When the most decorated 100-meter 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 honor 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 colors of her nation’s flag for her final finish —&nbsp;gold-hued 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-meter 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-meters 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 track and field’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 the now 276 incredible races and finish line moments, thank you, Shelly-Ann.Below, go behind the scenes of the G.O.A.T.’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 in-house photographer to 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 sports 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 ability to work in high pressure environments for athletes.

Sofieke van Bilsen

Photo Essay

Icon Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Ran Her Final 100 Meter 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 &amp; CEO Mark Parker to debut his Nike Zoom LeBron V "China" colorway.

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’ 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, emphasizing 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 grueling, 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 kilometers, with elevation gains of 1,200 to nearly 10,000 meters — the grit, determination, joy and freedom trail running gives you is worth every ounce of work. See for yourself.

<h3>ROSS GOLLAN</h3>Race: ETC; 15km with 1,200m elevation gain Global finish rank: 29th

<h3>MARIE NIVET</h3>Race: Experience Trail Courmayeur (ETC); 15km with 1,200m elevation gain Global women’s finish rank: 7th

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

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

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

<h3>DREW HOLMEN</h3>Race: CCC; 101km 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

NExt volume

On courts, trails and pitches across the world, you can feel the electric energy of women’s sports, in a way that’s crescendoing like never before. This summer, one of the most palpable expressions of that energy was the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON), where 12 teams from across the continent competed for the crown of Africa’s best footballers.Radiating from the pitch to the stands to the streets surrounding the stadium and throughout Morocco, where this year’s WAFCON was held, the intensity of football fandom was charged — pure love for the game, and the ways it has woven into the local culture and identity, strengthening bonds across generations and backgrounds.That communal experience is captured below in “Voices of the Medina,” a project from Nike partner <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://footballcasestudy.com/" target="_blank">Football Case Study</a>, a nonprofit editorial and photographic platform. Via intimate portraits in images and videos — and as Moroccan life breathes in the background — individuals open up about culture, identity and inherited love for the game and nation. “The goal of the project is to bring the viewer along with us on these late nights and early mornings where we really got to know the community that housed us,” says Matthew David Stith, Football Case Study founder, about the series. “The experience showed us how, despite speaking different languages, football can act as our mother tongue.”Here, you’ll see and hear honest, heartfelt accounts and reactions from players, fans and football insiders that show what the sport means to the community and nation — and how its energy is sure to only grow.

"Everyone who's passionate about football deserves a shot at going pro"

"They did an incredible job and Morocco went crazy"

"We organize tournaments to play with different neighborhoods"

"I need to support my girls"

"We're happy to be footballers and football lovers"

"Morocco has taken the WAFCON to a completely different level"

Thanks to the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://footballcasestudy.com/home" target="_blank">Football Case Study</a> team: Matthew David Stith, Jinane Ennasri, Fay Harvey, Andrea Vílchez

Proof that football is a communal experience: these gripping images and videos from the 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

WAFCON Shows How Football Can Change a Nation

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 Global Running 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-collegiate level and building what became the Northeast’s most successful high school cross-country program. 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=PAdGRleAS8sKxwZG9mAmV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDzEyNDAyNDU3NDI4NzQxNAABp23OaaCx00NqpSE4294E1HzGDZG4Vcf0Mi5xT0GO6m1eiPpAO8w8HgIVcvCN_aem_MgddCEZLLg7pnZx8cJXz5Q" target="">This Is About Running. This Is Not About Running,</a> a motivational guide that will be released this fall and is available for preorder. It’s a title that, if you know anything about Coach B, tells you everything. Bennett’s not stopping there. Beginning July 7, 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 track and field 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-collegiate 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 high 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 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 Okay 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 realize 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 farther 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 —&nbsp;if you’re a runner, whether a new runner or 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 graduate the eighth grade, 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="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=PAdGRleAS8sKxwZG9mAmV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDzEyNDAyNDU3NDI4NzQxNAABp23OaaCx00NqpSE4294E1HzGDZG4Vcf0Mi5xT0GO6m1eiPpAO8w8HgIVcvCN_aem_MgddCEZLLg7pnZx8cJXz5Q" target="_blank">Pre-order copy a copy of Coach B's book in the USA</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, NZ and Europe</a> </li></ul>

Whether you're a first-time runner or practically 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 high 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 senior year of high school 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 sport 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 prioritization, and license to dream came through in short order. Last September, the Innovation team organized 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> — organizing 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 scrutinize 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 90,000-square-foot space tucked inside the campus’s Mia Hamm Building is an imagination machine for sneaker creation. Amidst heaps of colorful 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 —&nbsp;it’s our test kitchen,” explains McCartney, emphasizing 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 and 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 lineup didn’t start this way, he adds. Winnowing down the most innovative products to these three constructs took months of killing good ideas in favor 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 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 high school after 16 to start earning money. College was something that other people did, and opportunities elsewhere, like the U.S., 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 prioritizing, walking away from an okay 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&nbsp;— his 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 — a 1,500-meter 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 backward and forward); 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 Global 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 offsite to discuss footwear as he 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 global 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 toward 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 5 am 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 the 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 and assertive and ready to go, despite waking up well before sunrise. She says the energy and passion it takes to do that day over day, week over 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 sport 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,” she says. “The energy of that immediate response from people who love Nike is what inspires me.” 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 &amp; 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 marketshare. 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 “athlete” — 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 by sport, allowing teams to go deep on what those specific athletes need. This right-hand leader would need a not only a mind for end-to-end strategy, a commitment to innovation, and an adroitness for emotional storytelling, but also the 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?’” says Hill, 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 achieved only 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 meet Williams in his office as he is to meet her in hers. It’s a small gesture with a big ripple effect. Not only does it show respect for his time, says Williams, but it’s also 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 compartmentalize things to be able to move through adversity,” says Janet Hayes, her former coworker, longtime friend and current CEO of Crate &amp; 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,” says Hayes.&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 proselytizer, 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&nbsp;— these 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; to be your true, authentic self; and to support people to be theirs,” she says.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 organization, because it shows people they can be themselves.”

