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

Born of need and elevated by expertise and diligence, today the Department of Nike Archives (DNA) cares for hundreds of thousands of artifacts and a limitless vault of connected stories.&nbsp;The brand archive began organically in the 1970s and officially became DNA in 2006. The department’s purpose is to both preserve and accelerate the ever-evolving and interconnected story of Nike. “Knowing who you are and the fights you’ve come through can do huge things for morale, inspiration, and creativity. That’s what DNA provides.” - Phil Knight

Department of Nike Archives

This is, obviously, a running story.But the story of the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-pegasus-42-official-images" target="_blank">Nike Pegasus</a> is also something more specific — a case study in how restraint, clarity and attention to fundamentals can produce lasting success. Launched in 1982, the Pegasus would go on to become Nike’s most consistent and popular running shoe of all time, a franchise that has endured across eras, innovations and shifting footwear philosophies. “There’s no modest way of saying this,” said Sebastian Tesche, Product Line Manager of the Pegasus 35. “The Peg is the single biggest and best running shoe in the world. It’s bigger than many of our competitors.”It wasn’t designed to be an icon. It was designed to solve a problem.

In the late 1970s, Nike’s earliest experiments with Air were full of promise but hindered by the realities of the technology. The 1978 Tailwind introduced Air to running yet it introduced stability issues that the company would spend the next several years trying to fix. The Columbia and Aurora that followed solved some of those problems but felt stiff at a time when runners wanted something livelier underfoot. Fortunately, Nike knew Air was a long game.&nbsp;

The great thing that we always thought about Air at that time — and it’s still true — is that it doesn’t lose its cushioning properties hardly at all through time,” said Howard Banich, who oversaw running product in 1982. “Jeff Johnson, Nike’s first employee, always wanted us to do an ad that showed a person coming back to the shoe store with just the Air bag from their shoe and saying, ‘I would like another shoe around this please.’ Because the Air bag was still going strong.”Still, the question remained: how do you put Air where it matters without making the shoe too expensive or too complicated?One solution came from an ongoing innovation project led by former Nike CEO Mark Parker. Known internally as the Air Wedge Trainer — the concept that would ultimately become the Pegasus —&nbsp;it borrowed an Internationalist upper and outsole, added a heel Air unit encapsulated in polyurethane and positioned Air right at heel strike. It was essentially a simpler, cheaper expression of Air and it tested well.

“A heel wedge still provided the benefits of Air where it was needed the most —&nbsp;under the heel at heel strike — but it was less expensive because it was really only a third of the size of the full-length Air-Sole that was used in the Tailwind,” Parker said.At the same time, New Balance had just released the 990 with a provocative tagline: “At a suggested retail price of $100, is the 990 too expensive or too inexpensive?” The price point shocked the market and galvanized Nike. If the competition was willing to push upward, Nike saw an opportunity to create a shoe that delivered performance at a more approachable cost.The Air Wedge Trainer, with its strong test results and modest bill of materials, suddenly looked like the perfect platform.

Building a “best practices” shoe

With the Air Wedge Trainer as a foundation, development for the Pegasus took place at Nike’s facility in Exeter, New Hampshire, where the heel Air wedge concept was built into a fully realized running shoe. Bill Peterson designed the outsole. Bruce Kilgore, deep in Air Force 1 development, offered design input. Parker integrated those ideas into a simple, functional upper: gray, with dark navy accents — a look one European sales rep later described as “a rainy day.”Nike also made a strategic shift to hit its target price of around $50: manufacturing moved to Korea, to the Poon Young factory. Very few running shoes were being produced in Korea at the time. Components had to be imported — Air wedges from the U.S., nylon from Germany — and Nike developers scrambled to refine techniques. “The Air unit didn’t fit correctly in the shoe at first,” recalled footwear innovation veteran Steve Roth. During a vacation back in the U.S., he spent two weeks in Saco, Maine resizing Air wedges by hand so they would sit properly in the midsole.Still, the project moved fast. In only about four months, Nike had a completed shoe — one built around Air and a carefully selected set of core features: A new EVA foam called Tomilite offered a resilient ride. A waffle outsole, with lugs oriented for motion, gave runners better ground contact and stability. The upper was simple, lightweight and unpretentious.

“The Pegasus was essentially our ‘best practices’ shoe,” Roth said. “It had Air, yes, but it was mostly about: what are the best features we can put in a product that hit the sweet spot of the market?”It wasn’t the flashiest running shoe in the line, nor was it meant to be. It was designed to work.

