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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Nike exists to champion athletes and sport. And we believe women and girls aren’t just the future of sport — they’re on the leading edge of change. This belief has lead us to designing products that are increasingly inclusive and consider body, mind and life. Explore four prime examples — and the Nike innovators behind them — below.

We're Embracing Holistic FitnessWomen are redefining what sport is and the opportunity it represents — and we want to help accelerate the change that they want to see. That’s why we're making a purposeful shift from pure sport to holistic fitness and wellness. Here’s a look at what that means.

Movement, Mindfulness, Nutrition, Rest and Connection

We're Creating Products for Your PeriodMenstruation. Period. Leaks. We’re comfortable saying the words, and our designers have obsessed how to help address the common problem — bleed-through — that periods can bring. Leak Protection: Period, our Nike innovation, can help people feel safer, more confident, and better able to focus on the movement they love.

FYI, This Short Is "Awesome"

We're Inviting More People to Run, Walk or BothWe’ve designed a shoe for all: Nike Motiva. Women-led insights have helped us innovate and create a shoe that can make movement feel easier and more fun and leave people wanting to come back for more.

A Shoe That Gets You Moving

We've Leveled Up Women's Football BootsDesign a football cleat with her and for her, and the result is far more than a better women’s boot — it’s the catalyst to bring more girls and women into the game and help them fall in love with the sport. Meet the Phantom Luna.

A Good Home for Your Foot

Fifty years of listening to athletes, alongside our culture of innovation, has lead us to create products and services that are increasingly inclusive and consider body, mind and life.

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

Design

All Movement, All Moments: Our Next Era of Designing for Women

Menstruation. Period. Leaks. We’re comfortable saying the words, and our teams have obsessed how to help address the common problem — bleed-through — that periods can bring. Here, Lisa Gibson, Senior Project Manager in Apparel Innovation, describes helping to create the Leak Protection: Period short.

The project originated when our teams learned that by age 14, girls are dropping out of sport at twice the rate of boys. By age 17, a time in which most people have gone through puberty, 51 percent will have dropped out of sport. And one of the critical components of that is menstruation. We wanted to create a product that would help give people peace of mind and confidence to play their sport, do their movement.We didn’t want to just call it “the period short.” We wanted to have a cool internal code name. Someone suggested TMI. And we were like, no, that’s not sitting right. It’s not “too much information” — it’s FYI, "for your information." And that code name truly embodied our mission of creating a future where menstruation is celebrated and not shamed.Fear of bleed-through is real. It’s not just through the teen years. It is through the entire adventure with menstruation, which can be a 40-year journey. I still have fear of bleed-through here at work. Hopefully we can be the catalyst for change that even if you do bleed through, there is no embarrassment. And in the meantime, until we get to that future state of normalizing menstruation and bleed-through, we have created a product that people will love and that will give them assurance and confidence.

There was a lady that had been collecting her menstrual fluid and she had written “shameless” on her leg with it — I found that picture when we were kicking off the project and I was just trying to pull together images for a deck. That resonated so strongly with me because I truly believe that we should feel no shame — no shame if we bleed through, no shame for menstruating. And that’s what I hope the younger generations take from this, and hopefully the older generations as well, that we can talk more openly about bleeding. I hope we can help be a catalyst for that, get to a world where menstruation is celebrated like motherhood is.We tested with synthetic blood. Because we couldn’t just test with water. We needed to make sure that the fluid we were testing with was representative of menstrual fluid and the viscosity was correct — it played a crucial role in understanding how the material was performing and making sure that there was no bleed-through. We spent so much time ensuring we had the right liquid for testing. We had to dial that in perfectly.We’re always trying to learn about athlete pain points, struggles in daily life and how we can make a product that will meaningfully change people’s lives, whether it is people who bleed, whether it is people who need more support with chest tissue when running or playing basketball or whatever it is. We always come back to, what is the athlete telling us? Whatever we’re testing and validating, we’re always gut-checking ourselves against, is this making a meaningful difference to those people? That’s what we do. That’s what’s most important in innovation. It’s what’s most important at Nike. And that is literally what puts a smile on my face before I go to bed at night, knowing that we can truly impact people’s lives in this incredibly positive way.

Nike Senior Project Manager in Apparel Innovation, Lisa Gibson, on helping to create the Leak Protection: Period short.