Amy Montagne and Caitlin Clark Talk Sports

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 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 does fit, color 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.”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,” says Montagne.

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 cycling class — but her tenacity and drive 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; though 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. Though that hasn’t always come easily; 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 champion women is well-represented in her office, on the fifth floor of the Sebastian Coe Building, where an oversize 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 global 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 tenant 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 fifth 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 program, tossing a playful hair flip toward 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 U.S. woman in nearly a quarter 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 U.S. 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, whether that’s on her own social media feed or headlining in this spring’s nationwide Stars on Ice tour. 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, journaling and identifying where that feeling is originating from really helps. Sometimes when you narrow it down, you realize it’s coming from one specific person, or maybe no one at all.

Alysa Liu x Nike Interview Video

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 programs, my music, the dress, the hair, the makeup.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 programs, 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 favorite part about being an athlete. I really romanticize 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 favorite 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, Ore. — 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 high school in Switzerland, he enrolled at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. 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 U.S., 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 <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-and-dropcity-preview-air-lab-an-innovative-space-for-creatives-in-milan-s-center" target="_blank">Milan Design Week</a>, 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 romanticized. 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 — color, 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 jersey 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"&nbsp;— born to play football — on the inside of the jersey. 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 a fall 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 plows 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 mold — 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 skeptical at first of the long-sleeve jersey 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 emphasized the uniqueness of working on design at a company like Nike: the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/what-is-nike-air-liquid-max" target="_blank">cutting-edge technology</a>, like the nascent ability to create prototypes from 3D printers or virtual mockups; 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 jerseys</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.

Who Serena's Looking for In a Doubles Partner

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 gotten 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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Anyone who has witnessed Sha’Carri Richardson run her signature 100 meter knows that there is nothing more mesmerizing than watching her blast off from the starting line, a cascade of hair floating in the wind behind her. Piercing the air with urgency, defying physics and odds with a velocity that can only be described as supernatural, there is no stopping her. And yet, it’s just as inspiring to see Sha’Carri anchored with a newly discovered and powerful inner peace. Indeed, Sha’Carri’s focus is both on that finish line and within. It is, she says, the only path forward.&nbsp;Here, the track star talks to <a href="https://www.marjoncarlos.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Marjon Carlos</a> about how breathing helps her block out the noise, the value of letting go, and the legacy she wishes to leave.

MARJON CARLOS It’s so inspiring to hear you talking about focus and creating inner peace. I’m really curious about how you found and maintain it.&nbsp;SHA'CARRI RICHARDSON A lot of people don’t realize inner peace is something that you have to literally create for yourself. It’s easy to have something, but it’s not easy to keep it. My inner peace comes down to keeping what matters to me my focus — meaning my team, my career, my family, my faith. I purposely submerged myself into those different categories of my life. That way, l’m able to generate that peace, knowing those areas of my life are okay, they’re taken care of.&nbsp;It may sound very random, but another thing that helped me is my breathing. When I control my breathing, I’m able to slow down my thoughts, and by being able to slow down my thoughts, I’m able to properly choose what I want to say. So I intentionally say things that I want to say rather than just reacting from what I feel.MARJON Do you incorporate that breath work into your training as well?&nbsp;SHA’CARRI Oh, absolutely. Honestly, I incorporate breathing work into every aspect of my life, but especially on the track. That’s probably one of the biggest and one of the only things I can do that can actually calm my nerves, especially in that moment [before a race], in those buildups of knowing what’s to come. It’s taking a moment and catching myself [to] just slow it down. It is almost ironic for me to say “slow down” because I would never. But honestly, taking a moment to actually know, “Okay, you can sit down, you can slow it down, you can breathe, you can let it go. You can take it in, but you got to let it go. No matter what you take in, you have to let it go.”MARJON How has your inner work helped your performance on the track?&nbsp;SHA’CARRI Once I step on the track, it’s literally another level of intuition. It’s another level of commitment to that inner peace. Because once in that moment, there’s literally nobody else. Yes, there’s so many other women on the track, there’s people in the stands. But in all honesty, it’s nothing but you and your star player. If your star player inside is all jumbled around and not focusing when you are on that [starting] line, you have already lost the race. At this [point], there ain’t no other drill I can do, there’s nothing more I can say or tell myself.&nbsp;So right now I just have to be with myself. What helps me with my inner peace when I’m on that line is actually knowing and telling myself that I’m my biggest fan. I’m my biggest fan, I’m my biggest critic. I’m prepared to criticize myself, I’m prepared to congratulate myself, I’m prepared to uplift myself.&nbsp;At the same time, I’m prepared to hold myself to a different level of accountability on that line before l take off.&nbsp;MARJON How do you block out the noise and the distractions? Is there a place that you go to physically, like a retreat or a city that just helps you really focus when you’re training, or is it a mental place?&nbsp;SHA’CARRI Oh Lord, I wish I had that opportunity during training to go fly off. But no, honestly, I feel like when it comes to being an athlete, it takes a different level of discipline and commitment and sacrifice.&nbsp;When I start training in November and I say I want to do this by the end of the year, I have to make that choice from then up until that moment to do what I’ve actually committed to. I like to talk to my family.&nbsp;I talk to my team just as much and the people that I know that make me feel comfortable. I like being in my house. I like to come outside and sit by my pool.&nbsp;I like to be able to put my feet in the ground and by water. I like to take hot baths. I definitely enjoy water though. That’s very calming for me.&nbsp;

