When the most decorated 100-metre sprinter ever stepped to the line for a final time, she told herself what she knew: that she was prepared, powerful and this race was hers—for her. The next handful of seconds were to honour everything that had brought her to this moment.Green, yellow and black hair whipping behind her—a self-proclaimed "daughter of the soil", who chose to wear the colours of her nation's flag for her final finish—gold-hued&nbsp;nails splayed in front of her, <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-celebrates-shelly-ann-fraser-pryce" target="_blank">Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce</a> exploded off the blocks in the World Athletics Championship final in a capacity-filled Japan National Stadium in Tokyo. She ended her 100-metre career in the same way she began racing 18 years ago in Japan—with fierce speed, strength and composure. It was a bold tribute to Jamaica, the nation whose unyielding support has carried her through two decades at the top of the sport.In her decades of dominance—from becoming the first Caribbean woman to win Olympic gold in the 100 metres in 2008, to returning as World Champion in 2019 after giving birth to her son, Zyon—Shelly-Ann has embodied the power of duality.&nbsp;The ability to have longevity in athletics's shortest, most intense discipline; exuding femininity and self-expression in a physically demanding sport; proving motherhood and greatness can coexist.What athletes everywhere, and especially young girls, can take from Shelly-Ann's lead: the courage to run your own race, on your terms. To trust that setbacks don't define you, only your response to them. And the assurance that, if you believe in yourself and work with discipline, harmony is possible. Dreams and family, career and legacy.For that and for the now 276 incredible races and finishing line moments, thank you, Shelly-Ann.Below, go behind the scenes of the GOAT's final meet days in Tokyo.

The shoes. The hair. The finish. At the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Shelly-Ann, a five-time world champion, ended her career her way.

Sofieke van Bilsen is a 29-year-old Dutch photographer with a passion for storytelling through imagery. She is the in-house photographer for the German women's national football team, and was team photographer for the German Olympic Team in Paris 2024. She works closely with Nike athletes such as Faith Kipyegon, Eliud Kipchoge and Sifan Hassan.In her photography, she aims to create compelling visual narratives, focusing on the deep connection between emotion and athleticism. She strives to capture the raw moments behind the scenes, the untold stories of the journey and everything in between, bringing the spirit of sport to life.Sofieke's personality creates instant connections with people, and she is loved by the athletes she works with. Her relaxed and enthusiastic personality complements an incredible skill level and the ability to work in high-pressure environments for athletes.

Sofieke van Bilsen

Photo essay

Icon Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Ran Her Final 100 Metre On Her Terms

Over the course of his career, LeBron James has shared his passion for the game globally, partnering with Nike to travel throughout Greater China during his offseason, galvanizing a nation in its love for basketball and hoops culture. Just as LeBron's career has evolved through different eras, his tours have represented different values over the many times he's visited since 2005. Below are some of his most memorable moments in the country.

2005–2009

LeBron began his debut tour in Beijing in August of 2005. He was invited to watch the awards ceremony of the Nike Battlegrounds tournament, but he'd depart as more than just a spectator. From the moment he stepped down in China, he believed his tour could become a cross-cultural exchange rooted in a shared love of hoops and a mission to inspire the next generation of young players in China. "Basketball is not only a sport, it's also a bridge that connects people", he said.&nbsp;"This is a great learning experience for everyone. I hope I can continue to help grow the game globally and inspire the youth in China to reach their dreams".

LeBron's legacy in China is woven into special China-specific iterations of his signature footwear. In 2007, LeBron James appeared alongside NIKE, Inc.'s then-President & CEO Mark Parker to debut his Nike Zoom LeBron V "China" colourway.

LeBron returned to Beijing in 2009 after his MVP season, where he enjoyed a hero's welcome. As part of his trip, he donated equipment and provided scholarships for the Zhenhua School, a school for the children of migrant workers in suburban Beijing.

To celebrate his season, LeBron was presented with an exclusive pair of the Nike Air Max LeBron VII, featuring a Shenyang-inspired design dubbed "Loyalty" created by the local artist Ray Lei, and a Shanghai-inspired design dubbed "Family", created by the local artist Sic.

2011–2015

LeBron embraced his role as a global ambassador for the game, focusing on the opportunity to inspire China's young players. In 2011, his tour expanded to eight days over four cities, promoting grassroots basketball through a series of skill clinics and tournaments.

In 2012, with a fresh gold medal to pair with his championship ring, LeBron James made a triumphant arrival in Beijing to kick off a four-day tour as part of the&nbsp;Find Your Greatness campaign. "Greatness is defined by how much you want to put into what you do", said LeBron. "Greatness comes with victory. It also comes with being able to come back from adversity".

In 2013, LeBron returned to China with plenty to celebrate: his second straight NBA championship and MVP awards for both the regular season and the Finals.

In 2014, LeBron James was the first mentor to announce the roster for the Nike RISE, designed to help players raise their competitive game and improve their skill.

In 2015, Nike RISE 2015 evolved with LED Courts and motion-tracking drills to create a pinnacle training experience, teach the fundamentals of basketball and push the boundaries of sports training.

An emotional finale saw four players chosen to represent China at the World Streetball Championships.

2016–2019

After winning another NBA title in 2016, LeBron entered Guangzhou to a massive championship parade, the streets flanked by tens of thousands of fans, many of them in Cavs #23 jerseys. It was a signal for just how widely James's legacy had expanded throughout Asia.&nbsp;His More Than an Athlete campaign inspired young players to see basketball as one of many tools for affecting social change.

After a warm welcome from thousands of fans, he spent most of his time in Beijing working out with and coaching members of the Chinese Junior National basketball team.

Visiting primary schools throughout Beijing, LeBron shared his personal basketball experiences with young athletes, emphasising the role that hard work, dedication and self-belief played in his path to success.

In 2018, the first day of his "More Than an Athlete" tour in Shanghai began with a panel discussion with students at the Shanghai Theatre&nbsp;Academy, and ended with a park shootaround. Hundreds of fans gathered outside the court to watch him play, hoping to catch a glimpse of the icon.

This month, LeBron flew to China for his "Forever King Tour", his 15th in the country and marking the 20th anniversary of tours in Asia. There, he joined some of the world's most passionate hoopers and basketball fans, reiterating his commitment to giving back to the game across the world.

Over the course of his career, LeBron James has shared his passion for the game globally, partnering with Nike to travel throughout Greater China during his offseason, galvanizing a nation in its love for basketball and hoops culture.

Journey of an icon: 20 years of LeBron James in China

Hours of powering up steep ascents and navigating gnarly descents. Whipping mountain winds, glaring direct sun and biting evening temps. Getting mentally right with the fact that the next aid station is far, far away. Ultra trail running can sound like a gruelling, relentless sport reserved for the wildest, most hardcore athletes among us.According to our <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-acg-all-conditions-racing-department" target="_blank">All Conditions Racing Department</a> runners—six of whom just conquered pinnacle UTMB races across the French, Italian and Swiss Alps, on trails spanning 15 to 174 kilometres, with elevation gains of 1,200 to nearly 10,000 metres—the grit, determination, joy and freedom trail running gives you are worth every ounce of work. See for yourself.

<h3>ROSS GOLLAN</h3>Race: Experience Trail Courmayeur (ETC); 15K with 1,200m elevation gain Global finish rank: 29th

<h3>MARIE NIVET</h3>Race: ETC; 15K with 1,200m elevation gain Global women's finish rank: 7th

CESARE MAESTRIRace: ETC; 15K with 1,200m elevation gain Global finish rank: 2nd

<h3>BAPTISTE COATANTIEC</h3>Race: Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB); 174K with nearly 10,000m elevation gain Global finish rank: 11th

<h3>ANTHONY COSTALES</h3>Race: Courmayeur—Champex—Chamonix (CCC); 101K with more than 6,050m elevation gain Global finish rank: 15th

<h3>DREW HOLMEN</h3>Race: CCC; 101K with more than 6,050m elevation gain Global finish rank: 3rd

Powering up steep ascents. Navigating gnarly descents. Whipping mountain winds. Ultra trail running is a relentless sport. But the payoff is well worth the grind.

Ultra trail running can take everything you've got—and give you even more

About Nike—stories from inside NIKE, Inc.

If you've ever cued up a <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.nike.com/nrc-app" target="null">Nike Run Club</a> (NRC) session, you know his voice. He's the one in your ears every time you lace up and head out the door—equal parts coach, philosopher and hype man. Chris Bennett, or "Coach B" to the running world, is Nike's Running Global Head Coach and the man behind the mic on the NRC App.&nbsp;He's one of those coaches who always knows what to say at mile 3. You find yourself nodding along mid-run, digging deeper because he's spurring you on. As the voice behind the free running app with users worldwide, Bennett has become widely popular, his mantras so deeply embedded in running culture that they've taken on a life of their own across Reddit threads and social media posts. "Struggling doesn't mean failure". "If you can't do the run you want to do, do the run you can do". "Kindness is hardcore". They're the kind of lines people write on mirrors and carry through difficult days that have nothing to do with running.

A competitive runner from New Jersey, Bennett ran at UNC-Chapel Hill before coaching future Olympians at the post-university level and building what became the Northeast's most successful secondary-school cross-country programme. When Nike asked him to come on as a full-time Coach in 2014, he wrote his entire coaching philosophy down on a legal pad and handed it over. Those notes became the NRC Truths, and he's been building on them ever since.Now, he's distilled that philosophy into his first book, <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href=" https://www.harpercollins.com/products/this-is-about-running-this-is-not-about-running-chris-bennett?variant=44778258399266&amp;utm_source=ig&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=link_in_bio&amp;fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGn3pWCp6GXZKEdlPg-KM6Fa9gVZMj9-nNYb-kPhoN_LD5hC_IkZfYqBb6nGmw_aem_pCHhH0eUGgJ6B-I5oALmGg" target="">This Is About Running. This Is Not About Running,</a> a motivational guide that will be released this autumn and is available for pre-order. It's a title that, if you know anything about Coach B, tells you everything. Bennett's not stopping there. Beginning on 7 July, as part of Nike's 2026 After Dark Tour, his popular podcast will feature a months-long series of conversations with women across the world. From elite athletes to first-time racers, Coach B is passing the mic to women who are changing the game and redefining what's possible.&nbsp;Below, he talks about why he fell in love with running, what he believes about the sport and why the job, as he sees it, is never finished.

How did you get into this line of work, and what led you to where you are today?I've been running basically my entire life. I was the fourth of five kids, so if you wanted to keep up with your older sister and brothers, you had to move. That was the first inspiration to run.I grew up in New Jersey, where there's a really rich tradition of cross-country and athletics at the youth level. It was just something you did. I was introduced to it as a team sport, which I think was really important. I wasn't in love with running initially—I was in love with having teammates, and that's what bridged the gap between trying the sport and dedicating myself to it. I was incredibly lazy until I made the connection that my laziness was hurting the rest of the team. That's what actually got me to train consistently and intelligently. It wasn't about me; it was about the fact that I was letting my team down.I got to run for the Nike Farm Team, a post-university Olympic-development team at Stanford University, and my first Coach there was Jeff Johnson—employee no. 1 at Nike and a good friend to this day. I ran for them for five years. I wasn't trying to make the Olympic team, just the trials. But I was training with people who were, and it was a really incredible experience.I had already decided in secondary school that I wanted to coach and teach. When Nike eventually sat me down and asked what I would do if I were coaching the runners who met at their New York City stores, I mapped out a weekly schedule, the kind you'd give to any serious athlete. And that's how I coach. Just because they're not elite doesn't mean I wouldn't treat them like they are. You don't give somebody less of a regimen because they have less speed.