Sport Science

Making It

“This Is a Product That Can Change People’s Lives”

Fans of the Swoosh know the brand can design a covetable shoe. What takes that feat to the next level: designing one that’s built to swagger and perform — then be taken apart and recycled.That was the remit for the Nike&nbsp;ISPA team. ISPA (Improvise, Scavenge, Protect, Adapt) is a Nike design philosophy that challenges creators to experiment, break molds and reimagine products. In this case, it helps move Nike closer to its circular vision — a closed-loop system that yields no waste — to help protect the planet and the future of sport.Recently, the ISPA team debuted two head-turning new footwear models that show the brand’s innovative capabilities and foretell its future&nbsp;in circular design. <h3>The Intent</h3>For more than 30 years, Nike teams have pursued design solutions in service of the athlete and the planet. They’ve unlocked new, lower-impact materials (see:&nbsp;Nike Grind,&nbsp;Nike Air) and created pinnacle performance footwear and iconic lifestyle silhouettes leveraging recycled content (see:&nbsp;Alphafly Next Nature, the&nbsp;2022 Move to Zero collections). As the climate crisis has intensified for athletes&nbsp;around the world, Nike teams have shifted into a higher gear, embracing circular design principles as creative&nbsp;accelerants. Those include the 10 principles outlined in the Nike&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nikecirculardesign.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Circular Design Guide</a>, an open-source workbook to share learnings and insights with the larger design community and anyone interested in how design can help lessen impact on the planet.Here, the&nbsp;ISPA&nbsp;team considered the circular design principle of “disassembly,” or&nbsp;the ability to easily take a product apart to recycle its contents, one of the more challenging principles to implement in footwear design. A good shoe is flexible and durable. Traditionally, designers use glue and other bonding elements to achieve these aims, but that makes a shoe nearly impossible to disassemble and recycle. Recycling shoes usually requires shredding, an energy-intensive process that limits how the recycled materials can be used. Creating a shoe that can be taken apart would reduce the carbon footprint of the product and open up new possibilities for its life cycle. <h3>The Innovations</h3>The ISPA team tackled the disassembly challenge. “Designed in partnership with engineering, digital product creation and development, these shoes are completely informed by method of make — it really is a case of form following function,” says Darryl Matthews, VP, Catalyst Footwear Product Design. “Our hope is that these ideas and aesthetics become normalized,&nbsp;accelerating&nbsp;our ability to imagine how shoes will continue to evolve in the future.”

<h3>The Nike ISPA Link</h3>This futuristic silhouette features three interlocking modules connected without glue that can be taken apart and dropped off at Nike stores offering the Recycling &amp; Donation service.

The midsole is made up of pegs that fit into openings engineered into the upper. This makes for an exceptional fit that is comfortable, is stable and breathes well, according to the 40 athletes&nbsp;who logged some 200 hours in the prototype.

From a manufacturing standpoint, the Link is revolutionary in its simplicity. A pair of Links take about eight minutes to assemble — a fraction of the average time needed for a traditional sneaker — thanks to a custom-made manufacturing jig and the fact that the shoe doesn’t require the time-intensive gluing process to construct its midsole. Finally, the assembly of the shoe is done without the need for conventional energy-intensive processes like cooling, heating and conveyer belt systems.

<h3>The ISPA Link Axis</h3>Make the bold bolder. That’s the vibe of the <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-debuts-the-ispa-link-axis-an-exploration-into-circular-design" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link Axis</a>, which builds on and advances the Link’s sustainable intent. The Link Axis has a 100 percent recycled polyester Flyknit upper that’s precisely engineered to fit over the outsole (compared to the traditional cut-and-sew method used for the Link), and its 100 percent recycled TPU tooling was achieved by using scrap airbag material.

The Link Axis is the new pinnacle for disassembly and embodies the circular design principles of material choice, waste avoidance and refurbishment.

The shoe also has a 20 percent recycled TPU cage. Because recycling changes some material properties, the cage is an exercise in balancing the desire to use recycled content with the need for durability and traction. The ISPA team continues to explore new developments in this space.

Nike has explored disassembly and interlocking modular designs before, in the 2003 Presto Clip...

2003

...and the 2005 Zvezdochka, created in collaboration with industrial designer Marc Newson. These early iterations paved the way for the ISPA Link and ISPA Link Axis.