MARJON I loved seeing you literally giving your grandmother her flowers after your latest win. That was really a touching moment. I was looking at your Instagram post where the caption read, “Keep the main thing the main thing.” I was curious what that meant for you.&nbsp;SHA’CARRI That came from being around like-minded people that I know have the same journey as me and them reminding me to stay focused on what has gotten me here. Staying focused on what you need to take care of: your family, your mother, your cousins. That’s where that comes from: listening to the ones around me that see the potential in me that I’m still learning to see for myself.&nbsp;MARJON What advice would you give to other young Black women who are also seeking inner peace?&nbsp;SHA’CARRI It starts with a level of more acceptance of myself — meaning all of myself, not just the parts that I can tolerate. I would say a lot of people forget that in healing, you have to be able to take a certain level of accountability and self-reflection as well when you know you want to go forward. Because if you can’t let go, you can't go forward.&nbsp;MARJON I love that.&nbsp;SHA’CARRI I’ll say that!&nbsp;MARJON You have incredible motivating mantras. “I just want the world to know that I’m that girl,” went viral, and then, “I'm not back, I’m better,” and now,&nbsp;“If you can't let go, you can’t go forward.” Are these conversations going in your mind when you’re preparing for a race?&nbsp;SHA'CARRI Oh, absolutely. Especially in those moments where you have been imagining and working and saying you’re prepared, but you’re never really prepared until it’s right there in your face. I almost have to remind myself, “Hey, you are that girl. You have done this before!” As well as, “I’m not back, I’m better.” Meaning, yes, I may have been younger, immature, but I feel like I’m now better. My talent has always been what it was, if not better.&nbsp;I’m still the same girl, but l’m a better woman. “I’m not back, l’m better” just sinks into my head on race day.&nbsp;In order to go forward, you got to let go. In that moment I’m about to get down on the line or [l’m] warming up, I have to let go. I have to let go of that last race, even if it [was] a good last race. What I did a month ago is not going to contribute to what I get done in the next half hour. I was listening to GloRilla this past weekend [at the Prefontaine Classic], and there’s a lyric where she was saying, “Stop overthinking.” And that lyric right there in that moment resonated.&nbsp;

MARJON When you’re competing and you’re training for this summer and you’re competing at such a high level, what do you sacrifice? What do you say no to? What do you say yes to?&nbsp;SHA’CARRI I sacrifice time with my family so l can train, travel, and ultimately to just go off to this summer and have a great season. I feel like I spend a lot of time away from them. I will also say I sacrifice making certain choices, even diet-wise, not eating certain things that I necessarily would give myself a little bit more of if I was in my off season. I don’t go out a lot to put myself in the best position to align with my ultimate goals at the end of the summer. I still have a good time. I just don’t do too much. I keep it at a minimum because it’s nothing to celebrate right now. Not yet. Not quite.&nbsp;MARJON Obviously you have a huge summer ahead of you, but you also have a huge career ahead of you.&nbsp;What, for you, does your legacy look like?&nbsp;SHA’CARRI I would say my legacy looks like showing people that no matter what happens, it’s a matter of what you decide you want to happen. No matter what happens in life, you have to be able to get up and dust yourself off. I’m not even just saying it in a negative way. More so, no matter what is going on, you have to be able to stay level with yourself. Don’t get too high, don’t get too low.&nbsp;When they see me, they know that I was a human first rather than an athlete. You’re able to take something from my journey to be able to enlighten and help your journey. I ultimately want people to take that away from my legacy.&nbsp;MARJON You’re also competing during a really interesting time within women’s sports. There’s so much attention being given to you all. How does it feel to be performing and existing at this time?&nbsp;SHA’CARRI I’m honored to see that women [athletes] are getting the recognition. Not even comparing it to men, because the men are phenomenal athletes. They deserve the attention that they get. But now women are getting that same level of attention throughout the world, not [just] amongst [other] athletes.&nbsp;The world is wanting to get to know us more. I am glad and I feel more appreciated being a part of this era.&nbsp;We’re also showing more personality now. We’re also saying we’re really women. When we step on the court, when we’re on the track, when we’re in&nbsp;the field, no matter what event we’re doing, we’re going to still bring that same level of competition, skill and discipline into whatever we’re doing.&nbsp;But also at the same time, being able to show, “Hey, we live lives too!”MARJON It’s very exciting to see you broaden your work beyond just the track. How do you define success beyond winning a medal?&nbsp;SHA’CARRI I’m glad that you asked me that question, because I feel like&nbsp;my answer is “never.” Success would never be to win a medal. I define success as being able to accomplish everything that I’ve been working on.&nbsp;No matter how small it may be. It may be that l’ve been trying to plant this plant for a month now and I finally get around to it. That’s a win for me. If I’m just applying myself to what I said that I want, I feel like it’s a win. Putting myself into something and actually getting out of it the work I put into it, I feel like it’s a win for me.&nbsp;MARJON Last question: I am curious about how you put your looks together for the meets? We are all anticipating your speed, but also your looks and your style.&nbsp;SHA’CARRI Any of my styles, they’re very spontaneous and they go highly based off my emotions and around the timing of what I’m preparing to do. You guys find out only a couple hours after I do!&nbsp;

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

The champion sprinter’s thoughts on finding inner peace, the value of letting go, and the legacy she wants to leave.

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 forward.