What is it about the Guided Run format and your specific approach that makes people connect with you the way they do?When it's just audio, you're only engaging with one of their senses, which I think is super powerful. People become more focused on what you're saying. With video, people are paying attention to your hand movements, they're paying attention to the background, their mind starts to drift. But when it's just sound, they're more tuned in, which means that what I'm saying has to be honest. When people are hyper-focused, their BS detector is on high.&nbsp;When we first started creating these, I had a couple of rules. One was that this is unfiltered. There isn't anyone between me and the athlete. I've always been adamant that if I was going to do this, it was going to stay unbelievably human. It wasn't going to be like other guided runs. It was going to be grounded in the coaching philosophy that I espouse, which is that kindness is hardcore, and that the best way for athletes to be able to break through barriers or clear hurdles is for them to be supported while they're trying to do it. I won't lie to them. I want them to become their own best coach. With every Guided Run, I want them to need me less and less. I want the athlete to own this. When I'm telling them to do something, they have the final decision.&nbsp;People develop a relationship with me. There are a lot of people I've never met, but we've gone through some stuff. When we do finally meet, it's often a very emotional meeting. That connection is so important. We're in a world where disconnection is only getting greater and greater. Knowing that this is a digital format and we're not in person, I wanted to make sure it was as human as possible. That means that like with human interactions, I ramble. I go off on tangents. I make really bad jokes. I have runs called the "It's OK 5K", the "Struggle Run", the "Tough Day, Easy Run", the "Thank You Run".&nbsp;My philosophy is that when you go for a run, it should be about more than running. I think that's why the connection with listeners has been so intense and durable over the years. You're often described as someone who can make a person believe they're a runner before they've ever even gone for a run. Where does that come from?Well, first, I really believe it, so that helps. But I also think it comes down to the understanding that coaches don't create anything—coaches uncover things. When you understand that, it makes your job so much easier. I don't have to create a runner; all I have to do is convince you that you can do things you don't believe you can do.&nbsp;I like to keep the bar low intentionally. I never say, "I can get you to run a marathon". I say, "I can get you to run from here to the end of the street". You don't believe that counts as a run. My job is to convince you that it does. The second you realise that counts as a run, you've experienced success. Inevitably, what you think next is: I could have gone a little further. I could have gone a little faster. I can do that again. And that's how it all starts.

One of your more famous quips is, "If you can't do the run you want to do, do the run you can do". What do you mean by that?As a runner myself, I used to sometimes put off runs until very late in the day, and then I'd get to a point where it was late and I wasn't going to be able to run for as long as I wanted to. I would convince myself that if I couldn't do the full run, what's the point?&nbsp;It was that all-or-nothing mentality. But there's so much something between all and nothing. If you've got 20 minutes, that's all you've got. So if you run for 20 minutes, you're actually giving it 100 percent of what you've got. How can you diminish yourself for giving it 100 percent of what you could do?This idea ended up in a Guided Run when I was working with Michael Orenstein, NRC's former head of product, and one of the guys who helped develop the runs early on. He was going to a pottery class and he said, "I'm not going to be able to run today; I've got to rush". And I said, "When's the class?" He told me it was 35 minutes from then and a 20-minute drive. So I said, "Why don’t you just go run for five minutes?" I remember him saying, "Five minutes? That's not a real run". And I said, "Five minutes is the only run you can do".I recorded the "Five-Minute Run", put that line in there and it blew up. That was about seven years ago, and it's one of my most quoted lines ever.

You have a book coming out called This Is About Running. This Is Not About Running. Can you talk about the book and elaborate more on the title?It's another one of those things I would casually say that kind of took off. I'd say it after making a point that was seemingly about running, but that was really about something bigger. It goes back to coaching kids. I had to make sure that the 90 minutes I had with them every day counted. I wanted them to have the opportunity to learn something about life. I felt like I would be a failure as a coach if the only thing they walked away with was the ability to go further or go faster.&nbsp;I wanted to give them strengths and habits they could carry into the rest of their lives. How you deal with struggle, how you have relationships with people, how you get through hard times, how you dig deeper, how you act as a supportive teammate to others—these are things that go on during practice. You have to get across to your athletes or your students that these are things you will take with you out of here. Don't leave this at practice. Bring this home."This is about running, this is not about running" has been the foundation of my coaching for 18 years. And the book embodies that—if&nbsp;you're a runner, whether a new runner or a long-time runner, you're going to end the book and you're going to be a better runner. But if you've never gone for a run before in your life, you're going to be a better person. It doesn't need to lead to you running.Regardless of where you're coming from—whether you're about to leave secondary school, going through a breakup, training for a marathon or taking on any other kind of challenge—this book is for you. It's about running. But it's also about much more than running.<ul><li><a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="hvariant=44778258399266&amp;utm_source=ig&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=link_in_bio&amp;fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGn3pWCp6GXZKEdlPg-KM6Fa9gVZMj9-nNYb-kPhoN_LD5hC_IkZfYqBb6nGmw_aem_pCHhH0eUGgJ6B-I5oALmGg" target="_blank">Pre-order a copy of Coach B's book in the US</a> </li><li><a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://lnkfi.re/yfzwUn?utm_source=ig&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=link_in_bio&amp;fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGnqCOF01UFfBXwJ8XK36zI9N7fDAttdKU2JBLcRLWR75KFBh8RYUAatrhGyYM_aem_Oa3G0bKKyFdPFbYhtx6OHA" target="_blank">Pre-order a copy of Coach B's book in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe</a> </li></ul>

Whether you're a first-time runner or practically a pro, you'll be able to use the advice from Chris Bennett—equal parts coach, philosopher and hype man.

Running

5 Questions With Nike Running's Coach Bennett

At this year's Hyrox World Championships in Stockholm, Dylan Scott has unfinished business.One of the sport's most ferocious competitors, the former doubles world champion finished third at last year's Championships in Chicago. The Nike athlete, who now has his sights set on the coveted individual title, has competed at every World Championship since entering Hyrox in 2021. Each year, he has finished closer to the top. He arrives in Stockholm intent on finishing the job.&nbsp;That he's here at all is remarkable. At 17, a career-altering injury derailed his dreams of becoming an elite runner and the future he'd always imagined for himself. Years later, after rebuilding both physically and mentally, he discovered Hyrox almost by accident. What followed was a steady rise through the sport's ranks that eventually caught Nike's attention. Last year, another long-held aspiration became a reality when he signed with the brand he'd loved for years.He'll tell you that he's not the fastest or the strongest. But Scott has something that's harder to manufacture: grit.&nbsp;Here, in his own words, he reflects on resilience, identity and what it means to win the right way.

I come from Ninety Six, South Carolina—a town of about 2,000 people—and that place shaped the athlete I became.&nbsp;It's actually a revolutionary war battleground, and a lot of our training was out there at the historical site. I ran so many miles on that cross-country course that I could close my eyes and run it in my head. The secondary school track wasn't even six lanes—it was five and a half, because you got to the back, and half of it fell off a hill. The weights in the weight room were all rusty. It wasn't this pretty thing you get with Hyrox, this production. It was grit.&nbsp;You don't always have access to the best things, the best facilities, but if you put your head down, you can start climbing that ladder. I came from doing workouts with tractor chains in the yard to standing on podiums at world championships. That's pretty cool.When you come from a really small town and ascend to a world stage, it instills humility and gratefulness. You start experiencing all of these things that are so big, with so much grandeur to them, but you know where you came from.

It really broke me down as a person when I lost the ability to run. I got injured right before I turned 18. I spent my entire last year of sixth form either on crutches or in a cast, and at points in a wheelchair. It happened when I was running on a treadmill watching the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/how-steve-prefontaine-set-the-pace-for-nike" target="_blank">Prefontaine</a> movie. My iPod fell, I did a weird shuffle step and within 15 minutes my right foot was completely dead. Until that point, I had almost inextricably tied my entire identity to running. It was my emotional outlet, my social outlet, my sense of who I was. My sense of purpose was stripped away. I had to sit down and ask: "Who am I? What do I like? What else is going to occupy this space?"&nbsp;Over the four- or five-year span of recovering, my understanding of myself as a person grew so much. Looking back, I'm actually really, really thankful. As much pain as the injury caused me emotionally and physically, it created something in me as a person. It changed who I was and my entire perspective on life.Partnering with Nike was a dream I had that I'd almost let die. I'm so happy I didn't give up. The path I'd always imagined—running collegiately, earning it that way—wasn't going to happen after my injury. At some point, you have to look yourself in the mirror and go, "You're not enough at this. You're going to have to pick a different avenue". That fire had really dwindled down to where there was almost nothing left. But for some reason, it didn't completely burn out.When I did performance testing at the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/lebron-james-innovation-center-nike-sport-research-lab" target="_blank">LeBron James Innovation Center</a>, I was working with people who could give me insights I couldn't facilitate on my own at home. The things I could find out about my body, my abilities, things I should change. All of that within that building, it's astronomical. It really could be the difference between where I am now and where I need to get to win it all.

I don't just want to be a winner for the sake of being a champion. I was drawn to Nike because of that same spirit. Nike wins. That's what they do. But they want to win the right way.&nbsp;With respect for the sport and my competition, I'm going to be the best I can be. I'm going to compete against the best competition. But I'm not going to race dirty. I'm not going to sh*t-talk you publicly or try to belittle you. I'm going to create an environment around the race where whoever wins won it fair and square, and against the best version of their competition. I want to be a champion where people say, "This guy did it the right way".I've always been willing to go to a dark place in training, but I've learned not to go there too often. A lot of athletes in sports like Hyrox really value the ability to suffer and sometimes test it too much. You keep checking in: "Am I tough enough? Can I hurt enough?" And what tends to happen is you just burn your body out, because there's only so often you can go to that well and actually handle it and recover from it.Still, I've always told myself that when I refuse to go to those places in training anymore, that's when I'll retire. When I'm at the 45-minute point of a workout, knowing that at 55 minutes we're going to enter that spot, I think, This is going to be hell. But today I'm choosing hell, because I still want to be a world champion.

I give a lot of kudos to my wife, Maria, for pushing me to be uncomfortable and not cling to the past. I was working a corporate job and I was afraid to move on from it because of the security it represented. She said, "You can do this. Please take the step". I was making it work before, but there were leaks in the ship. We're in a new boat now. It sails a lot better. Fewer holes.When you're around your kid, you get to rediscover things through their eyes. Having my son, August, has brought so much joy and perspective into my life. He doesn't care if I'm on top of the podium or not, he just yells for Dada, and that's it. Sometimes right before a race, if I'm in a weird emotional state, I'll think, Let me just hold my son for a second. Twenty seconds of a big hug. And then I'm like, All right, we're good, let's go. Sometimes that's all you need.I value effort over almost anything else. Outcomes take care of themselves when you put enough into them. I want my son to see that. He sees fitness as a lifestyle, he travels to races with us. The first beach he ever went to was in France. I want his life to be full of movement and culture, and I want him to see his dad doing it the right way.I never thought I'd be a world champion or even close to that, but as I stacked bricks over time, I kept getting closer. I kept moving up the podium and now I'm at a point where it's like, It wouldn't make sense if you didn't apply yourself, didn't try. You're too close to it. So the mindset has shifted from just doing something and happening to be good at it to committing to and pursuing being a world champion.

The Nike athlete has his sights set on the coveted individual title and knows exactly what will get him on top of the podium: grit.

Training

For the win

Dylan Scott on the Slow, Steady Work of Becoming a Hyrox Champion

It's 2015, and touring Nike's world campus in Beaverton, Oregon, is Kobe Bryant, 6 foot 6 inches of genius basketball talent, and energetically curious about what his partner sports brand is up to in its product innovation spaces. The creator of Mamba Mentality wanders up to Nike teammates at work and asks, "Are you creating that epic sh*t?"That phrase from Kobe has become <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-new-innovation-engine-announcement" target="_blank">the North Star</a> for Nike's EVP and chief innovation, design and product officer, Phil McCartney. It's a call to action, and it spells out a mission as important to him as <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/bill-bowerman-nike-s-original-innovator" target="_blank">Bill Bowerman</a>'s mandate that the company should make athletes* better. "We've got the authenticity of Bowerman in the roots of the company, plus the athlete irreverence from Kobe, so put that together and it becomes a standard of excellence", says McCartney. It's the way he measures products: is it epic? Does it make athletes better? "If it doesn't, then we shouldn't do it".