2005

Past Inspiration

<h3>What's Next</h3>For mold-breaking models like the Link and Link Axis to have full impact, the innovation must be scaled. That action is underway. A holistic look at Nike&nbsp;product lines and supply chains are already determining where new approaches can be implemented to reach a wider audience and to move closer to <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/impact" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nike's sustainability goals for 2025</a> and beyond.True scale also requires robust cross-industry collaboration to create the business models and infrastructure that make it possible to recycle products. To that end, Nike is building partnerships to grow its recycling capabilities, and it’s investing in product take-back consumer programs across the world that will help grow its ability to repurpose end-of-life products.As essential: By embracing radical new aesthetics like the Link and Link Axis, Nike is signaling the importance of circular systems for fighting climate change and inviting consumers and the design community to engage in a conversation about it.To that end, Nike was proud to participate in&nbsp;“<a href="https://www.design-museum.de/en/exhibitions/detailpages/plastic.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Plastic: Remaking Our World</a>,” an exhibition at Germany’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.design-museum.de/en/information.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Vitra Design Museum</a>, one of the world’s leading design institutions. The exhibit highlighted the exploration of design and evolutionary journey behind the ISPA Link Axis, and was a unique window into the brand’s approach to innovative design with sustainable intent.With the Link and Link Axis, Nike is further accelerating its move toward a circular, zero-carbon and zero-waste future. As Nike Chief Innovation Officer John Hoke puts it, “We have a responsibility to consider the complete design solution: how we source, make, use, return and ultimately reimagine product. The goal is to make matter&nbsp;matter&nbsp;more.”

The ISPA Link and ISPA Link Axis, examples of design for disassembly, are innovative catalysts that move the brand closer to a circular future.

Innovation

Why We're Making Shoes You Can Take Apart

Why Nike Is Making Shoes You Can Take Apart

By <a href="https://www.adamfbradley.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="ql-size-small">Adam Bradley</a>What does 50 years of Nike sound like? Footfalls on polyurethane tracks. The echoed pop of optic yellow balls against nylon strings. The squeak of rubber soles on polished courts. Above all, though, Nike sounds like its athletes. In the early years, you could pick out each voice: Steve Prefontaine, Joan Benoit Samuelson, George “The Iceman” Gervin. As the decades went by, the voices grew louder, more varied: John McEnroe, Bo Jackson, Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Then Tiger, Serena, LeBron. Ronaldo, Mbappe, Naomi. With each passing decade, the chorus builds until their voices harmonize, united and distinct.&nbsp;Nike listens. As John Slusher, the company’s Executive Vice President for Global Sports Marketing, says, “Listening to the voice of the athlete is so crucial to us.” Slusher and his team spend a great deal of time responding to — even anticipating — athletes’ needs. A rising WNBA star like Sabrina Ionescu might require different things than an 18-year veteran like Diana Taurasi. Maybe it’s business mentoring or a visit to the Sports Research Lab for a custom shoe fitting. Most any athlete will appreciate a therapeutic massage, but for a 10,000-meter runner like Shalane Flanagan, a mid-heat massage could mean that one-second difference between qualifying for the final or going home.

Yes, Nike listens. And with listening comes learning: how to enhance performance, how to build a better business, how to respond to what the moment demands. With learning comes growth: improving not only products but also practices, supporting athletes as they take stands for social justice, centering the voices of women in sports and in business.&nbsp;With growth comes commitment, born of deep investment into the people and the principles that define the company. And with that commitment comes a familial bond between Nike and its athletes. Slusher often stresses himself out while watching major sporting events. Why? “If it’s two Nike teams or Nike athletes on opposing sides,” he says, “I practically have to look away. Nike in general, and our teams — we love our athletes, we love our sports.”Over the years, Nike’s athletes have reciprocated that commitment. After a birthday celebration that stretched well into the next morning, the New York Yankees’ legend Derek Jeter showed up for an event with key Nike retailers because he knew it mattered to the company. Then there was Kobe Bryant, whom Slusher recalls having attended 92 Nike events in a single calendar year when he was obligated to attend only eight.&nbsp;Perhaps this is what people have in mind when they talk about the Nike Family. Perhaps it’s why major sporting events often take on the spirit of a family reunion, with elders welcoming younger athletes into the fold. During a long weekend in February, for instance, some of Nike’s football legends took time to record welcome messages for the brand’s newest endorsement partners, young athletes, some just out of college, for whom a personal message from football legends Barry Sanders or Jerry Rice must seem like a dream. At Nike, such dreams are often the beginning of others.&nbsp;“We view our athletes as part of the Nike family, and we want to help them succeed,” says Slusher. It’s a common metaphor in business, often invoked but rarely achieved. Corporate cultures are quick to embrace the warm and fuzzy feelings of togetherness while skipping over the responsibilities that being in a family requires. But as Barry Sanders explains, “Nike has figured something out. They don’t just support athletes in their respective sports, they support them whatever their interests are off the field. They have established great partnerships and relationships with athletes.” Jerry Rice picks up the thread. Yes, Nike champions you as an athlete, he explains, but really, it’s a matter of reciprocity: “When everything’s working the way that it should, and you know that they’ve got your back and you’ve got their back,” says Rice, “it’s just a perfect relationship.”Alex Morgan’s own Nike journey exemplifies the spirit of family in Sanders’ and Rice’s words. When Morgan was 7 years old, she and two neighborhood friends founded their own Nike club. They met in the backyard of the Morgan family home in Diamond Bar, California, in a white shed adorned with Swooshes the girls had scrawled on the walls by hand. “We tried our best to draw the perfect Nike logo,” Morgan recalls. “From then on, I was a huge fan of Nike.” Following a standout collegiate soccer career, Morgan turned pro and soon joined the Nike family. “It was a dream come true to sign my first endorsement deal with Nike,” she says, which she did in 2011. “And we’ve been on this long, amazing journey since.” That journey has taken Morgan to two World Cup victories, an Olympic gold medal and a legendary club career.But her fondest memory as a Nike athlete came off the pitch. In 2019, Morgan stepped away from competition while pregnant with her first child. In a fortuitous bit of timing, that same year Nike launched its maternity collection. “I got one of the very first prototypes,” she says. Wearing her new Nike gear, she could stay active and comfortable in clothes that made her feel confident and strong. “Just to feel supported — not only on the field but as a mom-to-be — that felt really good,” she recalls. Now, she and her toddler son sport matching Jordans. The Nike family grows.