Brand of Athletes

Sha’Carri Richardson’s Incredible Journey

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 meters.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 on 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 sports. 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 Olympics. 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 the first grade.&nbsp;My 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. Me and Henrik both learned 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 honor, 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

For designer and Converse CONS skateboarder Alexis Sablone, where you ride is just as important as how you ride it.&nbsp;Skateboarding is built on encountering public spaces and seeing what others do not. A statue ledge becomes the perfect place to try a nose slide. A bottomless staircase is the platform to huck yourself down and land a legendary aerial. In skate, public sites and visual sight go hand in hand.&nbsp;This summer in Paris, skate will be in the world’s eye; it’s maybe the most public sporting event that exists. So when Alexis was asked to design the crests for this year’s skate federation kits, she wanted to create designs that finely illustrated the relationship between skaters and the places where they ride.&nbsp;

Last year, Alexis got the call from Nike SB designers to design three crests for the national federation kits: one for the United States, one for Japan, and an agnostic kit that wasn’t affiliated with any country. Her background as a multidisciplinary artist made her uniquely qualified for the job. Her experience as a competitor in Tokyo four years ago reminded her of an innate trait that carries into her professional life: competitiveness. Knowing skaters would wear the crests proudly on their chests in Paris, she set a personal standard of perfection for the designs.&nbsp;“I’m a very driven, goal-oriented person,” says Alexis. “Not because I want to be. I think I’m just built that way. In Tokyo, I skated the best I could — performed even better than I thought I would, but in hindsight, it’s still hard to not see all the ways you might’ve done better. For better or for worse, I approach design projects in much the same way. I set impossible standards and iterate endlessly until I arrive at something that feels right.”&nbsp;

Looking Back to Move Forward

To begin the designs, Alexis started with narrative. She reflected on skateboarding’s proud roots in the United States dating back to the 1950s, when California surfers created a way to carve on land when the waves were flat. For a skate crest, then, patriotism had to be fun. Serious history couldn’t be too serious. She decided to make bald eagles the muse for the American kits — and she had them jamming on a saxophone. The playful choice nodded to the improvisational nature of skate.&nbsp;

The crest on the USA skateboarding federation kit celebrates the freeform experimentation and improvisation that continue shaping skate culture today.

Drawing on Alexis’ design background, the collections feature three key pieces tied to today’s international culture of skate: a bowler shirt, Parisian-inspired chore coat and relaxed-fit denim pant.

“I wanted to create enough range that there might be a style for every skater, from louder and more graphic-heavy pieces to more subtle and subdued, but still with some character,” says Alexis.

A look at the range of USA apparel in this year’s collection.

For Alexis, the crests differed from her other skate-industry projects, like creating graphics on apparel, giving art direction for shoots and designing skateable sculptures. Place and pride had to share the stage. The crests needed to speak to an entire country as much as they did to a single individual.&nbsp;“I wanted to create enough range that there might be a style for every skater, from louder and more graphic-heavy pieces to more subtle and subdued, but still with some character,” she says.&nbsp;The agnostic kit gave Alexis the opportunity to explore another skate narrative: the sport’s growing community. The design features a pair of chameleons connected by a wavy illustration of the globe, surrounded by four unique species of orchids, one of the most diverse and unpredictable plants on the planet.&nbsp;“My reasoning for chameleons was simple,” says Alexis. “Skateboarding is a diverse and growing community, and skaters can look any number ways. Beyond that, the act of skateboarding is about constantly seeking out interesting conditions in the urban environment and finding ways to creatively interact and adapt.”&nbsp;

Mirroring the Community

The diversity that the agnostic crest represents is a big change from the skating world in which Alexis grew up. She describes skating as a 9-year-old in the small town of Old Saybrook, Conn., as a mostly solo pursuit. Finding a local skate community as a new rider was hard. (“Finding other female riders was almost impossible,” she adds). Now, almost three decades into her skate career, she’s seen the community embrace riders from all backgrounds, all experience levels and all communities, whether they were connected by a zip code or a screen. Consider that the fastest-growing demographic of new skaters by a landslide is young women. Finding a skate community has never been easier. More riders from all walks of life are gathering at the skate park, the local skate shop or the city plaza.&nbsp;

“My reasoning for chameleons was simple,” says Alexis. “Skateboarding is a diverse and growing community, and skaters can look any number ways.”

Alexis chose to feature chameleons in a crest designed for skaters across the globe.

The federation-agnostic collection includes an assortment of tees, polos, hoodies, overalls and more.

Alexis views her love for architecture as a natural connection to her intrinsic sense of place as a skater and as a designer for the federation crests. She obtained her master’s degree in architecture from MIT in 2016 without the intention of designing for the skate industry, she says. It took her awhile to put together that skaters have an inherent interest in public spaces — the accessible cityscapes that many would never think twice about. The alleyway, the eerie courtyard, the stairs with steps that are uncomfortably spaced apart. This fascination with the accessibility of skateable places is what motivated her to design skateable sculptures in cities.&nbsp;“The beauty of skateboarding is that it offers a new way to see and explore the city,” says Alexis. “One way to activate and enliven cities is to make them more skate-friendly through legalization and a more open-minded attitude toward allowing skaters in existing spaces, as well as through the design of new skateable public art and architecture.”&nbsp;

That reasoning is partly why, for Alexis, the federation crests represent more than a patch on a jersey. They express whole communities that will descend in one geographical spot this summer — the famous Place de la Concorde, in the heart of Paris — to put on a show for everyone watching.&nbsp;“Skate culture has developed around a genuine obsession with seeking out and interacting with the spaces in the city. From that simple practice, a growing, resilient community has flourished. With everything I design, I reach for similar qualities: genuine and resilient. Simple, honest designs that will hold up over time. My process is guided more by intuition than formula. I want people to see these designs in Paris and feel like they could have existed 15 years ago or 15 years from now.”&nbsp;

For designer and Converse CONS skateboarder Alexis Sablone, where you ride is just as important as how you ride it.

On the track, court, pitch, street and beyond, Nike serves the world’s best with unparalleled product innovation, leveraging its proprietary Nike Air, the power of new digital tools, and the incomparable data collected in its Nike Sport Research Lab.

Innovating For Athletes

Making It

Anything But Uniform: Behind the Design of This Year’s Skate Federation Kits

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 mouthguard. 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 36 competitors on the <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/championing-all-athletes-nike-teams-with-olympic-refuge-foundation" rel="noopener noreferrer">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 36 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 to 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 jump rope 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 colored 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 realized 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 medaled. I realized midway through one of my matches that I was overthinking 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.  