Before McCartney came into his role in June 2025, Nike had no shortage of ideas and sport-science research. What it needed was focus, the muscle memory to turn its athlete insights, science-backed data and design and product ideas into intentional, sharper, more epic swings. A little chutzpah couldn't hurt either. "I wanted us to get our swagger back, to be more responsive, have a competitive spirit and an athlete's mindset about the work", says McCartney.A clear strategy, ruthless prioritisation and licence to dream came through in short order. Last September, the Innovation team organised as "IDP"—Innovation, Design, Product—an acronym that McCartney says belies the creation process: before his team does anything, they have to innovate,&nbsp;then&nbsp;design, and the product is the outcome. At the same time, the company launched its <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/amy-montagne-the-force-returning-nike-to-sport" target="_blank">Sport Offense</a>—organising teams enterprise-wide by sport to better serve the athlete. His two immediate goals in his role: connect <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/meet-the-nike-mind-team" target="_blank">product back to science</a>, taking advantage of the company's ability to scrutinise and study like no one else, and shore it up with the art of athleticism. And build a deeper, holistic approach to innovating that better connects teams across NIKE, Inc., creating one engine that accelerates product creation.

McCartney says he's at his happiest in creative spaces on campus—the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/inside-the-serena-williams-building" target="_blank">Serena Williams Building</a>, the Michael Jordan Building, the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/inside-the-nike-sports-research-lab-lebron-james-innovation-center" target="_blank">LeBron James Innovation Center</a> and Converse spaces, and the Bowerman Footwear Lab, where he says teams create magic every day. This 8,361-square-metre space tucked inside the campus's Mia Hamm Building is an imagination machine for sneaker creation. Amidst heaps of colourful bolts of fabric and foot lasts, McCartney is like a kid at Disneyland, grinning at the technological abilities at the company's fingertips. "This footwear lab changes how people think about creating product and designing—it's&nbsp;our test kitchen", explains McCartney, emphasising that&nbsp;this&nbsp;is the space where you're reminded that Nike is a product company serving athletes through new solutions. One of the most exciting parts of the space to McCartney is its real-time prototyping capabilities and the ability to tinker with a product idea for an athlete <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/how-nike-built-its-world-headquarters" target="_blank">visiting campus</a>, then instantly modify the proto based on their feedback.That innovator's spirit goes hand in hand with another classic Nike strategy: get out into the communities and know your people. "I want us to go grassroots again, to operate a hyperlocal model and be so connected with the athletes that we can anticipate their next need", says McCartney. Sitting in his fifth-floor office in the Sebastian Coe Building, he pulls out his computer and flashes up a deck that goes deep on his innovation teams' three major product focuses for Nike's next fiscal year. You can see, he explains, how these three product constructs can be adapted by region, by sport and by athlete. The tight line-up didn't start this way, he adds. Winnowing down the most innovative products to these three constructs took months of killing good ideas in favour of great ones, then punching those up to be epic.One step to making this a reality, says McCartney, is to bring key partners along. He's fresh off a two-week trip to Asia, where he says he worked directly with factory owners he's known for 20 years. "We walked through the steps to accelerate my teams' ideas from concept to final product faster and more efficiently", he says. "This is an essential part of revving our innovation engine and solving challenges in real time".

Like everyone else he knew growing up, McCartney wanted to be a footballer. The sport was the lifeblood of Newcastle, the city in northern England where he was raised. Football was also one of the clearest paths out of the working-class town, a place where most people left secondary school after 16 to start earning money. University was something that other people did, and opportunities elsewhere, like the US, seemed about as close as the moon. So, along with the rest of the boys he knew, McCartney joined his school football team, shoring up dreams of kicking his way into the Premier League.After his first few uninspiring games, his dad suggested he try something else. This was young Phil's first lesson in editing and prioritising, walking away from an OK idea for a better one. McCartney tried a running club, set up by local parents to keep their kids out of trouble. The families operated on a tight budget—his&nbsp;father installed drywall and his mother worked in youth community building—and the rule within the club was that once you outgrew your trainers, you passed them down to a younger kid. McCartney was soon in possession of a pair of bright orange-red sneakers, replete with a yellow Swoosh as electric as lightening. "Imagine getting that as an 11-year-old kid", he says. He loved them so much, he slept in them. "I had no idea what Nike was, didn't know it was American, never even heard of Oregon". But he knew how the shoes made him feel: invincible, strong, fast, capable.&nbsp;The first race he ever won—1,500 metres on the track—was in Nikes.He punctuates this story by pulling out a pair of those exact Nike Flame spikes on a January morning in Glo's Cafe at the base of the LeBron James Innovation Building on Nike's <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/how-nike-built-its-world-headquarters" target="_blank">Philip H. Knight Campus</a>. (These aren't the same shoes he had as a youth, but rather a pair he tracked down later on.) They're more than just leather and suede: the shoes are a reminder of his duality—who he is and who he's been—and what has kept him going. The kid who filled his hours doodling sneakers; the teen who started working in retail to help support his family; the young man who applied for his dream job at Nike, becoming a Nike EKIN (because these experts are supposed to know the brand's products backwards and forwards); and now, the leader who sets its strategy for innovation, design and product.McCartney knows persistence, intelligence and hard work brought him to where he is today, but for years, he says, he couldn't help feelings of imposter syndrome, of thinking he was still that working-class kid from middle-of-nowhere-England pretending to be just as sophisticated as everyone else. To this day, he says, those feelings can creep in on him. "I'm proud of where I'm from, but there is just such a huge gap from where I was to where I am", says McCartney. That fact makes it all the more important, he adds, to show his teams that they can be their authentic selves. "I want our people of all backgrounds to feel comfortable here", he says, adding, "it's hard to be creative if you're trying to be someone else at the same time".McCartney credits some of this managerial approach to Vincent Coates, a senior director, footwear product development lead, for football, who taught him that a great leader provides an environment for people to feel empowered. And Coates confirms that McCartney's earned that: "I'd walk through a brick wall for Phil", he says, calling him a leader who is as much at home leading an off-site to discuss footwear as he is bringing the levity to diffuse the day-to-day pressure—like when he donned an Elvis outfit and sang Suspicious Minds to lighten the team mood (that story is fact-checked and confirmed). Coates says the company's return to being a player in the football market came from strategies like McCartney's insistence on bringing siloed teams together. Before he took the role, Innovation sat separately from the Product and Marketing teams. Now, they're all connected and pulling towards the same focused goals. "Phil's created a greater team and this culture of belonging, inclusivity and fun", says Coates. "Yes, we have challenges. But now, because we're figuring things out together, it's an enjoyable journey. That's the impact he has on people—he makes you want to be all in".

Since childhood, sport has taken McCartney on some of the pivotal journeys of his life. Races gave him his first taste of exploring different parts of his home country and mixing with different people. With sport, "the world gets bigger and bigger", he says. And because of his long-held dedication to running, he brings a particular empathy to his work and the plight of the athlete. He knows what it's like to push yourself beyond what you think you could possibly do, to compete against yourself, to wake up at 5am for a run, because that's what he's trained his mind and body to do. It's a viewpoint he cherishes in his job, and one that athletes cherish within him. McCartney and legendary marathoner and <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/eliud-kipchoge-radical-airflow-new-york-city-marathon" target="_blank">Nike athlete Eliud Kipchoge</a> have been friends for more than a decade, and the record-breaking runner says that he and McCartney talk about everything: innovation, trail shoes, blisters, their families, the future of the company. Kipchoge loves that they can do that while on a run. "It feels great for me to talk to someone who was an athlete himself, who is working with Nike and&nbsp;is among the decision-makers", says Kipchoge.Listening to athletes is not only one of the most inspiring and motivating parts of the job, McCartney says, but a key to making it all work. "The biggest thing in innovation is to take a chance with the athletes and whatever ideas they might have", he says, citing <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/six-reasons-why-breaking2-goes-beyond-26-2-miles" target="_blank">Breaking2</a>, the 2017 project that ultimately helped Kipchoge <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/10-greatest-nike-air-sports-moments" target="_blank">complete a marathon in under two hours</a>. "It leads to huge advancements in sport, human potential and technology, and we need those moments just to think differently and bigger".

Like Nike athletes, McCartney wants his team to be bold in their approach to innovation and creativity. He knows, though, that it all starts with him as a leader: "I'm always balancing care with competitiveness", he says. "We've got to win. So how do you create the conditions to do that?" His role isn't just to execute or delegate; he also wants to create the right conditions for people to do their best work. "We don't need people to be told what to do; we have loads of incredibly talented people", he says. "What they need is direction, trust and the air cover to go after something big".While McCartney may still be a bit incredulous about leaving Newcastle, when he visits home, he likes to talk to the local kids about his journey: that you can go from being a young runner propelled by the potential in your soles to the executive who guides their production. And not only the sport science that helped create them, but the look, the feeling and the heat&nbsp;that make a new generation of kids wear those shoes to bed at night.That's the standard the company's embracing again under McCartney's guidance—in the lab, in athlete conversations, in the prototype, in the edit, in the final product. Nothing less than epic sh*t.

*If you have a body, you are an athlete.

Chief Innovation, Design and Product Officer Phil McCartney knows what the bar is when it comes to innovation at the Swoosh. This is how he's making sure the company's products clear it.

Feature

What Creating Epic Means Inside Nike Now

On an early Wednesday morning in February, Amy Montagne stands in front of a small production team in the Serena Williams Building on Philip H. Knight Campus in Beaverton, Oregon. The president of Nike has a presence—commanding, assured and dressed in hues of black; she stands on a makeshift stage while the crew adjusts the lights. Whether or not the camera's recording, Montagne is on—personable, assertive and ready to go—despite waking up well before sunrise. She says the energy and passion it takes to do that day after day, week after week, comes from the shared dedication of the teammates surrounding her during her more than two decades with the company: "Bringing my A-game is critical to my role, because I want to rise to the level of the people around me".Montagne is filming a message for the global Nike team meeting in Milan, a thank you to the tens of thousands of worldwide employees for the hard work leading up to the winter's major sporting moments—the Super Bowl, All-Star Weekend, the Winter Olympics—and a rallying cry for the hard work everyone knows is still ahead. After her first read-through under the lights, a make-up artist dabs her face with a sponge while she listens to feedback. Her delivery (only two takes!) earns applause, and she laughs. "This is not a normal day", she promises.But when a day in the life of the president of the world's largest sports brand can encompass anything from lunching with premier athletes to leading meetings on global sport brand strategy to snapping a pic with Kim Kardashian for her Instagram grid during the NikeSKIMS launch in New York (this one jackpotted Montagne cool points with her triplet teenage sons), maybe the normalcy is found in accepting that every day will be different. And that's exactly what she loves about it: "Each day, you get new information: people loved a certain product drop, a new sport campaign resonated with a specific community, an athlete's authentic style led to a whole-new way of dressing to compete—the energy of that immediate response from people who love Nike is what inspires me", she says. The question that she has asked herself to guide each unique day, over her two decades at the company, remains the same: "How do we lead our teammates and this brand to greatness?"

When Elliott Hill accepted the NIKE, Inc. president & CEO position in 2024, bringing the company back to its sport roots and focusing on the athlete was at the top of his to-do list. Nike needed a turnaround. After years of dominance, the brand was no longer the untouchable giant in the sports industry, and upstart brands were clawing away at the Swoosh market share. Nike's once-clear mandate to be steeped in sport, by listening and serving the athlete, had turned murky. Finding a visionary leader to drive a vigorous reestablishment of the brand's credo was key, and the path to that had to be through strengthening the relationship with athletes (and that means Nike's definition of "athletes"—anyone who has a body).Hill needed a trusted leader for the Nike brand who could lead its new Sport Offense, a plan that rebuilt the company and its priorities through sport, allowing teams to go deep on what those specific athletes need. This right-hand leader would not only need a mind for end-to-end strategy, a commitment to innovation and an adroitness for emotional storytelling, but also be someone who could use those skills to make deliberate choices to strengthen the business for the long term, activating Nike's many levers to connect with athletes, sport communities and fans across the world. Hill had a clear choice: Amy Montagne.Over her 12 roles and 21 years at the company, Montagne had established herself as a healthy balance of left and right brain—an outside-the-box thinker who also uses "spreadsheet" as a verb—and was a motivating force behind Nike's new sport-first operating model. "She always asks, 'how is this connected back to sport, back to the athletes?'" Hill says, outlining her strategic filter. That comes from her unwavering dedication to the benefits of sport that go beyond playing: in high school, for example, Montagne tried out for the basketball team but didn't make the cut. Instead of walking away, she doubled down and became the team's statistician, a role that encapsulated her talent, her secret sauce: she can see the whole court, identify people's unique abilities and skill sets and use that data to help make the whole team better.