In a rare interview, given to the Harvard Business Review back in 1992, Nike’s founder, Phil Knight, now 86, explained what the company looks for in its partners. “The trick is to get athletes who not only can win but can stir up emotion,” he said. Look across the decades, and you’ll see that Nike has consistently achieved just that. From Andre Agassi to Charles Barkley, Emma Raducanu to Ja Morant. Once they’ve found those athletes, Nike looks to grow with them. “We take the time to understand our athletes, and we have to build long-term relationships with them,” explained Knight. “Those relationships go beyond any financial transactions. John McEnroe and Joan Benoit wear our shoes every day, but it’s not the contract. We like them, and they like us. We win their hearts as well as their feet.”Winning hearts and feet is a good summation of the Nike ethos. It’s been true from the beginning, when the spirit of Nike was no more than a coach and an athlete: Knight and his University of Oregon coach Bill Bowerman. Though much has evolved about the company — and the landscape of sports — over half a century, that much has stayed the same. “For all the changes,” says Slusher, “we also started with the best athletes with the best stories wearing the best product and winning. It was in the trunk of Phil’s car: Get the guy who’s gonna win the marathon to wear your shoes. And in some ways, it’s the same thing today. Of course, it’s a lot broader and more complex, but we’re still partnering with those great athletes and helping them to achieve their best.”And the company memorializes those close relationships to athletes on its sprawling Beaverton, Oregon, campus by naming its buildings after its greatest stars. “The buildings are named after the men and women who have given us more than their names and endorsements,” explained Knight in his 2016 memoir, Shoe Dog. “Joan Benoit Samuelson, Ken Griffey Jr., Mia Hamm, Tiger Woods, Dan Fouts, Jerry Rice, Steve Prefontaine — they’ve given us our identity.”“Naming buildings after athletes — that’s an incredible thing,” says John McEnroe, who has his own building on campus and is Nike’s longest-tenured athlete partner at 44 years and counting, having won seven grand slam titles over the course of his career. The tennis champ’s longstanding relationship with Nike is a testament to a defining difference in how the company thinks about its endorsers. Perhaps not even Knight knows the exact number of athletes that have been part of Nike’s journey over these 50 years. At any given time, the company maintains close to 16,000 relationships with athletes and organizations across the globe. Forbes recently reported that of the top 100 highest earning athletes, more than half were part of the Nike family. Nike is a brand of champions.

