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See you in a week! 👋🏼 Nike teammates, what are you most looking forward to during your Well-Being Week? Let us know in the comments.
Here's how we're showing up for our athletes on the pitch in Australia and New Zealand — and for every player and fan of the game. The latest edition of Swoosh Stories takes you behind the innovative Nike products, pivotal moments and collaborations.
In 2013, after being promoted to a head coach in Barstow, Calif., Jose Miranda got a call from his regional director. His team had won an area-wide contest, and as the leader, Jose won a round-trip vacation to anywhere in the United States. But Jose thinks like a local changemaker. Nike’s community involvement at its retail locations was the main reason that led him to the company in 2012 as a coach at the Las Vegas store. He knew that the Barstow store partnered closely with the nearby Boys & Girls Club, which was still using old, worn-down sports equipment. “I asked my director what the amount for the trip was, and he said about $3,500,” says Jose. “Nike retail is all about inspiring action right where you are. I wanted my job with Nike to serve something bigger than just myself. For a lot of people, Nike stores are their main impression of the brand. I wanted Nike to be known in our community as a retail brand that was doing good.” A week later, Jose rolled into the Boys & Girls Club facility, the back of his truck filled with $3,500 worth of sports balls, football helmets, and other shiny new gear. Word of Jose’s generosity got around to Nike World Headquarters, prompting another phone call from Jose’s regional director. Jose is now a regional district director in Chandler, Arizona, where he’s helping grow the network of stores throughout the state. He’s still inspiring his store athletes to serve the needs of the local community and to respond with real action.
Menstruation. Periods. Leaks. We’re comfortable saying the words, and our designers have obsessed how to help address the common problem — bleed-through — that periods can bring. Leak Protection: Period, our new Nike innovation, can help people feel safer, more confident, and better able to focus on the movement they love — including our Nike athletes on the pitch in Australia and New Zealand, who are wearing the innovation integrated into their Nike Pro short. “Professional footballers play two 45-minute halves without breaks or time-outs, and many told us they can spend several minutes on-pitch concerned that they may experience leakage from their period,” says Jordana Katcher, VP Women’s Global Sport Apparel. “When we showed them this innovation, they told us how grateful they were to have this short to help provide confidence when they can’t leave the pitch.” Watch below to see how Nike created Leak Protection.
On this National Intern Day, we’re excited to celebrate the meaningful contributions of the more than 300 students who are part of the NIKE, Inc. Internship Program across the globe. Many of those contributions were on display during last week’s annual “Intern Combine” — four-day competition where a subset of our U.S.-based interns work in cross-functional teams to reimagine areas of growth for NIKE, Inc., present their ideas and receive feedback from Nike, Jordan and Converse leaders. Beyond the Combine, all of our interns take on meaningful projects specific to the business they support. To close out their programs, this talented group of undergraduate and graduate students presents their learnings to leaders and teammates, sharing creative solutions intended to make a big impact. “This has been such a challenging, yet rewarding experience,” says Shantelle Megan Serafin, an undergraduate at UC San Diego who is interning as a software engineer in Global Technology. “You’re working with a diverse group of people with different skill sets, coming together to create something new.” That diversity of thought, fresh perspectives and creativity are key to why the Internship Program serves as a critical pipeline for emerging NIKE, Inc. talent. The interns not only represent the athletes we serve, but the mindset we need to continue to embrace.
On this day 33 years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law. Our President & CEO, John Donahoe, taking the lead. Learn more about how we build diverse, equitable, inclusive teams.
How does Nike define holistic fitness? The focus is on more than pure sport. As Liz Weldon, our VP of Global Nike Women’s Brand Management, puts it, “We’ve really been looking at how do we serve and bring health and wellness across all aspects of body, mind and life." Take a look at how we’re making that happen, and check out more ways we’re expanding sport here.
Three’s a crowd. But four? That’s a party. Big shout-out to Giannis and the Antetokounmpo brothers, who traveled throughout Greater China last week and donated a new youth basketball court at LinFeng’e Elementary School, mingled with employees at GCHQ, and formed one intimidating ping-pong team. Learn more about how Nike Basketball's signature athletes help grow the game across the world.
Jenna Etherington joined NIKE, Inc. in 2011 as an Assistant Head Coach in San Clemente, Calif., and has since built a stellar career in retail. She was promoted to Head Coach in part due to “stretch” assignments, opportunities for NIKE employees to grow their toolkit and gain different experiences by working on another team. Now, as the Area Director for NIKE’s South LA and Orange County stores, Jenna uses the NIKE Track Stretch HQ program to pay it forward and ensure her teams can access career-propelling assignments. Track Stretch HQ is a six-month development experience available to all retail teammates. Participants travel to work in different NIKE territories in Beaverton, Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago, where they develop critical skills and explore different career paths and specializations. At the end of the stretch experience, they return to their store and former roles with new experiences gained and relationships built. Many use their Track Stretch HQ experience to continue building their careers in retail or at NIKE headquarters. Jenna says more than 50 people from the stores she oversees have participated in Track Stretch roles. At least half have landed a new role, often earning a promotion. A stretch rounds out skills and can help clarify career direction. “There is a home for everyone at NIKE—whether they want to work in product innovation, engineering or retail—we can find it.”
The Nike InfinityRN 4 launched last week with a breakthrough technology: Nike ReactX foam. ReactX gives runners more energy return — about 13% — than Nike React Foam while leaving a much lower carbon footprint — 43% to be exact. Sounds simple enough, right? Except that the chemistry required to make those two things exist simultaneously is really complicated, requiring a dream team of chemists, scientists, engineers and cushioning experts. That dream team was a real-life roster for Golnaz Armin, Nike VP, Footwear, Material Innovation. Armin’s team worked for the better part of five years to reconcile traits that are seemingly at odds: performance and sustainability. She says she loves how the entire team was compelled by the setbacks of the design process, not turned off by them. An issue in a prototype just meant that a better solution was around the corner. The mutual determination shared by a team of brilliant, like-minded people is one reason why ReactX is a success story. “I’m at Nike because of the people,” says Armin. “They’re the best at what they do, the best in their fields. All of the challenges we faced along the way could’ve stopped us from moving forward, but our team's resilience and expertise carried us through." Learn more about how Nike is protecting the future of sport.