A running manual for the masses

Nike’s confidence in the Pegasus showed in the small details. The company had begun releasing “owner’s manuals” with its higher-profile footwear to help runners understand new technologies and the Pegasus received one, too. It walked consumers through Air, Tomilite and the shoe’s geometry. The transparency helped reinforce the Pegasus as a shoe built on clarity, usefulness and trust.

Naming the Pegasus

Today, many assume the Pegasus name came from the idea of a half-horse, half-winged creature, an allusion to the balance of EVA and Air in the midsole. But the real story is far simpler.To name the shoe, employees dropped suggestions into a bowl. Several slips of paper read Pegasus, including one from Mark Parker. Nike had been playing with mythology themes — Odyssey, Valkyrie — and Pegasus fit the family. “Names were a lot easier back then,” Parker said.The name stuck. And with it came the beginnings of what would become Nike’s most beloved running shoe.

The instant hit

Nike introduced the Pegasus at the 1982 New York City Marathon. While Alberto Salazar powered to his third consecutive win in a pair of Mariahs, the men’s Pegasus debuted in limited quantities as part of Nike’s technical running line. It launched to select dealers and quickly posted strong early sales: nearly $200,000 in under a month, with roughly 8,000 units sold. By December, that number had climbed to more than 35,000 pairs.When the Pegasus rolled out more broadly in early 1983, the reaction was immediate. “The initial reaction to the Pegasus was very good,” said Jim Docherty, who began his career as a Nike EKIN that year. “When the Tailwind hit the market, some consumers thought it was too soft because most midsoles were fairly firm at that time and the Tailwind was a big change from the norm. The Pegasus with heel Air bridged the gap between old EVA midsoles and total Air.”

For young runners and store employees alike, the Pegasus quickly became the reliable choice — the shoe you knew you could recommend.In 1983, long before he became a Nike Running veteran and future Pegasus PLM, Tim Slingsby was working in a running store as a high schooler. “The Pegasus was your go-to shoe when someone would come in, you would sell them,” he said. “As a high school kid, you knew it would work, it would perform, and it was a great price. It had everything.”Within six months, Nike had sold nearly 300,000 pairs, generating $6.4 million in men’s sales alone.The formula worked.

The every-runner’s shoe

By 1985, Pegasus sales had reached 2.5 million pairs. Nike had found its lane and owned it. Longtime Nike designer Bob Lucas compared the shoe to an automotive staple: “To use an automotive analogy, auto manufacturers have their Pegasus in their lines: a Honda Civic, the Toyota Corolla. … that kind of product line where it’s a value-based proposition.”Over the next several years, Nike made only modest adjustments to the shoe — incremental material updates, seasonal color changes — while leaving its core intact. That restraint became part of the Pegasus’ identity. “I think everybody always knew it was one of those things where you didn’t want to change it,” said Clare Hamill, a leader at Nike Running in the mid-1980s. “That was the biggest challenge —&nbsp;how to make it better without changing it.”

At the heart of the early Pegasus was a simple principle: don’t complicate it. The midsole, upper and outsole were all guided by what Hamill described plainly. “The core philosophy of the Pegasus was, keep it simple. No junk. Give people what they need and don’t overbuild.”Runners felt that clarity. By the late 1980s, the Pegasus had become a dependable constant in an increasingly crowded running landscape, one defined less by flash than by trust. The 1989 Air Pegasus, built on existing tooling with a soft poly-pag and synthetic suede upper, would later be remembered as a high-water mark. “If you asked loyal Pegasus wearers through the years what their favorite version has been,” said former Nike Running leader Kevin Paulk, “I would be willing to bet a lot of people would say the Peg ’89. It had a nice soft upper and fit like a glove.”

From its earliest years, that has remained the draw of the Pegasus: a running shoe built not to chase trends but to earn loyalty, mile after mile.

The Peg wasn’t designed to be an icon. It was designed to solve a problem. See how that solution became "the single biggest and best running shoe in the world."

Nike Pegasus: The Origin of a Running Workhorse

About Nike - Stories from Inside NIKE, Inc.