You could write the history of Nike’s first 50 years through its heritage of champions, individuals whose commitment to excellence has helped them achieve the highest recognition in their sport. LeBron James and Serena Williams, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Naomi Osaka, Rafa Nadal and Sam Kerr, and so many more. Here, “champion” is a noun, a word that memorializes past performance. As a company, Nike embraces the verb, dedicating itself to actively supporting the cause of its athletes. In his letter commemorating Nike’s golden anniversary, Knight put words to this belief: “From Day One,” he wrote, “everything we did — and still do — is to unleash the potential of every athlete around the world.”How do you champion a champion? Ask three-time Super Bowl champ Jerry Rice and he’ll tell you. It starts, he says, with the best — and the best-looking — equipment. “It’s all the swag! Having that Nike Swoosh on there,” he says, while wearing a Nike T-shirt, Swoosh across the chest. “I remember having to tape my shoes a certain way to make sure that logo stood out. Just to have that logo on there, I knew I was gonna do something special on that day.”When asked what they’d preserve for a time capsule commemorating Nike’s 50th, several athletes mention the iconic late ’80s, early ’90s advertising campaigns starring Michael Jordan, and more specifically, the 1989 Spike Lee-directed ad starring Lee as Mars Blackmon, with its indelible refrain, “It’s gotta be the shoes!”The phrase still resonates. On a recent visit to the Nike campus, the reigning NBA champion Giannis Antetokounmpo was asked what he thinks about when he thinks about Nike. His response was immediate. “Shoes. And, specifically, free shoes! The ones I get at my house,” he said, flashing a mischievous grin familiar to those who know the playful personality of one of the most competitive athletes on the face of the earth. Just as quick, he shifts to a tone of sincerity and thoughtfulness. What does Nike bring to mind? “The culture they’ve built over the years,” he says. “When I think about Nike, I think about the athletes that have been a part of Nike’s journey.”

Barry Sanders played a big part in Nike’s journey, and Nike played a big part in his. Throughout his career, Sanders was generous with his teammates, gifting his linemen Rolex watches and big-screen TVs, but frugal when it came to himself. Off the field, you’d likely find him head to toe in Nike-issued gear. Why pay for clothes when Nike gave them to you for free? And besides, wearing the Swoosh was a source of pride. “It was a seal of approval,” says Sanders today, thinking back on his decision to sign with Nike. “I’m one of those guys.”Historically, a lot of those “guys” have been women, and Nike continues to build on its commitment to women’s sports and to enhance its focus on women consumers. “With Nike, it’s been great to be able to brainstorm together and be in meeting rooms with people who actually do have a future plan,” says Alex Morgan. “It’s great to hear the athlete’s perspective and where the athlete feels their contributions can be the most authentic.” Earlier this year, Nike formalized that informal practice of consulting athletes when it inaugurated its Athlete Think Tank, aimed at investing in the future of women’s sport. Among its 13 founding members is Serena Williams, who brings her vision and advocacy to this vital work. “I think Nike has probably learned a lot from working with me and my team,” says Williams. “I think I have helped teach them how to be nimbler and more spontaneous.” Of course, she’s learned from Nike too: how to chart long-term goals, how to plan for success. Paula Badosa, the 26-year-old Spanish tennis star, is half as old as Nike, but she understands this ethos. “Our dreams as athletes become their dreams,” she says.&nbsp;The athlete’s voice resounds.

The voice itself is an athlete. We hear its sound because of the conscious and unconscious coordination of lungs and abdominal muscles, vocal folds and larynx, tongue and teeth. It should come as no surprise, then, that people who have dedicated their lives to training their bodies to achieve peak performance would have strong voices too. A’ja Wilson, a collegiate champion, WNBA MVP and three-time All Star, all before the age of 26, understands her greatest role as being “a voice for the voiceless,” she says. In the months after the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman from Louisville, Kentucky, who was killed during a no-knock raid on her apartment, Wilson used the platform she earned through her athletic achievement to speak out. Addressing the media on September 24, 2020, before her Las Vegas Aces faced off in game three of their semifinal series against the Connecticut Sun, a day after learning that none of the officers involved in Taylor’s death would face charges, Wilson raised her voice in the spirit of her convictions. “Black Lives Matter isn’t this big thing that’s taking money,” she said. “It is a statement. It is a life that I live. I am a Black woman. You take everything that I have earned away from me, and I am a Black woman.”Wilson knows that Nike supports her and her freedom of self-expression. More than that, she understands that Nike gives her a means of amplifying her voice so that it reaches farther, resonates deeper. “Nike does an amazing job of helping us tell our stories the way that we want them to be told,” she says. “Just be you and they will make it work. I appreciate that, and I’m sure other athletes do as well.”