Boxer Cindy Ngamba is Ready to Fight to the Finish

Growing up in Southern Kenya, Mary Ngugi’s earliest memories of her mother were of her daily trips to the local river to gather water for her Kikuyu community, located outside Nairobi. The middle distance champion remembers how rigidly defined her mother’s life was, limited primarily to domestic duties. As Ngugi grew older, she worried that her own path to adulthood would be limited to the societal roles of wife and motherhood. So at 17 years old, when her running coach asked her if she wanted to join his local team, she immediately said yes.Mary quickly became one of Kenya’s most promising distance runners, winning the African national junior championships in 2007 at 5,000 meters. And yet, in the midst of her success, she witnessed the still narrow options given to female runners, a reality that stems from the male-dominated training camp and track club experience.&nbsp; “What looks like a good path for promising female runners can be a traumatizing experience, especially for younger girls,” says Mary.&nbsp;“They’re manipulated into making concessions — schooling, permanent housing, and motherhood, among others —&nbsp;for the sake of their athletic careers.”In response, Mary was inspired to create Nala Track Club, a female-only organization founded in 2022 and based in Nyahururu City. Mary wanted to help provide young Kenyan women an opportunity for success in semiprofessional running through a supportive, safe training camp experience.

Restoring Dignity

Nala Track Club aims to serve the complete person, not just the athlete, Mary says, adding that the roots of inequality among female and male athletes are viewing people as a fulfilment of skills that will benefit the party in power.&nbsp; “Athletes are not simply the sum of their performances. Our runners need to know that we care for them as human beings,” Mary says. “They matter as human beings far before they join our team, far before they compete in a race. If we only serve their athletic careers, we’re missing the most important parts of their dignity as individuals, which has nothing to do with their success in sport.”Mary wanted to flip the script. Nala Track Club needed to offer services that unequivocally took care of the most basic human needs, like food, shelter and education. No trade-offs, no concessions. With a holistic treatment of athletes, though, comes real financial costs, many of which are easy to miss, says Ngugi. Take an athlete traveling home for Christmas — they need transportation. Who helps pay the cost? Or what about an unexpected hospital visit? These less obvious costs are joined by others that go into providing for basic human needs, such as food, shelter and education. Providing a comprehensive athlete training camp experience adds up.

Nike is committed to serving the next generation of female runners, of all abilities and backgrounds. With that aim in mind, the company is partnering with Nala Track Club, a female-only club in Kenya founded by Nike athlete Mary Ngugi.

Located in Nyahururu City and founded in 2022, the organization seeks to create pathways for young women to succeed in running at the semiprofessional level by providing a holistic, supportive, and safe training camp experience.

“Female runners in Kenya don’t enjoy the widespread freedoms that men have,” says Ngugi. “Promising female runners often need to make incredible sacrifices if they want to run at a high level, like foregoing schooling altogether. I created Nala Track Club to fight against the inequality I see around me.”

In addition to coaching development, Nike’s support will also help fund new in-residence scholarship opportunities at Nala Track Club for promising Kenyan female runners.

Partnering Together

Nike representatives approached Mary last year about the possibility of <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-nala-track-club-partnership" rel="noopener noreferrer">partnering with Nala Track Club</a> to help with some of the program’s most critical overhead costs. Other money would go toward two key goals that align with Mary’s hopes for the future of Kenya’s female runners: Developing more qualified female coaches in Kenya, and helping fund more in-residence scholarship opportunities for runners. These areas of investment connect back to Mary’s beliefs about representation. You can’t be what you can’t see. If more young girls see a path for becoming a coach, embodied in an figure from their real life, they’re more likely to pursue the career. Witnessing these alternate paths can open up a world of options for young girls.&nbsp;Mary scrutinized other details of the modern training camp experience. She wanted girls to see themselves reflected in the many occupations that the adults in the camp held, even if those jobs weren’t directly tied to athletics. Chris Cooper, a European photographer and Mary's husband. He remembers a conversation she had with Mary about bringing in more female photographers to chronicle the camp experience.&nbsp;“Mary insisted on that from the early days,” says Cooper. “We asked ourselves, ‘What impression is this giving if the girls only see a white male from Europe taking our photos? Let’s train more female photographers in houses so that these girls can picture themselves being photographers too.” The same approach held true for occupations like physical therapists, or physios. Rather than enlisting male physios to join the camp, Mary and her staff sought out female physios for young girls to see themselves in careers outside the world of pro athletes.&nbsp; Reflecting on the impact of Nike’s partnership, Mary calls the relationship “life-changing.” “The cost of running the camp is very demanding,” says Ngugi. “I’m entrusted to feed these girls, to give them a place to live. Nike stepping in to help changed everything. We’re able to absorb those costs, and we’re also able to take in more girls to our camp, in addition to expanding the program’s impact by training coaches. Their help was everything we needed.”

A Different Kind of Victory

What else can female runners expect from the camp? A fully-funded education, including courses on the business of sport, English lessons twice a week, on-site medical visits and more. Mary wants to give other girls the freedom to see life as more than a binary decision — go to this camp or become a mother; run professionally or receive schooling. For Nala Track Club to be successful, the measurement shouldn’t be the number of runners who qualify to compete at the international level. No record broken will justify its existence.&nbsp;

“Winning is more than crossing the finish line in first place,” Mary says. “Many people have won at the top levels of their sport, and they’ve been forgotten. What makes people remember you is when you touch their lives. Nala Track Club will win if it changes lives. That’s what we’re working to do.”

The decorated distance runner saw a brighter future for the country's budding female runners. Alongside Nike, she's blazing a new trail for them.

