Nike's affinity with innovation continues apace with the announcement that they've opened an experimental textile design studio in East London.

Nike’s April 'Innovation Summit' offered consumers and industry observers alike a good look at both the products – chief amongst them the self-lacing Hyperadapt 1.0 – and the ideas that could help to shape the sportswear giant’s future ambitions.

Perhaps the most notable of these was the revelation that Nike are now placing a greater emphasis on the emerging market of personal transformation and self actualization, with the help of the new and improved Nike + app and pools of customer data.

A smaller, but no less fascinating development was made last year. Nike opened a design studio in Hackney to explore new ways textiles could be used to enhance Nike footwear and apparel. Nike only recently made this news public.

The new design studio has been set up to emulate the experimental approach that led to the creation of the Flyknit, (now a billion dollar product range) which came about as a result of Nike designers “hacking” a sweater machine and experimenting with a variety of materials they fed into it, while also offering young designers from Britain a base to work from.

The London studio is relatively new, it's just because there's a great expertise there. We found that we had a lot of young kids on the island of Britain who just love this. So we said let's be creative and open up a studio that lets these designers stay in their home country and explore and experiment - John Hoke, Vice President of Global Design

Opening channels of creativity in a city which leads the way in terms of textile courses, and is also historically noted for nurturing inventiveness and diversity could see Nike gain the incremental edge that will see them stay ahead of their competitors.