Montagne is a straight shooter, with the sort of no-filler management style that makes it clear what she's thinking. If she works with you, she believes in you. And she's the first to admit that she expects big things. But she knows that success is only achieved by pushing past what you think are your limits, and as a team. Charles Williams, global vice president of Footwear, wasn't remotely surprised when Montagne became the president of the Nike brand. For years, he'd known her as a "courageous, empowering" leader, one who was just as likely to come and meet Williams in his office as he was in hers. It's a small gesture with a big ripple effect. Not only does it show respect for his time, Williams says, but it's an opportunity for more junior employees to get a bit of face time with her. Hill likens her to a coach and notes how many relationships she's fostered during her time at Nike. "Because of Amy's level of clarity and accountability, she builds trust with the team, and then you get the followership", he says.Once, Montagne received feedback from her team that, while she has extremely high expectations, they knew that she has those same high bars for herself, above all. "It was one of those moments where I felt really seen for who I am", she says. And that approach has resulted in a genuine loyalty between Montagne and her teams—she gives people the tools, guidance and space to be great, and in return, they are.&nbsp;

Nike's winning history is never far from Montagne's mind: it excites her that everyone around her knows they have big, and well-made, shoes to fill. "Every product, every story we tell, every marketplace execution has to be done with uncompromising excellence", she says. How does she make that happen? By asking honest questions: is the product living up to our expectations, what we know this company is capable of? Is that the best way to tell the story? Is the execution the most premium, sustainable way we can do it? Did we give it absolutely everything?If that philosophy sounds almost unbelievably driven, well, that's on purpose. And it's what makes her ideal for the job. "Amy's the leader Nike needs right now", says Hill, "and I believe the structure we have in place, the team she's put in place, the expectation that she set, is going to give us that sharp clarity against the different consumers we're serving, and that will unlock another wave of growth".

Only recently has Montagne allowed herself—her full self—to be seen in the workplace. Early on in her career, working at the corporate headquarters for The Gap, in San Francisco, she was known for leaving her personal life at the door. Work was work, home was home, and never the two shall meet. "She has a strength to compartmentalise things to be able to move through adversity", says Janet Hayes, her former coworker, long-time friend and current CEO of Crate & Barrel. But that also meant that people had a harder time getting to know her. "I'm watching her now, in the last couple of years, become a different kind of leader who is braver and a little more vulnerable, and I think that's an evolution of her leadership that's going to take her far", Hayes says.&nbsp;For Montagne, the shared trauma of the pandemic illuminated a new managerial approach. For the first time in her career, everyone she knew was going through the same struggle. There was no reason to pretend it wasn't happening, so why not face it head on? The comfort that came with that allowed her to bring more of her personal life into the workplace. Not as a proselytiser, but as a person. "I am who I am because of the life experiences I've had", she says. Having kids later in life, going through a difficult IVF journey, having triplets when she thought she was having a single child and being all too familiar with grief and family loss—these&nbsp;are truths as integral to understanding Montagne as her management style or work habits. "We all have these things, and you find the right ways to bring your personal and professional lives together", she says, "to be your true, authentic self and to support people to be theirs".Seeing a leader like Montagne be vulnerable and sincere in the workplace has allowed others to do the same. "She's a real one", says Williams. "You need that in this organisation, because it shows people they can be themselves".

Montagne's true self at Nike is pure energy; she has a palpable enthusiasm for the job, a humming aura around her. Her role today is a culmination of a steady focus throughout her career, starting from what drove her when she was working in retail in high school in Arizona—a curiosity about the consumer. Even then, she was fascinated by buying habits: what do people like? Why do they buy the things they do? How do fit, colour and style make a difference? That desire for understanding makes just as much sense for Montagne now as it did back then. "In a big company, driving billions of dollars of revenue, everything gets clear when you come back to a consumer and their insights", she says. "Nike can seem so big, but in the end, we're shop owners".&nbsp;As an undergrad at Santa Clara University, she enrolled in the retail management institute, where that curiosity became a tenable career path: this was an actual job, being a buyer for a store. "And that was it!" she says. Her path unfurled before her, like a finger before it beckons. She graduated with a degree in communications, sharpening the storytelling skills that now drive Nike's most simple and powerful message: that sport can change the world. That's a fact Montagne's seen time and time again, be it watching her kids commit to and improve at a new skill, or being part of grand moments, like the Super Bowl or World Cup. "In a world today that has so much challenge and change, sport is the unifier that really brings people together", Montagne says.

After graduation, she completed buyer training at Walmart headquarters and took a role as an allocation analyst at Gap Inc., capping off 11-hour days by running across the Golden Gate Bridge, training for marathons with friends. Her sport of choice has changed—now, you're more likely to find her in a Pilates studio or a cycling class—but her tenacity and strive for excellence is the same. Her husband, Pete, formerly a category manager at Nike, calls her the hardest worker he's ever met. (Their pairing was a matter of fate; although they attended the same college, they didn't meet until after graduating, when Pete was working at Nike and Amy had just started.) More than anything, Pete says, Amy is smart, sharp and prepared. That hasn't always come easily, though; she's had her fair share of shoot-down remarks, plenty of times where she's been the only woman in the room, he says. "What she does that sets her apart is create a culture of inclusivity—she cares about her team, about mentorship, about elevating people's careers".

Her passion and commitment to championing women is well represented in her office, on the 5th floor of the Sebastian Coe Building, where an oversized copy of the company's 1996 print ad "If You Let Me Play" sits on her desk. Working with top athletes, like A'ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark and JuJu Watkins, is one of the most fulfilling parts of her job, which includes "doing everything I can to show them support—that we want to learn, listen and meet them where they are, and keep doing that as they succeed", she says. The bar isn't what the world expects Nike to do. "It's giving so much more than that", she says, "what we know our athletes deserve".When Montagne took over her current role in May 2025, she and her team went on a retreat to hammer out a clear vision for the Nike brand. The company will always be about sport, they contended—but the evolution had to come from following the lead of the Nike athlete. "They don't compete just to be like anybody else", she says. "They say: 'I can do it better, faster, stronger, more stylish'. They break things to be better—and that's what we're meant to do, too".

For Montagne, that means taking her vision of the Nike Sport Offense—establishing more than a dozen specific sport focuses and creating the teams that power them—and nurturing those sport cultures, from running and football and basketball, to golf, tennis, training and more. Each of these has its own personality, energy and nuances, and essential for Nike, its own aesthetic. For example, the look of running, Montagne says, is style, for everyday and professional athletes alike. She points to Sha'Carri Richardson, who doesn't run fast and break records in spite of her long nails or false lashes—she does so because of them, how they allow her to be her authentic self. Show up as the most real version of you, Montagne says, and you perform at your best. That's a tenet that stretches across sports. "Look at the relaunch of the ACG brand at the Winter Games", she points out. "The brand has legitimate outdoor legacy and innovation, and products that speak to an epic, unique style".As our interview ends, Montagne is in her 5th-floor office, seated at her desk and turning to the next events of the day—meetings, presentations, preparations. You can see her mind whirring, just like that high-school statistician. The court is bigger, but her diligence has remained the same: she's surveying, watching her teams' plays and noting what must happen next to make everyone, and the brand, better. The through line, to be sure, will be sport. To know where Nike is going next, look to where the energy is in the world behind sports, behind athletes. Wherever you find that, you’ll find Nike, supporting, listening, learning—and fiercely competing like no other.

With more than 20 years of experience over 12 roles, the brand president is guiding Nike's new Sport Offense, taking the company back to its athlete-first roots and strengthening the business for the long term.

Amy Montagne: The Force Returning Nike to Sport

By the time Alysa Liu reaches the end of her four-minute free skate, the energy inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena is unmistakable. With the final notes of Donna Summer's MacArthur Park Suite echoing through the building, Alysa joyfully finishes her programme, tossing a playful hair flip towards the camera. The crowd erupts. Seven triple jumps. Zero mistakes. The 20-year-old Team USA figure skater, clad in a shimmering gold dress, has just delivered the performance of her life. Moments later, the scores confirm it: Alysa has won Olympic gold, becoming the first US woman in nearly a quarter of a century to claim the sport's biggest prize.For Alysa, the Milano Cortina victory is the culmination of one of figure skating's most unexpected journeys. The youngest US national champion at 13, she walked away from the sport as a teenager, drained by the pressures of elite competition. Yet nearly two years later, she returned with a different perspective: if she was going to skate again, it would be on her terms. Because she loved it. And if she won, it would be as herself—not as someone else's version of what a champion should be.That mindset has helped turn Alysa into one of the sport's most intriguing athletes, someone who is redefining what winning can look like. Below, in her own words, she shares how she thinks about pressure, success and learning to trust her own path.

Success can mean a lot of different things to different people. For me, it's about being with the people I love, making memories with them and spending time together. It's about having new experiences and just living. The mantra I keep coming back to is YOLO. It's cliché—but you really only live once. So you have to make the most of it for yourself.These days, I say no to more things that I used to say yes to. I like to hear people out and I like to try new things, but I trust my instincts. When I came back to figure skating, people said I would have to change my hair, and I said, "No, I won't be changing my hair". People give me song suggestions, and I'll take them into consideration, but if I don't like something, I'm not going to skate to it. I want to make choices that feel like me.My advice for kids or anyone feeling a lot of pressure is to stop and ask who or where it's actually coming from. It's easy to feel like there are so many expectations on you, but when you really think about it, who's the one putting that pressure on you? It's usually not that many people. For me, journalling and identifying where that feeling is originating from really helps. Sometimes when you narrow it down, you realise it's coming from one specific person, or maybe no one at all.

It's important to surround yourself with the right people. You've got to have people around you who have your best interests in mind. People you care about and that care about you. I've been fortunate to build a team that really knows what I want. They give me the space to make my own choices. I get the final say for everything—my programmes, my music, the dress, the hair, the make-up. They respect my artistic choices, and that makes a huge difference.&nbsp;Sometimes you can forget why you started in the first place. If something is feeling too hard mentally or physically, take a break and try other things. Step away, reassess and see if it pulls you back in. If it does, great. And if it doesn't, then maybe you're being pulled toward something completely new.At the end of my programmes, I always try to do something for the cameras. The camera is right there on your face when you finish skating, so you've got to do something. A hair flip is just what I go to. We don't have much screen time when we're out there, so you have to make the most of it.

When it comes to training, I'm pretty self-disciplined. I like to train, actually. That's my favourite part about being an athlete. I really romanticise it now. No one has to tell me when to stop. I know myself really well, so I know what my limit is. And that comes from a lot of trial and error.My favourite way to reset is just turning my phone off. Usually my phone is what overwhelms me the most. So when I feel like that, I turn it off and spend time with my friends and family.At the end of the day, if it's not a "hell yes", it's a "hell no". When it comes to activities or opportunities, that's how I think about it now. I still say yes to a lot of things, but I'm more intentional about it. I don't really have regrets. You live and you learn. A big part of getting to that was learning to stop shutting down my own feelings and needs and no longer putting certain people on a pedestal.To feel free again, I had to unlearn routine. I was kind of stuck in the same day over and over again. But if you want a different life, you have to make different choices. I had to switch my inputs to have a different output.

The gold medal–winning figure skater—and sport icon for authenticity—reflects on pressure, success and learning to trust her own path.