Mary Ngugi is Transforming the Women’s Running Camp Experience in Kenya

In April 2020, at 8pm on most weeknights, Fanny Ho sat at a desk in her guest room toggling between her laptop, her sewing machine, and the prototype of the nursing sports bra she was stitching together and testing on herself. The world had plunged into an anxious paralysis, but she and her Nike teammates were charging ahead on an urgent need: <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-s-new-wearable-pump-compatible-sports-bra-and-easyon-shoe-give-mothers-more-support" rel="noopener noreferrer">Give mothers the ultimate support system</a>. Specifically, create a sports bra that would allow them to do the movement they wanted while accommodating a wearable breast pump, all without compromising performance or comfort.“When you’re going through something like Covid, you pivot to what you believe will make the most impact,” says Ho, Senior Manager in Design Innovation. Like so many people, Ho was getting through the pandemic by trading parenting shifts with her husband; she'd work for a couple of hours, switch into mom mode, go back to work, then hop back online after dinner and bedtime. “Dividing my day like that, I found myself asking, what project can I tackle that could help support people like me?”Ho knew from personal experience that, for active mothers who breastfed and pumped and wanted a sports bra that could accommodate both, the market had little to offer. What’s more, motherhood can often force a significant drop-off in sport, and pumping can create a huge challenge; mothers often have to sit still for hours a day. While the maternity space is saturated with nursing bras, Ho and the Nike team found that the few performance nursing bras out there were either too stretchy and didn’t offer support or were too structured and couldn’t accommodate the volume of a hands-free breast pump or the hourly fluctuations of a nursing mother’s breasts. “We spoke to countless women who said they were always having to compromise between comfort and support, and nothing out there could give them both,” she says.Faced with a clear gap and need, Ho did what passionate women, passionate mothers and passionate Nike employees do — move as quickly as possible toward a solution.

Innovation Against the Odds

Aside from the world shutting down, Ho faced another major challenge — she’d never designed a bra before.“I’ve been a footwear designer for 17 years, and this was uncharted territory for me. I had to find my fellow Nike passion partners in the apparel space, and there was a lot of learning on the go,” she says. “But that also made it exciting and invigorating. Being that consumer myself, I had intuition on what we needed to do.”When Ho had her son seven years ago, she breastfed and pumped for 15 months and says she experienced firsthand that being attached to a wall “literally sucks.” After she came back from maternity leave, she pivoted all of her work to focus on women’s innovation, and the <a href="https://www.nike.com/t/m-swoosh-womens-nursing-and-wearable-pump-compatible-sports-bra-maternity-7437l9/FN2936-010" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nike (M) Swoosh bra</a> was born.Ho and her project team talked to both elite athletes and everyday moms about the features they wanted in a performance nursing bra. “I think a really powerful insight was realizing that both have the same needs. Elite athletes are not immune to the challenges of balancing motherhood and sport.”One of those challenges: Wearing a traditional nursing bra compromises a mother's ability to move, especially if she’s pumping, and the force of movement and the weight of a wearable pump can be too much for a typical bra’s nursing clips. “If she’s doing a lunge, that little piece of plastic on the strap is going to snap,” says Ho. The team knew right away that they had to reimagine the nursing bra’s hardware design, and they collaborated with Nike engineering partners to create something better.The Nike (M) Swoosh bra’s patented hardware — the two pieces that attach together on the bra strap — is specifically engineered to support the weight of wearable breast pumps plus the forces of any movement. The hardware unclips for quick access to nursing, and the webbing strap on the front of the bra can be pulled to easily adjust the volume of the cups. If you want to loosen the straps, you simply lift the base of the hardware, similar to loosening the shoulder straps of a backpack. This plus the bra’s adjustable back strap to accommodate an expanding rib cage ensures the piece fits throughout pregnancy and beyond.

The Nike (M) Swoosh bra’s proprietary hardware helps ensure the clips stand up to lunges and burpees while pumping, along with offering easy access for nursing and adjustability for up to two full cup sizes.

How the Nike (M) Swoosh Bra Works

While the maternity space is saturated with sports bras, Fanny Ho, Senior Manager in Design Innovation, and the Nike team found that the few performance nursing bras out there were either too stretchy and didn’t offer support or were too structured and couldn’t accommodate the volume of a hands-free breast pump or the hourly fluctuations of a nursing mother’s breasts. “We spoke to countless women who said they were always having to compromise between comfort and support, and nothing out there could give them both,” she says.

The Bra's Wearable Pump Compatibility

“In every pitch meeting I was in, if there were women or mothers in the room, you’d see them nodding their heads,” says Ho. “I have to thank so many women in the company who raised their hand and said, ‘How can I help?‘”

The Nike (M) Swoosh Bra

A mesh back helps keep moms cool during movement, while an adjustable back strap accommodates an expanding rib cage.

This innovative, entrepreneurial spirit wasn’t unique to Ho and the team. In parallel, Nike’s footwear innovation team was tackling its own project to better support moms: the <a href="https://www.nike.com/t/reina-easyon-womens-shoes-sGlHgb" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nike Reina EasyOn</a>. This first-of-its-kind pregnancy and postpartum shoe can be slipped on hands-free and has a proprietary adjustable sock liner that creates more room in the forefoot for swelling feet. Like the (M) Swoosh bra, the Nike Reina was a passion project for Nike employees.“I’ve been a PLM for more than 10 years, and this is the most meaningful project I’ve ever been a part of because it’s so personal,” says Brenden McAleese, Expert Product Line Manager, Global Footwear. “We started it literally the day after I got back from paternity leave with my daughter. My wife wear-tested the prototypes throughout the entirety of her second pregnancy, and it was great to get that real-time feedback and recognize how impactful the shoe was to the closest person in my life — and how that could transcend to any mother on that journey.” McAleese adds that now, with a 1-year-old and 2-and-a-half-year-old, his wife still wears the Nike Reina. “I got a text from her a couple of days ago saying, ‘These shoes are a game changer,’ simply because she can slip her shoes on while carrying a kid in one arm and getting the other kid out the door.”

