate: Why Won't Nike Use the Word Disabled to Promote Its New Go FlyEase Shoe? ↩ ↩²

9. KicksOnFire: Nike Go FlyEase Release Dates ↩