Alysa Liu Is Winning on Her Own Terms

There is a moment Martin Lotti still sees clearly in his mind. He was 16 years old, a Swiss exchange student standing in the original Niketown in Portland, Oregon —a kid from Fribourg, a town of fewer than 40,000 people, who had arrived in the Pacific Northwest for what was supposed to be two weeks and became a year. He left Niketown holding a pair of Air Max 180s and a Michael Jordan Wings poster, the one that reads:&nbsp;"No bird soars too high if it soars with its own wings".&nbsp;His host family snapped a photo of him outside the store, mid-Jumpman pose, arms wide, grinning.That photograph would travel with him across two decades of craft, curiosity and creative ambition. And one day, while serving as chief design officer for the Jordan Brand, Lotti stood in front of Michael Jordan himself and showed him the image."This is why I fell in love with the brand as a 16 year old",&nbsp;he says, sitting at the Philip H. Knight Campus on a cool February morning, dressed in an immaculate all-white fit that reflects an understated confidence.&nbsp;"To have the person from the poster over your bed actually standing in front of you—that was surreal. One of those moments where you think: how did I get here?"

Getting to Nike was never a straight line—and that, Lotti will tell you, is exactly the point. After finishing secondary school in Switzerland, he enrolled at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. A woman in his visual communications class mentioned she'd interned at Nike, which piqued his curiosity. He sent in an application, Nike sent back a job offer. He would later marry that classmate, Linda Mai-Lotti, a detail he shares with a quiet smile that suggests he still can't quite believe his own story.What Nike represented to Lotti, and still does, was something he didn't have a word for growing up in Europe.&nbsp;"In Switzerland, it's more step by step,"&nbsp;he says.&nbsp;"The leash gets longer one step at a time. Whereas in the US, the opportunity is just … there for the taking. It doesn't matter how old you are or where you're from. If you can bring it, you get the chance to design it".That belief—that potential has no ceiling—became the foundation of how Lotti designs, leads and sees the world.

Today, Lotti serves as Nike's chief design officer, representing the Swoosh in major cultural moments such as Milan Design Week, and overseeing product and concept design across the company—an enormous responsibility he approaches with the same grounded clarity that has defined his career. A good designer is a good listener first, he says, because creation is so reliant on input, from the athletes, of data sets, for how to support the product with the right storytelling. The why of your creation—who you're creating for and what problem you're solving—is what delineates a designer from an artist. "Design is not just executing or sketching; we are problem solvers", Lotti says. "<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/bill-bowerman-nike-s-original-innovator" target="null">Bill Bowerman</a> baked this into the DNA of the company: you create for a reason, not just because you can". He also points out that this is no simple task. "Creativity is often romanticised. It's painful! I think it's like a marathon. It takes time, you have to lean in, and in the end you're exhausted and elated".The drive to continue that process runs deep within Lotti. There is a phrase he returns to again and again, a quiet north star beneath everything he creates:&nbsp;making people fly.&nbsp;He didn't fully understand its weight until his team began working with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and he watched critically ill children choose, as their wish, to spend time with Jordan Brand designers."Not everyone can be Michael Jordan, but everyone can make someone feel something", he says, his voice measured, the words deliberate.&nbsp;"After something like that, you don't come in the next day and just make another shoe".He invokes Steve Jobs' idea of leaving a dent in the universe—of finding your platform and using it with intention.&nbsp;"We have this reach, and I don't take it for granted",&nbsp;he says.&nbsp;"It's not just an opportunity. It's an obligation to make an impact". That impact is felt within Nike too. "There's no one who pushes me more than Martin", says <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/company/people/nicole-graham" target="_blank">Nicole Graham</a>, EVP and chief marketing officer. "He's so good that it makes you want to be better; he'll come up with a great idea, which will make you want to come up with a great idea". That mindset, says Graham, comes from the way Lotti looks at the world. "He can walk down the street and see 18 different things that could be interesting for a project that we're working on—colour, material, font, topography. He lives and breathes creativity and design".

Lotti's design philosophy goes beyond aesthetics or function. He wants his teams to truly understand athletes—not just what they need from a product, but what drives them, what they carry onto the field, what makes them feel seen and inspired.In 2014, a Brazilian footballer described his&nbsp;why&nbsp;to Lotti's team:&nbsp;"We play for the love of the game and for the love of Brazil",&nbsp;the player said, grabbing his shirt as he spoke. The gesture unlocked something. The shirt wasn't just a piece of clothing; it was a symbol of pride, an encapsulation of purpose.That year, the team printed in Portuguese&nbsp;"nascido para jogar futebol"—born&nbsp;to play football—on the inside of the shirt. So that every time a player placed his hand over his heart during the national anthem, he'd feel the purpose beneath it."You aren't just listening to what athletes say about what they need",&nbsp;Lotti says.&nbsp;"You want to hear the person. You want to understand what makes them tick".Sometimes, Lotti and his team's inspiration is more abstract. It surfaces in the raked gravel of a Zen garden in Kyoto, Japan, which became the outsole geometry of the Nike Kyoto, the brand's first yoga-inspired shoe, its upper a subtle nod to the kimono's wrap. Or it can live in the stark, earthy palette of Iceland, which shaped an autumn and holiday training collection.This is one of the quiet gifts of being based in Portland, he says. You're required to go out, seek, learn. "We're more global citizens, which I love, because so many doors open up when you go to new places".

His wife Linda describes Lotti as an athlete—not just literally (he competed and taught snowboarding), but in the way he approaches his craft. When their professor in school assigned 10 sketches, Martin did 20. Not because he had to, but because the work was alive to him, and the push to keep refining it would never rest. Curiosity, for Lotti, isn't something you switch off.That energy surfaces everywhere. A recent trip to a car dealership ended with a salesperson offering him a job, only half-jokingly. He'd arrived knowing more about every model and option than the staff.&nbsp;"He's able to stay focused and keep working until he ploughs through it and finds the solution",&nbsp;Linda says.&nbsp;"Like an elite athlete with a relentless drive to grow and perfect. Just in a very different arena".We're sitting in the Energy Product Design space in the Mia Hamm building, and Lotti is flipping through the pages of the Nike Design Annual, a thick-stock magazine containing a sweeping overview of the best that the Nike brand has done in the past year, through a range of sport, athlete and product moments. "We're so focused on the future, being able to look back is almost cathartic, and it allows us to set a benchmark: if you want to be in this book, it has to be a certain level", Lotti says. "It's a way to celebrate the team".The team Lotti's gathered, says Graham, is unmatched. "One of Martin's most meaningful contributions to Nike is the creative community he's nurtured", she says. "When you're on Martin Lotti's team, you feel like you're one of the most creative people in the world—and that's exactly what he wants you to feel, how he's empowered people to feel". You see the impact of that in this year's Nike Design Annual, which includes 25 of the most innovative pieces the company produced in 2025. Many are feats of the unexpected, breaking the mould—like the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/what-is-nike-radical-airflow" target="null">Nike Radical AirFlow</a> long-sleeve for ultra-marathons. People were sceptical at first of the long-sleeve shirt meant to cool you down, says Lotti, with some even affectionately dubbing it the "Christmas sweater". Lotti laughs about it even now. "Believing is wearing it", he says, "it's like air conditioning for your body. You pump your arms while you run, and the material creates little cyclones of airflow. That's its geometry—it's naturally cooling".

Throughout our conversation, Lotti emphasised the uniqueness of working on design at a company like Nike: the cutting-edge technology, like the nascent ability to create prototypes from 3D printers or virtual mock-ups; the eye toward sustainability, shown in&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-aero-fit-official-images" target="null">the new base material, Aero-FIT</a>, for&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/collections/nike-football-unveils-2026-federation-kits-featuring-aero-fit-performance-cooling-technology" target="null">all football shirts</a> that are more breathable for athletes&nbsp;and&nbsp;have a lower environmental impact to create; the&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/meet-the-nike-mind-team" target="null">Mind Science team</a>, which focuses on improving athlete experience from the neck up.This depth and range creates the perfect balance of humanness, enterprise and technology that Lotti seeks. That even the executive chairman, Mark Parker, shares Lotti's design background makes Lotti's work all the more fulfilling. "It makes our life so much easier to see design as part of the foundation of the company", he says, dancing his fingertips over the tabletop. "It's not an afterthought. It's central to everything we do".That belief extends to how Lotti thinks about risk—not as something to manage, but as something to embrace, to push Nike to new places. "Calculated risk is what athletes do every day", he says. "They don't try to replicate their fastest time or most powerful serve or heaviest weight, they want to be better. The best".Why shouldn't we all?

"Design is not just executing or sketching", says the chief design officer. "We are problem solvers".

Martin Lotti is Driving a New Wave of Creativity at Nike

After winning 73 singles titles, 14 doubles titles, four Olympic gold medals and reigning as the No. 1 women's singles tennis player in the world for a collective six years, Serena Williams decided she was ready for a new challenge. In 2022, she announced that she was "evolving away" from tennis, playing her final match at the US Open that September against Ajla Tomljanovic. A retirement this was not: by that point, Serena Ventures, her venture capital firm, had raised more than $100 million dollars for start-ups focused on female and POC consumers, and she wanted to devote more time to growing that work even more. She was also 40, wanted another child and knew that she didn't want to be pregnant and competing again. (She had her first child, Olympia, in 2017, eight months after she won the Australian Open, her 23rd Grand Slam, while eight weeks pregnant; she didn't drop a single set.) Throughout her farewell tour, reporters and fans asked if she'd ever come back. She didn't say no. Now four years, and another daughter, Adira, later, the Nike athlete since 2003 is back on court. Her return competition is fitting—the Queen's Club tournament in London—where she'll play doubles. Tennis has evolved since Williams took her pause, but then again, so has she. Below, in her own words, Williams shares her new outlook, why it's important for her daughters to see her return and why she's always believed in herself.

This return is not about wins or losses. I just want to have fun. I want to travel and I want to enjoy myself. I've always enjoyed tennis, but this time it's from a different angle. Every time I watched a tournament, I missed it. I miss the atmosphere. I miss the court.&nbsp; Still, what I'm looking for in a doubles partner is someone that wants to win and can win. I guess that hasn't changed! I'm choosing doubles because I'm not putting any pressure on myself to do singles right now. This is a good way to start for me.&nbsp; The only different thing in my training now is that I don't get angry. Although, yesterday, I did want to crack my racket. But I thought, 'Serena, you're absolutely not going to do that'. In the past, I would have. This moment is for my daughters too. I want them to see what a strong woman I am, who I am. Now, they'll be able to see what I do and the impact that I've had. There are so many different things that define excellence. But a lot of people don't understand the full work. We see lots of results that are really fast, things that seem like they happened overnight. But there's always some sort of sacrifice. To gain something, you have to not have something. You have to decide what it is. And sometimes, it's at a cost. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Pressure can feel very heavy, but lighter if you step up to it and own it. There's this old saying, "He who doubts, loses". Doubt is for those who don't want to win. You can't doubt yourself. I work very hard, but I also know I'm at a different stage in my life, so I learn how to get more bang for my buck without sacrificing my hard work.

When I first started playing tennis, I had to fight to just belong. As a woman, you have to fight to show what you have done, and what you can do. And not necessarily fight, but "calmly and confidently remind". When you're sure of yourself, it's OK to walk away and say, "This isn't for me right now". I'm very fortunate that now I get to pick and choose the battles that I decide to fight. Some of those battles are great, especially if they involve my children, but other battles end with me saying, "You know what? Not my day today". To stay on top, you have to welcome change. You have to pivot. Take learning AI, for example—I pivoted instantly. I don't wait, I don't think, I just do. That's how I've always been. Especially with my career, I've always thought, oh, Roger's doing that? I'm pivoting immediately. That's why I had the ability to play for so many years, I was always open to change. I changed my racket and my strings at a time where no one was doing it, and people thought that was really crazy. It was unheard of at the time. I did it, and then suddenly everyone else did it. My partnership with Nike is all about building and creating new. I can see Nike's got back to <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/the-handshake-that-started-it-all" target="_blank">those roots of Phil</a>, starting each idea with "<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/phil-mccartney-is-showing-what-innovation-means-inside-nike-now" target="_blank">how do we help athletes</a>". I love what's happening in <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nikeskims-introduces-studio-stretch-material-innovation-collection" target="_blank">NikeSKIMS</a>. It embodies innovation. When I first saw that, I called Kim and said, "This is genius". I have always believed in myself. Other people believing in you is fantastic, but let's face it, that doesn't always happen. And there's a lot of times where people will say things that make you not believe in yourself. Having your self-belief is so important. Then, it doesn't matter what happens—it won't change your foundation. It doesn't mean you self-believe in everything, because, quite frankly, I don't. I always have to go to my foundation and say, "This is what I'm great at, this is what I'm good at—now let's build on it".&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

The tennis champion has a new outlook, an important "why", and a belief in herself that's never gone away.