When South Korean short-track speed skater Minjeong Choi was 6 years old, her family used to receive a Seoul daily newspaper every morning. One day, almost by accident, she saw a flyer in the newspaper’s insert, which advertised a winter break skating program at the Korea University ice rink near her home. She progressed from the basics of skating to the discipline of short-track speed skating. The distances are comparable to those in track and field, all the way up to 1,500 meters. But the races are lightning-fast, and in the tight, oval confines of the rink, sound technique can mean the difference between first place and last place. (Her memorable anchor leg in the 3,000-meter relay for the 2022 World Championships saw her jump from third place to first on the final curve, winning by just 0.034 seconds ahead of Canada.) Now 27 years old, Minjeong has gone from trying out skating on a whim during her winter break to becoming a three-time Olympic champion, a four-time World Champion, and the world record holder in the 1,500-meter, a record she’ll defend in Milan. Below, Minjeong shares more about the unique physical challenges of short-track speed skating, the key to staying calm under pressure, and why luck and resilience exist on the same continuum.&nbsp; Moving forward again and again is what truly matters in this sport. Short-track speed skating is incredibly demanding. The athletes compete in a variety of distances, both individually and in relays. The races are so dynamic that you need to be able to recover quickly to prepare yourself for the next round or race. Mental resilience is crucial. Things unfold quickly in short track, so you can’t afford to dwell on a single mistake or failure.&nbsp;In winter sports, you can’t overstate how important it is to be able to access the right environment. My hometown is Seoul, the capital of South Korea. I was born in the very center of the city. Growing up nearby such well-established skating facilities made it natural for me to start short-track speed skating and eventually pursue it as a professional career.&nbsp;

I’ve fallen in love with skating over and over again in my life. I’ve been skating for over 20 years, and what’s guided me to this day is that moment when I first stepped onto the ice at 6 years old. I still vividly remember balancing on the unstable blades, carefully moving my feet while I felt the cold wind rush past me.The pressure of an event like the Olympics reveals the mentors who mean the most to you. I was deeply influenced by our national team head coach during the 2018 season. At age 20, I was competing in my first Olympic games in my home country. I was under immense media pressure and expectation from the public. Everyone around me kept saying I had to prove myself — except my coach. He told me to simply enjoy the moment. Even if I failed, I had my whole career ahead of me. Letting go of the pressure to “succeed” in those rigid terms put me at ease and helped me to compete with a calm mindset.&nbsp;Your defining moments summon a strength you never knew you had. During that relay at the 2022 World Championships, our team was so far behind Canada and the Netherlands, we were barely shown on the screen. When it was my leg to race,&nbsp;something came over me that I couldn’t explain. I closed the gap hard. As I came out of the final corner, I crossed the finish line first. There’s an image I’ve seen on the replay where the Canadian and Dutch skaters put their hands over their faces in disbelief. They never expected the comeback. The impossible became possible.&nbsp;

One way aging as an athlete humbles you is that it forces you to set new goals. It was in the 2024 World Tour season. Many of my European and North American competitors had significantly improved from the time I began my career, and they knew my racing tendencies. I was no longer one of the youngest athletes on the tour, but I worked hard to stay competitive physically and mentally, experimenting with different race tactics to develop a style that was truly my own. I finished fourth in the world rankings that year, but I still felt like I achieved a kind of victory.Part of the emotional power of sport comes from knowing the impact we have on our communities. I had won gold in Beijing in 2022. I donated some of my winnings from that season to a relief fund that helped victims affected by the Uljin forest fire. I wanted to give back, even in a small way, to people who were going through very difficult times. I take great pride in representing South Korea. During national moments, I feel a strong responsibility to deliver great performances as an athlete, in all different forms.&nbsp;Chance and luck are important, but they are just the starting point. As I started winning when I was a young athlete, I thought it was luck. Soon, competitors started treating me seriously, and that pressure made me stronger, helping instill in me a belief in my own ability and preparation. Before every race, I always ask myself, “Have I prepared more than anyone else here? If so, then all I need to do is skate.”

Two decades ago, the generational talent was a young girl who saw a fortuitous window to pursue the sport. She’s never looked back.

For The Win

Minjeong Choi Took a Chance on Short-Track Speed Skating. In Milan, She’ll Go for History

