Broadening Our Suppliers
Suppliers with different perspectives, background and experiences are essential to fulfilling our mission.
Our approach to business growth is fueled by the belief that diversity—in all its forms—fosters creativity and accelerates innovation. To consistently deliver the quality and performance athletes* expect, we continue to build a roster of suppliers who can actively support our business requirements and deliver fresh innovation to athletes* around the world.
To date, NIKE, Inc. works with 120+ diverse suppliers throughout the U.S. and EMEA and has spent $1.4 billion with diverse suppliers. These significant gains are a testament to effective foundational practices including integration into procurement sourcing policy, KPI reporting and benchmarking, category strategy integration, training and geographic expansion into EMEA.
The BDI Academy was established to build a pipeline for qualified, diverse suppliers, drive innovation and creativity and enhance NIKE’s ability to foster community and economic development. This development program focuses on helping suppliers understand NIKE's culture, communication norms and procurement practices so they are better equipped to grow their businesses to meet the complex and evolving needs of NIKE stakeholders.
By FY24, the North America cohort had grown to more than 60 diverse-owned businesses and the program had expanded to EMEA. The inaugural EMEA cohort was made up of 12 diverse-owned marketing agencies in Paris that are ethnic minority and immigrant-owned, women-owned and disabled-owned. This cohort worked with the NIKE Paris Marketing team ahead of the summer games in France, covering event planning and communications.
A diverse-owned business is one that must be a majority (at least 51%) owned, operated, managed and controlled by a diverse person or persons. The definition of diversity is different around the world, and as a result, we adhere to the local legal and cultural framework within the geographies that we serve.
- Woman: NIKE recognizes women-owned businesses globally, in partnership with WeConnect International and WBENC.
- Minority: In the U.S.: someone who is at least 25% Asian, Black, Hispanic or Native American. Globally, NIKE recognizes ethnic minorities as defined through NMSDC’s affiliate organizations.
- Disability: NIKE recognizes disability-owned businesses globally, in partnership with Disability:In.
- LGBTQIA+: NIKE recognizes LGBTQIA+-owned businesses in the U.S. and in select other countries, in partnership with NGLCC. In FY24, we also joined the European LGBTIQ Chamber of Commerce which advocates for LGBTIQ businesses in select countries in Europe.
- Veteran: NIKE recognizes veteran-owned businesses in the U.S. and Canada, in partnership with NVBDC.
NIKE also partners with local diversity accreditation councils and chambers of commerce to help expand the reach of our supplier network. For more information, please see our Business Diversity & Inclusion FAQs and BDI Supplier Portal.