In Her Return to the Court, Serena Williams Reminds Us Why She's the GOAT

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Five games into his professional career, on his third-straight away game, Victor Wembanyama was already at home in the NBA. He scored 38 points, grabbed 10 boards and put up two blocks by the end of the night. At season's end, he'd average nearly four blocks a game, leading the league.&nbsp;Victor is all unreal numbers. The 20-year-old's&nbsp;7'4" frame swallows every square inch of the court. Offensively, he's fluid and mobile. Defensively, he's a one-man zone, able to turn away opposing fast breaks through his size and his stare. Evaluating rookies in the NBA is usually a challenge of evaluating their floor. At a minimum, what can this player become? He entered the league and instantly, the question was how high his ceiling might be—or whether there was one.&nbsp;Here, Victor answers our questions on what it takes to win—from transcending his own limits to banishing fear from his life. I knew from an early age the kind of professional I wanted to be. There's a lot of things we have to do as pro athletes that people in other jobs don't need to worry about, like getting enough sleep after you play a back-to-back and fly to a different time zone. I decided I need to get better sleep. When I start my dinnertime meal, my alarm for the next morning is already set on my phone and I'm not going to use my phone for the rest of the night.&nbsp;I'm lucky in that I can say I'm competing for multiple places. Wearing the France national jersey is one of the strongest feelings I know. In the NBA, I'm attached to the city of San Antonio. I'm a part of it. They've welcomed me.&nbsp;

All my life, I've been much taller than everyone on the court. So, when coaches saw me doing dribbles through the legs and doing fadeaways and stuff, their first reflex was to tell me not to do it. All my life, there's been this pressure to put me in a box. It's been the toughest battle I've fought my whole life. Now, I do have more freedom than before, but I'm convinced that my freedom wouldn't be here without my efforts to go against those stereotypes.Here's what I'd tell any kid who's struggling with something:&nbsp;when I was 12 years old, I went through a discouraging period. I was having trouble with my shot during my games. I obviously was growing a lot at that time and I was even skinnier than I am now, so I had trouble getting my shot off consistently against defenders. My coach told me, "When you're a professional, you'll be working on the present. But right now, you're working for the future".&nbsp;Seeing a kid wear my jersey is special. Any time I catch highlights of our games, I like watching the reactions in the stands and you naturally see the kids who are wearing your jersey. It's not the first thing you think about when you become an NBA player, but you realise you can positively influence the next generation through something you love. It's beautiful.&nbsp;It really saddens me when I see a lack of ambition from people. Usually, it comes from being scared and thinking "I'm not enough". Assuming that things are too big or too ambitious are things I've decided to banish from my life.At the end of the day, it's on you to define what your goals are in life, what you want to become. Winning is accomplishing those things that matter most to you.&nbsp;

I want to help create a new era of dominance for French basketball. That involves promoting the sport and making it more popular in the country for our youth. For professional basketball in France, I think our potential doesn't match our current investment. How can we improve our facilities? How can we train the best staff? We just need to match our potential and foster our pool of talent that's already here. France has the brightest future of any country in the world for basketball.Someone asked me how I make sure my name doesn't grow bigger than the Spurs organisation. That will never happen. The team wants me to succeed and be the best I can be. They've made a lot of sacrifices for me. I want the whole organisation to know how much I understand all that they've done. Sometimes, it's a little thing like sending a text or welcoming someone new to the organisation. I try to show people their worth in all they do. I'm not scared to grow bigger than them, because I want to make the Spurs as big as I can. I want to give back to them as much as possible.&nbsp;I don't think anyone could have a higher expectation for me than I have for myself. So, it's really no big deal when I hear people call me a once-in-a-generation player. The only people to whom I have something to prove are my coach and my team. Even my parents don't have expectations for me; they just want me to be happy. When I don't want to see all that pressure, I turn off my phone. It's as simple as that, but there's really no pressure or expectations. I never felt like I had something to owe to the world. I'm just playing basketball.

The 20-year-old phenom speaks to transcending his own limits, banishing fear from his life, turning off his phone and more.

The legend of Victor Wembanyama is growing

Legendary sprinter Sanya Richards-Ross knows exactly how to complete a lap of the track in the fastest possible time: the Nike athlete is the American record holder in the distance, she won Olympic gold in the 400m in London&nbsp;and she's recorded more sub-50-second finishes in the event than any other woman sprinter, with a career total of 49 times. Here, she shares her secrets to topping the podium—and what the sprinters in Paris will need to do to bring home some hardware.Preparing for the 400 metres is intense. I always say the 400 is not just a test of your physical capabilities, but also your mental stamina. For these athletes who obviously have been training, preparing and dreaming of this moment for so long, it's about executing the race that they've run a million times, the race they've seen in their mind's eye that their coach has prepared them to run.To win the 400, I always used the four Ps: Push: this is the first 50 metres and you're coming out strongPace: down the back, you're looking to hold position and not over-revPosition: rounding the final turn, try to stretch your position as much as possiblePray: coming home, stay poised, execute your best kick and land on the podium

You need to be ready to adapt as well. In 2012, I worked with a sports psychologist who told me, "Something is going to happen that you can't prepare for—and when it does, you're going to put your hand on your lower stomach and you are going to breathe into your hand and you're going to get back in the moment". And I'll never forget, I was standing on the track in London, ready to run my final, and they were announcing the athletes and they got to the winner from 2008, the year I won the bronze—she&nbsp;was announced after me and it was her home country, and I had never heard a crowd get that loud before in my life. It was unnerving. And then I thought, this is the moment that I prepared for and I put my hand on my stomach, took my breath and I rebounded and refocused.Overall, you need that mental preparation. I think of what our Nike athlete TeeTee Terry said about coming to Paris, that you've got to walk in like you've already won. You've got to embody what it means to be a champion. And that's my mindset too. I remember in 2012, I kept saying to myself, "How would I be if I already won? Like, what would this experience be like?" And it made it so much more fun, so much lighter, because I was like, "I already did it! I've already won". I psyched myself up that way, mentally, so that I wasn't so anxious for the experience. And then I really won.

It's about more than running as fast as you can for a lap. Here, the champion sprinter shares her secrets.

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Sanya Richards-Ross explains how to win the 400-metre sprint

The margin for victory in Paris can come down to inches, kilograms and milliseconds. But what happens when two athletes are tied at the end of competition?&nbsp;Tiebreakers have a precedent in the final heats as recently as 2020, when the high-jump gold medal in Tokyo was ultimately shared by two jumpers. It wasn't always this way. A change in the rulebook in 2009 allowed competitors to make a mutual choice: share a winning jump or battle in a jump-for-jump faceoff until one athlete was left standing.&nbsp;Not surprisingly, tiebreakers for each sport have detailed rules that explain how to determine a champion. What&nbsp;is&nbsp;surprising is that each tiebreaker can look slightly different, following checklists of outcomes that can look downright improbable—but never impossible. We're taking a look at the tiebreaking procedures for some of your favourite events.<h3>Swimming: for the team</h3>Let's start with qualifying heats and semi-finals: for individual events of 200m or less, ties for the last qualification or reserve position are broken by swim-offs. In other words, the swimmers get back in the pool and square off. However, in events longer than 200m and in all relays, all tied athletes or teams advance to compete in the final, with a maximum of 10 lanes. That's one stacked field. If more than three swimmers or teams are tied for the last qualification place, a swim-off may be held.&nbsp;<h3>Long jump: next up</h3>In the long jump final, competitors have six attempts to jump their furthest distance. During competitions, all valid attempts that aren't fouls (i.e. jumps that have illegal landings or that begin beyond the foul line) are recorded, but only the best jump of each competitor counts towards the final result. If two competitors tie with their longest jump, their next-longest legal jump is used as the tiebreaker.&nbsp;Weightlifting: get there firstWeightlifting is comprised of two events: the snatch and the clean and jerk. From the minute lifters step onto the platform, they get 60 seconds to complete their attempt. They have three attempts per round to lift the most weight they can. The final result is determined by adding each competitor's best snatch attempt with their&nbsp;best clean and jerk attempt to achieve a combined total. The lifter with the highest combined total is the winner. In the case of a tie, the competitor who lifts the total weight first receives the higher ranking.&nbsp;Pole vault: try and try again&nbsp;The winner of the event is the vaulter who successfully clears the highest height. In the event of a tie, the vaulter with the fewest failures at the height is the winner. If the tie remains, the winner is the vaulter who produces the fewest failures throughout the entire competition. If the tied athletes remain tied, the winner is decided by a jump-off. Each jumper has one attempt per height. The bar is lowered if the vaulters fail. The bar is raised if the vaulters succeed. This process continues until only one jumper succeeds at one height.&nbsp;Wrestling: in&nbsp;a very particular orderFirst, some distinctions between Greco-Roman and Freestyle. In Greco-Roman, a wrestler may not attack their opponent below the waist, nor use their own legs to trip, lift or execute other holds. In Freestyle, the arms and legs are used to execute holds. If the wrestlers are tied in either a Greco-Roman match or a Freestyle match, the winner is declared using an exhausting list of criteria, following a descending order of priority:<ul><li>Whomever scored the most points on a single hold</li><li>Whomever had the fewest number of cautions</li><li>Whomever scored the last technical point in the match (this is the final tiebreaker in Freestyle wrestling)</li><li>Whomever is deemed to be the most active wrestler last in the match (this is the final tiebreaker in a Greco-Roman match) </li></ul>

Too close to call? We dust off the rulebook for five sports to explain how to crown a winner.

Your guide to tiebreakers in Paris

Nike athlete Janee' Kassanavoid didn't intend to be a hammer thrower. She fell into the event by chance while on her athletics team in secondary school—and found a sport she could dominate.In 2022 at the World Athletics Championships, Janee', a member of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma, threw a hammer almost 75 metres—that's nearly three quarters of an American football field—to win bronze, becoming the first Native woman to medal at Worlds. Janee''s take on her success: "Knowing I'm Native American, I'm Indigenous, I'm a woman, and having strength and that body confidence and being proud of who I am and where I come from—that is what I want to leave behind". Listen below to hear more of what Janee' thinks about breaking records and barriers, from an audio excerpt of our Nike On Air episode with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV8c5q8Iy3s&list=PLzCpxgdUI1lb76imfH3bi7k9MdFHVZ3q_&index=16&t=11s" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Womanica</a>.

To hear the full interview with Janee'&nbsp;—&nbsp;and learn more about her rise in the sport, her work to get Native athletes into sport and how to properly throw the hammer—check out the Womanica podcast on&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/nike-on-air-making-history-with-ibtihaj-muhammad-and/id1464524725?i=1000662155808" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="ql-size-small">Apple</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Brq2LfYc1D8ivEE7eyvYc__;!!KLCbKzk!koGd-tqaEEWIGRY6WUnThLk2WyGvzQyvMWKQTTbaKzKAvI4pKJrL88OYrQtda75Sqy3WAILtLYrJjJyy-Q3wC8p4knArzQ$" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="ql-size-small">Spotify</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV8c5q8Iy3s&list=PLzCpxgdUI1lb76imfH3bi7k9MdFHVZ3q_&index=15&t=11s__;!!KLCbKzk!koGd-tqaEEWIGRY6WUnThLk2WyGvzQyvMWKQTTbaKzKAvI4pKJrL88OYrQtda75Sqy3WAILtLYrJjJyy-Q3wC8oboEdC_g$" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="ql-size-small">YouTube</a>&nbsp;or wherever you get your podcasts.