26.2 Miles of Validation

To validate that the Nike (M) Swoosh bra gave moms all the benefits they needed, Ho and her team brought both elite and everyday athletes into the Nike Sport Research Lab — the epicenter of scientific research at the brand — to put the prototype through its paces. Its biggest challenge, however, was nearly 3,000 miles away on the streets of New York City.There, in the 2021 New York City Marathon, Nike seeded an everyday runner and mother with a prototype of the Nike (M) Swoosh bra, which she used to pump with during the run (three times!). “We wanted her to push the limits of our prototype and prove it was for performance, not just the ability to change a diaper and pump,” says Ho. “Our mission was to support her to do the impossible and inspire other mothers to continue to chase their dreams.”

Going Beyond a Bra

For Nike, creating products like the Nike (M) Swoosh bra, the Nike Reina EasyOn and the <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/the-nike-swoosh-1-is-designed-to-help-our-littlest-athletes-nurture-their-first-steps" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nike Swoosh 1</a>, the brand’s most innovative early walking shoe (which Ho also helped design), is about offering a holistic system of support for parents. That support starts at home, with Nike employees.To make it easier for new mothers to return to the workforce and sport,&nbsp;the&nbsp;Nike&nbsp;innovation&nbsp;and employee&nbsp;benefits teams partnered to include more wearable pumps to choose from in the company’s benefits package. And starting next month, Nike will double its parental leave benefit for all United States–based employees — offering 16 weeks of paid leave for all full- and part-time employees, from corporate to retail, to bond with their new child after birth, adoption or foster placement.

Ho wishes she’d had this kind of support when she was pregnant. And it was that feeling that drove her and an enterprise-wide group of tenacious Nike teams to bring the Nike (M) Swoosh Bra to market as quickly as possible. “I have never worked harder on a project,” she says. “We just knew, from all the women that we talked to — they needed this yesterday.”The result is more than a next-level performance nursing bra, Ho adds. It’s the feeling of empowerment.“With this bra, we want to empower women to say, ‘Here I am — I’m pumping, I’m moving, I’m proud to be a mom, I’m proud to be an athlete, and I can be both at the same time.’”

Mothers deserve apparel that works as hard as they do. Enter the Nike (M) Swoosh bra.

Explore Nike, Converse and Jordan footwear and apparel design stories featuring Nike Air Force 1, Nike Air Jordan, Nike Air Max and more.

Design

“We Knew Women Needed This Bra Yesterday”

Chloe Covell knows exactly where she was when she became obsessed with skateboarding. She was six years old and watching a televised skate competition with her dad at home in New South Wales, Australia.&nbsp;On the screen flashed Nike SB team rider Nyjah Huston, who hucked himself down a set of stairs&nbsp;and stuck the landing. Instead of being terrified by the move, she was mesmerized by it. She needed to experience the adrenaline rush herself.Now, at 14, Chloe has the opportunity to medal for her home country this summer, just eight years after she picked up a board for the first time. She’s also the face of the Nike SB Day One, the first Nike skate shoe made from the ground up specifically for kids. It’s the kind of shoe Chloe wishes she had when she was starting out. Here, we hear from the phenom on what she’d tell her 6-year-old self and what she wants kids everywhere to know about picking up a board. Growing up around a place with good skate culture is huge.&nbsp;Tweed Heads [a coastal town in New South Wales] has a lot of local parks that are good for skaters who are just starting out. We have two skate parks around my house: Tugun and Pizzey, which is a comp-standard park. I started skating those parks all the time, and seeing people doing hard tricks made me want to get better and better. When you want to take a break, you can go skimboarding, swimming, surfing — pretty much anything outside. I’ve grown up doing it all.The skate community is really supportive.&nbsp;So many people have helped me become the skater I am today. My mum and dad are the most important people for me, and my sister always encourages me and congratulates me. I'm gonna throw Geoff Campbell [Nike SB Australia Team Manager] in there because he’s helped me heaps. Other skaters in my home crew: Tommy Fynn, Eli and Beau Waterson, Yo Wuoti and Jaxon Passey. They’re all ripping skaters who make me wanna skate hard. Momiji Nishiya and Rayssa Leal are my two favorite skaters, but they’re also my friends. They both have really cool styles and do really good tricks. I look up to them a ton.I like having a day of the week where I don’t skate.&nbsp;I skate every day except on Friday, when I’ll fish. Just fishing and chilling out. It helps me relax, and this way I don’t burn out or anything.Coaches don’t necessarily need a ton of experience to be helpful. They just need to show up and be consistent.&nbsp;I love having my dad as a coach because he pushes me to the right level and knows what I can do. He’s really helped me progress. Even though he doesn’t come from skateboarding, he’s aware of it and takes the time to understand the sport and culture. When we go filming, he understands my abilities, and when we’re at comps, we work well together.Never stop trying to stick a new trick.&nbsp;Frontside feebles [a move that’s somewhere between a 50-50 and a board slide] took me a really long time to learn. I’d try them out, but I wouldn’t lean back, so I’d just get bodied all the time. I kept practicing, and I realized that I had to really lean back and push out my board. Now, it’s my go-to trick.&nbsp;I like to keep the things I wear simple.&nbsp;I need a fresh T-shirt, pants and I’m fine. Dunks always look good with the ’fit.&nbsp;Plus, I’m really liking the new Day Ones too. They’re one of the comfiest shoes I've ever worn, and they look cool.I define winning a little differently than most. Whoever has made it to the comp wins because you made it that far. You put in the work to get there, so everyone’s winning. Sometimes it’s just luck though, right? Everyone’s working hard, but sometimes you’re more consistent and things come together on the day.When I prepare for a comp, I always start with the basics.&nbsp;Before I drop in, I always take a deep breath to help me focus on what I’m doing and get in the moment.﻿

Learn what winning means to the face of the Nike SB Day One, a new silhouette designed specifically for young skateboarders.

