Nike design director discusses ‘game
changing’ water purification device

Tom De Blasis, global design director for Nike’s soccer division and a champion of design as a vehicle for solving some of the world’s intractable problems, presented “Nike: The Game Changer,” Monday, Sept. 19 in the Langford Architecture Center. The lecture kicked off the Texas A&M Department of Architecture’s Fall 2011 Lecture Series.

“As a profession we spend most of our energy and talent serving the needs of business or lusting after being the designer of the next Jordan or Kobe,” De Blasis recently told CounterKicks, a breaking news sneaker website. “I know that we can also serve the needs of the world at the same time by using our skills and the horsepower of global machines like Nike and other companies to different ends than just selling more stuff.”

De Blasis, who directs the design of Nike’s soccer balls, shinguards and goalie gloves, saw that access to drinking water was in short supply in Haiti during a 2010 trip with Jon Rose of Waves for Water, an organization that aims to maximize access to drinking water for all the world’s residents.

He responded by teaming with Rose to develop the Gamechanger Bucket (1.6 MB PDF), which addresses Haiti’s drinking water shortage as well as its love of soccer.

It’s a portable, self-contained kit, containing a ceramic water filter, nozzle, hose and a 9’ by 12’ tarp for water collection packed into a rugged five-gallon bucket. Each system, which provides clean water for 100 people for more than 5 years, has no chemicals, requires no electricity and contains no moving parts.

The kit, which costs $75 each, also includes a soccer ball, ball pump and a set of soccer cones.

“The water filter brings health and the soccer ball brings joy,” said De Blasis. “As I’ve seen again and again as I’ve traveled around the world, football can change lives, water can save them.”

Learn more about De Blasis in the CounterKicks interview.

For more information about this fall’s lecture series, visit the college website.

Contact:   Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.