Representing and empowering Native athletes is only the beginning.

Nike exists to serve the complete athlete, and shares their winning mentality. As a champion for athletes and sport, Nike partners with athletes who share the belief that sport can break barriers, push limits, spark change and move the world forwards.

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Hammer thrower Janee' Kassanavoid is ready to leave her mark

Check ball: 3-on-3 basketball is back on the world stage after debuting in Tokyo in 2021. Allisha Gray, a guard for the Atlanta Dream, represented the US on the squad that took home gold. For Allisha, 3-on-3 is a mix of traditional strategy, unrelenting pace and quick thinking. As she prepares for Paris, we asked her to give us the rundown on the game's basic rules and the important differences that make 3-on-3 distinct from the traditional 5-on-5.&nbsp;It's a 10-minute game played by ones and twos. There are seven fouls, it's two free throws, and once you get to 10 fouls, it's two free throws and the ball back. The winner is the first team to 21 or whoever is leading by the end of 10 minutes.&nbsp;It's a continuous game and always fast paced. The shot clock is just 12 seconds. You have no time to stand around and catch your breath. It's either offence or straight back to defence after the other team clears the ball beyond the 3-point line. After a scored basket, the game keeps going.&nbsp;Spacing is very important. In 3-on-3 basketball, it's much harder to give help side defence. There's very little double-teaming because it's almost impossible to rotate from the top of the key down to the baseline, or vice versa.&nbsp;On offence, you don't want to be on top of your teammate because you're stopping her from getting to the basket, and your defender can guard two players at once. In 5-on-5, you usually have a post player camped out on the block, so you could drive and accidentally collide with them. But if you're spacing out the floor, you're forcing your defender to make a decision on who to cover.

3-on-3 by the numbers

The lightning-fast format returns to Paris this summer. Allisha Gray, guard for the Atlanta Dream and a member of Tokyo's gold medal-winning team, explains the most important details behind 3-on-3 basketball.

Everything you need to know about 3-on-3 basketball

Winner of nine gold medals, American Carl Lewis is one of the world's most decorated athletes. His performances in the 100 metres, 200 metres and long jump are the stuff of individual legend—his leaping dominance stretched from 1984 to 1996. He is also a former world record holder in the 4 x 100 metre relay, his team netting a time of 37.40&nbsp;during the 1992 Barcelona Games.&nbsp;The [sprint] relay is not just about the runners; it's about the baton. When the race starts, the objective is to keep the baton going the same speed once it gets to full speed. That means the incoming runner and the outgoing runner—the one taking the handoff—have to be going the same speed. Great passes come when the receiver of the baton is focused on matching the speed of the runner coming in. The relay is complicated because, obviously, the baton has to get around, but the event is based on that simple philosophy of shared speed. If that's achieved, the team should achieve.

For the individual legs, there are some unique responsibilities. The starter's job is to get the race going and to make up some distance. The key to the exchange is making it later in the [20-metre pass] zone. If you really want to be fast, stretch it out to the incoming guy, who has to run after that guy—because then he's focused on running full speed all the way. And cannot slow down in the zone. The second leg is important because if the pass is smooth, the runner is on the straight. The second and third legs can be the longest, depending on how the pass zone is run, but the second leg isn't on any curves so a good pace can actually create the illusion of making up more distance. The third-leg pass is important because if it's smooth, the team can make up the distance. As such, the second leg is really important: it's that runner's job to put the team out to the lead, and then the third leg must either extend or maintain it. The anchor leg has two jobs: win and, hopefully, set a record. That's it.

The American athletics legend explains why the 4 x 100-metre relay is not about the runners; it's about the baton.

Carl Lewis on the 4 x 100-metre sprint relay

The sounds of an unfamiliar beat shook the cobblestones in the City of Lights. The year was 1984, and the New York-born artist Futura had returned to Paris, painting backdrops alongside artist Dondi White for the Bronx-based Rock Steady Crew during the world's first International hip-hop tour. The group would later travel to France to face off against Paris City Breakers, a new dance crew that looked to measure its talent against New York's best b-boys. The breaking subculture had drifted to Western Europe from New York City in the mid '80s thanks to hit films like Flashdance and Beat Street. The dance style was quickly forming the fourth "pillar" of hip-hop, joining MCing, DJing and graffiti art.&nbsp; Futura—born Leonard Hilton McGurr—&nbsp;was completing a live graffiti installation during that dance battle. The face-off was a transcontinental moment, something he could sense even as a young artist. He remembers how the music and the dance performances were collisions of underground cultures. Geography was channelled through the notes. For the breakers, geography was channelled through the wrists, the fingertips and the ankles.&nbsp; "I've always had a special connection to France because of that tour", says Futura, now 68. "France embraced us and this New York City art form. So, when I found out that breaking was going to debut as an event in Paris 40 years later, everything lined up beautifully".

That battle in Paris, Futura's relationship to breaking and his work with Nike all come full circle in his latest act: designing this year's breaking kits for the United States, Korea and Japan, and helping to introduce the new Nike Jam, the first shoe designed from the ground up for breakers.&nbsp;

Bridging culture and character

In the world of breaking, few artists have been so integrated into the dance style's rise as Futura. He rose to prominence in the '70s as a new wave of underground NYC painters claimed the city. Futura's art stood out among his peers. He introduced a kind of abstraction to graffiti in a time when it was mostly a letter-based discipline. Where he distinguished himself, he says, was how he interpreted those abstractions into characters, most notably the Pointman—almost extra-terrestrial, grounded in poses that demanded to be contemplated. This inspired his contributions to the three Nike federation kits. "Even though the countries have individual competitors, each of the federations seemed to me to belong to the same family. The kits would form one collection with three nations", says Futura. "So how would each federation define a specific creative idea? I decided that each one would have its own character, or mascot". One benefit of using characters as a muse, he says, is how they naturally embody certain traits, attributes and skills in ways that an abstract design might not. Each of the mascots for the kits had to characterise the physical experiencing of breaking. Words like kinetic and fluid came to his mind. Atmospheric, a label that Futura uses to describe his art, naturally applies to the sight of a breaker at work; an airy lightness guides every move they make.&nbsp;

The breaking apparel features many of the atmospheric characters and sketches that distinguish Futura's art.

Futura [seated, in black jacket] checks out the breaking apparel in Blue Ribbon Studios at Nike's World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.

For the apparel, Nike designers took staple Nike Sportswear pieces and made simple adjustments—from providing a second layer inside the shoulder and elbow area of the hoodie for extra protection to adding more fabric to the sleeves and trouser legs for better mobility.

"Atmospheric", a label that Futura uses to describe his art, naturally applies to the sight of a breaker at work; an airy lightness guides every move they make.

Futura reviews an assortment of patches that appear throughout the collection.

Another term central to Futura's process was athletic. Elite breakers show off an athleticism on par with the world's best gymnasts. In reflecting an airy motion among his mascots, Futura pays respect to the incredible physical abilities of the breakers competing in Paris.&nbsp; "Artists in hip-hop have huge respect for what breakers are able to pull off", says Futura. "Breakers are the ones pushing the limits of their bodies. Graffiti artists, DJs, MCs—we're all afforded a longevity in our careers that breakers don't have". A breaker could blow out an ACL, Futura notes, and their career is over—but that doesn't stop breakers from doing what they love. It's also why, he adds, this Nike apparel collection had to serve the needs of breakers. "On the garments, my characters had to symbolise a physicality, the way they're putting their bodies on the line", he says. Nike designers also asked Futura for his detailed feedback on the Nike Jam, a shoe developed with the feedback of hundreds of breakers who visited the LeBron James Innovation Building to embark on cutting-edge testing. The Nike Sport Research Lab supplied the rationale for many of the shoe's technical details, such as which areas of the outsole to reinforce based on how much force breakers put on certain areas of their foot. Futura's contribution was largely in recommending the shoe's material choices—leathers on the panel overlays for a premium feel, suede over the eyestays for durability, chenille hits on the tongue for an unexpected touch of comfort. Breakers couldn't feel like they were performing in an Alphafly, after all. A specific look and feeling had to come together in a delicate balance.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Leaving his mark

Futura has a rich history with Nike collabs. He's been the creative spirit behind some of the most sought-after releases in the Nike SB line, including Dunks and P-Rods (his most recent design, a Dunk Low released in May, is easily a frontrunner for Dunk of the Year). A partnership built on that kind of longevity and mutual trust gives him a sense for when to dial up his creative additions and when to let the ingenuity of the silhouette stand on its own. Innovating isn't always about creating a new shoe, he's quick to say. It can mean imagining fresh material combinations that we've never seen before—just look at the Jam's upper, where performance fabrics like engineered mesh are paired with traditional lifestyle fabrics.He calls out another small detail. On a limited edition of the Jam releasing later this summer, the shoe sports Futura's name on the tongue, in his swooping signature. Seeing his name adorned on a shoe still gives him chills, he says."A lot of artists would say that seeing their own signature is a big source of pride, because it's one of the most original elements of their stories that live on in their work", he says. "It's the same kind of feeling I get whenever I see my name in any public space, whether that's a subway wall, a gallery wall or a product".Not that he could have ever predicted it back in those early-80s days. "If you would've told me as a young kid that this illegal thing I was doing, tagging walls, would eventually lead to something like this, I would've said you were crazy".

The famed graffiti artist led this season's collection, tapping into a special memory from Paris.

Making it

Futura brings street cred to Nike's Breaking Collection

What is Air? You could say it's nothing—invisible, immaterial—but you could also say it's everything. And trust us, you know it when you feel it. Nike first put Air cushioning into a runner's step back in 1978 and never looked back. In fact, we keep pushing it, for elite athletes, everyday runners and everyone in between. Yes, we are totally, one hundred percent obsessed. Air is Nike innovation at its best. But it keeps getting better. So you can keep getting faster. And the women who Win On Air wouldn't have it any other way.

Sha'Carri Richardson

The American 100-metre champion wears the Nike Air Zoom Maxfly 2. Compared with the original Maxfly, the 2024 spike offers a more stable ride with more ground contact, while still giving that pop of energy return only Nike Air can provide. <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-official-images-maxfly2-victory2-gthustle3-2024-mercurial" rel="noopener noreferrer">Check out how it's changing how fast athletes can run</a>.

Salma Paralluelo

The Spanish footballer is pictured with the Nike Mercurial Vapor. The Nike team fine-tuned the Mercurial franchise's Air innovations, leading to the 2024 Mercurial delivering 10% more energy return than the 2022 Mercurial. <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-official-images-maxfly2-victory2-gthustle3-2024-mercurial" rel="noopener noreferrer">Learn more about the updated boot</a>.

Athing Mu

The American 800-metre runner wears the Nike Pegasus 41—a flagship shoe that now has more bounce, more cushion and more energy return. <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-pegasus-41-official-images" rel="noopener noreferrer">Find out what it can do for you</a>.

Beatriz Hatz

The American long-jumper and sprinter wears the Nike Pegasus EasyOn. The shoe is designed for athletes of all abilities, featuring a collapsible heel and toggle lacing system that allows athletes to easily slip in and out of their shoes. <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-pegasus-41-official-images" rel="noopener noreferrer">See more of the Pegasus family silhouettes</a>.

Sifan Hassan

The Dutch marathoner races in the Nike Alphafly 3, the lightest and most tested Alphafly ever. The shoe's new continuous-bottom sole helps provide a smoother heel-to-toe transition, no matter where your foot strikes or what your pace is. <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-alphafly-3-official-images-release-date" rel="noopener noreferrer">Find out more about how it can better your run.</a>

Akouc Chany

The American 800-metre runner wears the Nike Pegasus 41, featuring forefoot and heel units of Nike's proprietary Air cushioning. <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-air-blueprint-pack-official-images" rel="noopener noreferrer">Check out the incredible ways we innovate with Air.</a>

Words and images from the <a href="https://linkin.bio/nikewomen/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nike Women</a> Zine, Volume 1.

The competitive advantage for athletes like Beatriz Hatz, Sifan Hassan and Sha'Carri Richardson? Shoes, boots and spikes with our proprietary cushioning technology.