Nike believes that everyone is an athlete.* That’s not empty rhetoric, but a guiding reality. It speaks both to the company’s grand commercial ambitions, of course, but more profoundly, it testifies to a vision of service that aims to reach everyone. I ask my two daughters, who are 8 and 11 years old, what wearing the Swoosh means to them, and they sound a lot like Nike’s athletes. It makes them feel faster, more confident. It just feels comfortable. “Dad,” my older daughter says to me, barely restraining her exasperation, “it’s just cool.” Jerry Rice and Mia Hamm and Ada Hegerberg and Eliud Kipchoge all agree: Fifty looks good on Nike.Nike’s slogan for its golden anniversary is succinct and aspirational: “Never Done.” In this regard, it is similar to the brand’s most famous tagline, “Just Do It.” John McEnroe recalls a Nike executive trying out that iconic phrase on him more than 30 years ago. “It’s horrible! It’ll never work,” he says. “It’s safe to say I was wrong about that one,” McEnroe admits with a wry shake of the head. I try the new slogan out on him now and he nods. “That’s good,” he says. “Because that would lead me to believe that after this 50 years, Nike wants to be around for 50 more.”

We are dedicated to supporting and serving our Nike athletes. This is what 50 years of actively listening sounds like.

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

The Athlete’s Voice

How It Started

Nike invests in play because an active generation means a healthier and more equitable future for everyone. And young people need certain things to experience play. They need caring, trained adults who are committed to empowering them. They need the right equipment to be able to confidently play. And above all, they need the opportunity to play, and this includes having access to&nbsp;safe and inclusive spaces in the local community.SHAPA Soweto was unveiled in the summer of 2010 as one such community of play. It began as a world-class football training facility serving the next generation of footballers in Soweto, a township in South Africa. The approach was straightforward: Organize top-of-the line football clinics to inspire young people through sport, and along the way, teach them important life skills in the form of HIV/AIDS education. The facility’s unique mix of public and private partnerships helped shape a first-rate training ground for more than 20,000 young footballers, launched on the eve of that summer’s pinnacle football tournament in Johannesburg.

How It Evolved

Nike’s investment in South Africa is nothing new. For decades, the company has&nbsp;committed to removing barriers to sport in South Africa and using sport as a tool for education. With partnerships like Grassroots Soccer and Sport for Social Change, Nike has long had a shared relationship with the country built on helping communities thrive. That’s why a relaunch of SHAPA Soweto was a natural next step, especially when football events like the Soweto Derby reflect a fan culture that’s been blossoming since the 2010 global premier tournament.

Relaunched in November 2021, the updated SHAPA Soweto is still a hub for football, and now also includes dedicated spaces for&nbsp;basketball, running, training, dance, judo and skateboarding. We know communities are made better when young people are given the creative freedom to discover the activities&nbsp;that move them, in sport and in life. That’s the intent behind the revamped center: Create a&nbsp;place where young people can find&nbsp;sports that match their interests.The original vision to facilitate local partnerships has also expanded with the reopening. As part of Nike’s Made to Play commitment to get kids moving, SHAPA will deliver the Active Afterschools program to more than 300 kids across a range of sports, like football and running. Masai AC, an athletics club founded by middle-distance runner Caster Semenya, will also have a dedicated training space at SHAPA Soweto, building on&nbsp;Semenya’s vision to make running and education more accessible to disenfranchised youth. Other partners include Tarryn&nbsp;“TNT” Alberts&nbsp;for dance, Banesa for yoga, and Girls Skate South Africa.“Before SHAPA, we knew that we could help provide access to sport for young people in the area, but we didn’t have the proper infrastructure. No place to train was the main barrier we faced. SHAPA is what we needed,” says Semenya, speaking to her own experience growing up. “Now that it’s back, young people will be able to surround themselves with the right people and the right structure to explore different sports.”Factor in plenty of open-layout workspaces, a makers’&nbsp;studio, and&nbsp;a community garden, and young people will find a versatile, encouraging place to create relationships, chase their goals&nbsp;and fuel new futures.

One piece of SHAPA Soweto's identity that remains from its original version is its beautiful football playing fields. Two full-sized pitches and two 5-a-side pitches surround the main building.

As part of SHAPA's vision to broaden access to new sports, the facility includes a 300-meter running track, a basketball court and a skate park.

Nike partnered with local artists to design custom illustrations and installations throughout the facility.

The Evolution of the SHAPA Soweto Training Center

This November, Soweto will reopen the doors of Nike's SHAPA Soweto, where young athletes will find an expanded playing ground to nurture creative talent, connect with community and discover the joy of sport — through dance, running, football, skateboarding and more.