Chloe Covell's Star is Rising

On the second floor of the LeBron James Innovation building in Beaverton, Ore., Nike designers huddle around a table studying a 3D-printed shoe prototype for Victor Wembanyama’s size 21 foot.

The shoe looks as mind-bending as the 7’4” forward himself. Its upper is embedded with a tight, brain-like geometric pattern, inspired by the bismuth crystal Wembanyama wore around his neck on draft night last summer when he was picked No. 1 in the league. Across the lateral midfoot and down the outsole run a fissure-shaped Nike Air unit never before used in a basketball shoe, like a crack in a comet that fell to Earth. Here, the Air unit is being used not only for cushioning underfoot, but also to forgivingly contain Wembanyama’s feet for sharp movements side to side during gameplay. Much like its athlete, every feature of the prototype is subversive. Nothing quite like it has ever been made. But it still needs refining — and fast.&nbsp;Members of the team share detailed feedback with each other on the giant prototype, which is cast in a Sail color and is punctuated by hits of quintessential Nike Total Orange for the Air unit. The designers want to accent the unit with a darker gradient to highlight the jewel-like textures inside the orange. Someone notices that the pattern’s tread depth is slightly too shallow for this prototype, and the drop shadow over the texture doesn’t catch the light.&nbsp;“Can we print out a new version of this Air unit?” one of the designers asks. “And can we deepen this tread?” A project manager jots down notes before rushing across the hall to the Concept Creation Center to program the changes into a large 3D printer. The chatter from 12 other shoe design review sessions hums in the giant room behind him. Surrounding the room are 13 giant mood boards, each one devoted to a different athlete’s prototype, with digital renderings and sketches and material samples practically spilling over the 8-foot tall boards.

The design studio in the LeBron James Innovation Building has been the incubator for A.I.R. — Athlete Imagined Revolution — a new co-creation process between teams of Nike designers and innovators and 13 of the brand’s elite athletes, from Wembanyama to Sha’Carri Richardson to Kylian Mbappé. A.I.R. brings together some of the world’s best athletes and Nike innovators and the most cutting-edge technologies, amplified by AI, to co-create the future of Air.Perhaps no project in Nike’s history has united so many next-gen disciplines to create a new working process among designers, athletes and technology.&nbsp;Using Nike Air as the canvas was the perfect choice. The beauty of Air is that it will never reach its final form. It represents constant reinvention and never-ending progress. And with the advent of expanding technologies, some of Air’s wildest ideas are no longer fantasy. As the world prepares for Paris, the moment was right for Nike to envision a new frontier of Air, partnering with athletes to let their imaginations run wild.“For these prototypes to be successful, they must stir emotions,” says John Hoke, Nike, Chief Innovation Officer. “They must evoke a sense of awe for what lies just beyond the horizon, an optimism for the future. What I really hope this project stirs up is a sense of unlimited potential. Nike Air is a nearly 50-year-young technology. We’re only at the cusp of harnessing Air’s potential, its full expression. And these footwear prototypes show we’re nowhere near done.”The A.I.R. design techniques used in this building — known as the epicenter for advanced creation at Nike’s World Headquarters —stretch the furthest ends of computational power, the sharpest edges of manufacturing capabilities, and the most inspired touch of human craft. The prototypes showcase the imaginative possibilities for Nike Air but are grounded in a specific reality — the world in which the athlete performs and competes.A.I.R. is creating a new definition for craftsmanship at Nike: combine the expertise of top creative talent and the most cutting-edge design tools to serve athletes at a specificity never achieved before.

Phase 1: Inform and Inspire

To kick off, Nike innovators organized into design teams for the 13 Nike athletes across four sports: track, global football, basketball and tennis. As with anything at Nike, the first move was to listen to the voice of the athlete. The teams approached their athletes with a searching list of questions&nbsp;for their ideal footwear designs. Did they want something conservative or wild? A holistic design or something defined by an individual component? Something monolithic or fractal? Other questions tapped into the athletes’ backgrounds. What people, places or things inspired them? How could the shoe practically embody the athlete? Their personality, their playing style, their physical presence. Everything. Nothing was off limits in these listening sessions.That embodiment means tapping into the “athlete’s truth,” says Roger Chen, Nike VP, NXT, Digital Product Creation — an almost cellular understanding of the design that helps an athlete think, feel and perform at their best. Chen says the phrase served as the cornerstone for the entire design process. When a sprinter lines up for the 100-meter and she feels a soul-deep confidence that every element, including her spikes, has prepared her to win — that’s&nbsp;the athlete's truth, he says. And it’s a data point that can’t be quantified and requires extreme trust from both sides.“Getting to an athlete’s truth requires authentic relationships,” says Chen. “You need to know who you’re serving. At Nike, everything hinges on how well we know our athletes.”Once designers compiled the athletes' answers, they entered them iteratively through detailed AI command prompts to refine their ideas. After the command prompts ran their course, the output was overwhelming: hundreds of examples of AI-created visuals for each athlete, all created in an instant, to give Nike designers plenty of inspiration points for what would become the 13 final prototypes.&nbsp;For Chen and his team, AI-generated outputs became tools to help deepen relationships with athletes in a faster, more specific way.“AI exponentially increases our creative process,” says Chen. “Creating these starting points used to take us months to do. Now, we can create them in seconds. We liken AI to a sharper, more intelligent pencil. The designer is still in control. It’s what you do with the pencil that creates the magic. We gave these generative programs entire worlds to reflect back to us, and they did that. But that doesn’t happen without the thorough listening sessions our teams conducted with our athletes.”

An early concept for basketball player A'ja Wilson. The AI outputs featured above were inspired by Wilson's goals in helping ignite her team, leading to special interpretations of light, flow and rhythm.

A'ja Wilson

What could happen if Nike tapped cutting-edge design tools and a team of its top creative talent with 13 of the world's greatest athletes? Where would their imaginations take them? 
Welcome to A.I.R., Athlete Imagined Revolution.

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