Women who win on Nike Air

Interview by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lynettesaid/?hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LYNETTE NYLANDER</a>&nbsp;It's funny the assumptions we carry around—about others, about ourselves—often without even realising it. Naomi Osaka is a renegade of the tennis court and four-time major title winner, but admits that she is personally quite reserved (and always has been). Yoon Ahn, a cultural catalyst and Nike Women's Global Curator, classifies herself as an introvert. In other words, the inside isn't always the outside.&nbsp;So what happens when Naomi and Yoon get together? A meeting of the minds, good energy and a conversation that defies all expectations. (Watch out, world!) Lynette Nylander sits down with Naomi and Yoon to talk about what it means for both of them to perform on the biggest stage in the world and the disarming surprise of finding strength in softness.

LYNETTE NYLANDER How did you two first connect?NAOMI OSAKA I always loved streetwear. When I would go to New York, I would always go to the little boutiques. There was a poster for [Yoon's] collaboration with Nike, a fur jacket, but they weren't selling it, so I couldn't buy it! But I did a deep dive into her work and I've been a really big fan ever since then.YOON AHN Thank you. I think for me, it has to be that moment when Naomi won her first major title in New York. That's when I was like, "Oh, wait. She's from Japan!" I was so proud that there was someone coming out of Japan.LYNETTE I don't think anyone could ever forget that moment. It was just so amazing to see two women in such admiration and support of one another. And I think that's the difference in women's sports. Win or lose, everyone's so in support of one another.NAOMI Collaboration is important, because obviously, I'm a tennis player, and I play singles. So most people think I do everything by myself. But I travel with a team. And in a way, I feel like I'm collaborating with them in the sense that I'm the vehicle for all the hard work we do behind the scenes. People can't push boundaries by themselves. You have to work with people to get further.YOON I approach every project as a way to learn something new, to do something I've never done before. Naomi and I kept coming back to our roots. Both of us are from Japan. Things we like about Japan. We found ourselves vibing soft and approachable.

LYNETTE From what I understand about tennis and what you're allowed to wear, it's still pretty traditional. So it must be really exciting that you can now work with designers and bring your heritage and your culture and your style to your work.NAOMI I've always been the kid that's really into fashion. I've always felt like tennis clothes don't have to be so limited. It's a very beautiful sport, and it would be cool to also wear beautiful pieces. New York always feels like a stage to me. Similar to how singers wear costumes. I almost feel like with the bright lights on you, you need to wear a costume and showcase your ability.LYNETTE Is there a different energy?NAOMI Yeah, for me, the energy of New York always feels like showtime. Especially during the night matches. I think people just want to be entertained and they want to see good matches. In most tennis crowds, people are very quiet, but the New York crowd—you can feel the energy bouncing off them. So it's really fun. Last year, obviously, I didn't play, but I got to watch from the stands. And it was actually really fun.LYNETTE I think across disciplines, it feels like women in sport are finally getting the flowers that they deserve. It really shows right now. Why do you feel like culture has finally caught up with women in sports?NAOMI That's a tough question for me, just because I'm so infused with sport. I feel like people have just started paying attention to the WNBA. And I know Sha'Carri is really bringing a lot of attention to running. But I've really grown up watching sports.YOON This progression that the world needs is long overdue, but I'm glad things are changing rapidly. More than half of the world's population are women. Women getting the spotlight, not just in sports, is necessary, as many systems have been built through the male gaze. It's exciting to see more diverse prominent personalities rising in different cultures all across the world.NAOMI With more time, I think bigger and better things will continue to happen.

LYNETTE You both lead incredibly busy lives. Naomi, you just had a baby, and you've got your huge career. And Yoon, you take on multiple projects in addition to Ambush and Nike. How do you stay, like, mentally prepared and engaged all the time? I want to know!NAOMI I'm a very curious person, and that just leads me to so many different things in life. I don't typically think about being busy. I feel like my curiosity is kind of getting me everywhere. My projects are things that I love to learn about. I'm obviously not a master. The only thing that I would say that I'm a master of is tennis.YOON The way I look at it, these opportunities are given to you. It's a chance for me to try something and learn something new, right? I'm not the type of person who likes to do the same thing over again. So when chances come, I just like to dive in. I feel like a kid in a toy shop. Give me all this and I'm gonna play with everything.

LYNETTE I think of you as women who are able to colour outside the lines. How would you encourage someone else to do the same in their creative practice?NAOMI I tend to go back to just being proud of who you are. I grew up being a really shy kid— I am still really shy. So, I never used to voice my opinions or even think I was worthy enough to have an opinion. One day, something clicked where I just figured that I had a voice and I wanted to use it—whether it's using it to say what I like, what I don't like or to stand up for what I think is right. And I feel like that's also part of you being you. Everyone sees things differently.YOON I was much more of an introvert, I guess. I was trying to meet other people's energy. I was just into spending time by myself, learning things. I spent a lot of time in the library escaping mentally, indulging in magazines and wondering what the world was like out there. Because I grew up like that, whatever chances are given to me, I am just excited that I get to explore different things. Life's too short to just sit and ponder. It's better to do it and regret it than not do it and regret it.

The tennis star and iconic designer on pushing boundaries in sport, style and life.

Naomi & Yoon: their game to change

Like training in the gym, eating your greens and unplugging to clear your mind, your style—what you wear and how you wear it—can stoke positive energy, for yourself and everyone around you. It's a daily way to <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/nike-stylist-gabriella-karefa-johnson-on-self-expression" rel="noopener noreferrer">express who you are</a>. That's true whether you're a competitor, a coach or a fan. As fitness athlete Tunde Oyeneyin puts it, "How I choose to dress is how I choose to show up in the world—it can make me feel fierce, like a boss, like I command the room. When my clothes make me feel the way that I want to feel, it's like I'm pushing out the energy that I want to come back to me". Here, seven Nike athletes,&nbsp;captured in Paris ahead of Vogue World,&nbsp;share what their personal style gives them—on the court, on the track, on the pitch and in everyday life.

Feel confident in what you wear, and you bring that energy into every part of your life.

7 Nike athletes on how style fuels them

If you toe the starting line against Jakob Ingebrigtsen, he will beat you. The Norwegian middle-distance runner says it with a casual coolness, and yet his accolades reflect a talent that's dead serious. When he was 16 years old, Jakob became the youngest man in history to run a mile in less than four minutes. Now the 23-year-old is one of the world leaders in both the mile and the 5,000 metres.He attributes his supreme confidence to his insane competitive drive against his two older brothers, who pushed him to become one of running's brightest, most accomplished stars. Here, Jakob talks about competition, goals and the attitude it takes to win.Competition, not sport, was our family's first love. When it came to us finding running, none of our parents did any kind of sport. But because we're a big family, us boys are always finding ways to compete with each other and running was an immediate way to settle the score.Siblings are worthy of both your emulation and envy. When I was young, saying that I wanted to be like my brother was synonymous with saying, "I want to beat them".At the same time, when your family wins, you win. I remember when I saw Henrik crying when Filip won the World Championships in 2017. Henrik told me he had the exact same reaction when I won at the summer games. Weirdly, we feel like we're part of each other's process when we achieve some kind of success.I've brought a professional approach to running since I was 5 years old. I'd have a mental routine going before my races by the time I was in Year 2. My&nbsp; friends were wearing flip-flops. I was wearing a speed suit. The most important thing in my life was to win my races.

Even as a kid, you sense that your country has a national sport. We're not a big running nation. Growing up in Norway, running wasn't cool—I never talked about it at school. That's global football and cross-country skiing. We focused on running as we got older, but we grew up playing everything, especially snow sports. Now, we're breaking barriers for our country. We're the new running nation. &nbsp;The competitive side of running is even more important than the physical aspects. Henrik and I both learnt from our older brother being, ahem, sort of arrogant and, uh, cocky in some ways. He always went into a race thinking he could win, even when he was way slower than the rest of the field. But he inspired the two of us to build our own confidence. If he gets a bronze, I'm naturally going to get silver or gold.Running is a lonely sport, so when you have moments when you're challenging another runner to do something historic, those stick with you. My brothers and I trained with <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-and-eliud-kipchoge-celebrate-20-years" rel="noopener noreferrer">Eliud Kipchoge</a> for <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/inside-look-at-nike-breaking2-project" rel="noopener noreferrer">Breaking2</a>. Seeing the level of athletes who trained alongside him was crazy. At the end of the day, we all have the same goal: to see how fast human beings can go at different distances. We're competing for that honour, but we're also united by that competition.The most important thing that younger runners can do is to set goals for themselves. For me, it was to beat my brothers, and by doing that, I became one of the best runners in the world. &nbsp;Doing what everyone else is doing is boring. By running in Norway, I was the weird kid. Now I'm winning medals. &nbsp;

For the world-champion middle-distance runner, winning is a family business.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen on beating his brothers—and everybody else

Boxer Cindy Ngamba remembers the first time she sparred against a training partner at her home boxing club in the English town of Bolton. She was 18 years old. Her competitor, a towering male boxer, wound back and hit Cindy with a fierce backhand, sending her to the floor. She bounced back up and brought her fists to her face. "Good shot", she said through her mouth guard. The gym's coach, Dave Langone, watched from outside the ring. "This girl is crazy", he muttered to himself.&nbsp;Six years later, Cindy is already a three-time UK national champion in three different weight classes. She is also one of 33 competitors on the <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/championing-all-athletes-nike-teams-with-olympic-refuge-foundation" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="ql-size-small">Olympic Refugee Team</a>, a group of athletes from across the world who will compete in Paris without an official host country. Cindy was born in Cameroon, later moving to the UK at age 11 in search of a brighter future. No setback will deny Cindy her place in the ring—because the sport means so much more to her than championship titles. Here, Cindy speaks to her fierce determination, worldwide community and unwavering confidence as she prepares for Paris.I'm representing the millions of refugees in the world who are one big family. My main sense of identity is found in the refugee team. The 33 of us athletes who will compete in Paris need to go in and fight for our place, just like we've always done.&nbsp;Combat sports have very unique qualities compared with other sports. One way boxing is different is how you need to get used to moving your own body while countering the movement of the competitor in front of you. You have to get used to the momentum of your body against theirs. That's why sparring is one of the most important training tools you can use as a boxer.&nbsp;Sometimes the best coaches are the ones who can change their minds. My current coach, Dave Langone, is the same person who coached me at the beginning of my career. Originally, he didn't believe in female boxing. Now, having watched me achieve so much success in my career, he doesn't just believe in female boxing. He knows he's coaching the best female in the world.&nbsp;Momentary setbacks can be your advantage. Being the only female in my gym is something I've always been used to. When I first started boxing in Bolton, the coaches told me that all I could do was skip and shadow box off to the side of the ring; they didn't think I could handle true sparring. I did that for almost three years. Once I proved myself, I was part of the community. In fact, I felt like being around men made me stronger mentally and physically.&nbsp;Boxing is an individual sport, but it's built around community. You meet new people all around the world, international competitors from different countries, and you become family. You learn about other traditions, other cultures, other languages.

As an athlete, you need to have habits that bring you back down to reality. One of my rituals during competition is to wear two different coloured socks. People have an issue with wearing odd things. I started wearing two different socks just to annoy people, to have some fun [big laugh]. But as I kept doing it, I realised I'm the type of person who likes to wear what I wear and I don't care what other people think. Now, I consider my socks my good-luck charm.&nbsp;Winning is the result of making small adjustments. Last year at the European Games in Poland, I finished in second place. I was proud of how I competed, but not just because I medalled. I realised midway through one of my matches that I was over-thinking my technique, I wasn't letting my body flow or relax. Winning in that moment meant letting my body take over. I understood a small mentality adjustment I needed to make to succeed.Victory is the prize for all of your hard work. It's the prize after crossing many, many barriers and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.I want the next generation to know that listening is a big key to your success. Listen to your coaches when they say something, and don't act like you know it all. Even the best in the world don't know it all.&nbsp;

The three-time UK national champion and Olympic Refugee competitor is battling for a cause bigger than herself.  