In June of 2024, the Minnesota Lynx won the WNBA’s in-season tournament and the Commissioners Cup. Standing at center court to accept the championship MVP was Napheesa Collier. That the all-star forward would tally another award that season was almost a foregone conclusion. She’d go on to post historic stat lines (in a regular season game versus the Aces, she became only the third player in WNBA history to individually outrebound the entire opposing team, her 18 boards to their 17), bring home national glory with another gold medal in the Paris Olympics, and win the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. What was one more award for the mantle? Still, when she was announced as the tournament’s MVP, she was visibly confused, and what could’ve been an acceptance speech turned into an honest, humble deferral to her teammate, forward Bridget Carleton, who’d go on to earn the league’s Most Improved Player award that season. “Honestly, I think Bridget deserves this. She had an outstanding game,” she said into the arena microphone.The Jordan Brand athlete, <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/jordan-brand-heir-series-2-official-images" target="_blank">who's also the face of the new Heir Series 2</a>, knows that excellence is never an accident. It’s the product of creating strong, stable infrastructures among teammates over time; building a culture that can withstand pressures of all kinds; lifting up others when they are deserving, like during that tournament victory, and encouraging one another to aspire for more than they thought possible. That’s true for the Lynx. That’s true for the W. That’s true for Unrivaled, the innovative 3x3 league co-founded by Collier. Building excellence takes a blueprint. Here, Collier shares about the people, places and values that have shaped her status as one of basketball’s great architects.&nbsp; &nbsp;My sense of home always starts with family. Jefferson City, Missouri was a great place to grow up. It’s a small town in the middle of the state, very Midwestern. But my family is the most important thing in my life. My dad’s from West Africa, but we have a huge Sierra Leonian community in Jeff City, and my mom’s whole side of the family grew up running one of the city’s dairy farms, so I had two very culturally different families. Being surrounded by so much family, I’ve always been a very family-oriented person. It gave me an early look at what healthy dynamics among groups of people looks like.Maya Moore was my Michael Jordan. She was the first athlete I really followed, and she’s actually from Jeff City, too. When I was 10 or 11, I remember watching her games when she was at UCONN. I have a snapshot in my mind of how athletic she looked, how she made everything look so easy, so skilled. Even the way she did her layups — I can’t even explain it, it was just perfect, just so unique to her. Watching her was a core memory for me as a kid.

The pressure of excellence is what makes you great. I’ve been really lucky with the teams I’ve played on, where they all expect excellence from their players. Even my high school coach at Incarnate Word reminded me a lot of Coach Geno Auriemma at UCONN (Editor’s Note: As of this writing, Incarnate Word Academy holds the all-time high school basketball winning streak). UCONN was the first time that I walked in the arena and I could feel the excellence that came before me. I mean, so many incredible Hall of Fame players who came before me. If you don’t win a championship at UCONN, it’s a bad year. You do feel that pressure to measure up. But I perform my best under pressure. It challenges you to be your best. You’ve got to decide how you’re going to step up.&nbsp;Experience is the best teacher when responding to setback. I had a great rookie season with Minnesota in 2019. But when I arrived before that season kicked off, I had a horrible training camp. I had two preseason games, and I might’ve had five points between the two games. I remember that sinking feeling so vividly, because it brought me back to my freshman year at UCONN, where I felt like I had a really bad freshman season. When I felt myself drifting back into that dark space, I told myself, ‘I’m never going to do that again.” And after my freshman year, I was working out twice a day, every day, because I resolved to never feel that feeling again. I wasn’t going to repeat the past.It’s so important for young players to step into a franchise where their veterans are supportive. You’re the top dog when you’re a senior in college, but then you get to the W, all of a sudden you’re at the bottom of the totem pole again, surrounded by hall of fame players. Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles were the first ones to embrace me.&nbsp;Syl is the most motherly person I’ve ever met. The first time I met her, she’s like, “Baby, if you ever need anything, you give me a call. I’ve got you.” My vets had my back from day one, which really allowed me to blossom into my role from the beginning.&nbsp;

When you’re not worried about team dynamics, you can focus on becoming the player you need to be. When I joined the Lynx, I didn’t have to worry about team dynamics. I knew they supported me no matter what, so I could focus on what I needed to do on the court, all while trying to be a good teammate. I don’t take that privilege I had for granted. That’s why I try to pay it forward to the rookies and the young players now, making sure they feel welcome when they’re on the team, making sure they know they can come to me if they need anything, because I know how huge that was for me when I first came into the league. Vocal leadership and leading by example can exist at the same time. When I arrived as a rookie, I think my style was more to lead by how I played on the court. I was the hardest working person, but I was uncomfortable with being vocal. My coach, Cheryl Reeve, put me as a captain from the jump, and she challenged me to be more vocal, to speak up. Eight years later, I’ve gotten way more comfortable with leading with my voice, in part because I’m doing it on behalf of our league’s younger players, too. I want to give the league’s young players the knowledge they need to be successful, because everyone’s fighting for a roster spot and is looking for any advantage they can find. This is our careers and our livelihoods at stake. I’ll do anything I can to help young players grow in their game. I remember how grateful I felt when my vets did that for me. I want young players to know they don’t need to feel lost. They can find a sense of belonging, a sense that players like me will be by their side.&nbsp;

There are moments in a season that hinge on whether you can look past your own self interests. Last year, I hurt my ankle badly in an early season game against Vegas. I really wanted to come back, partly because I was a front runner for MVP at the time, and I wanted to start playing again as soon as possible so I could hold my spot. But at the end of the day, I wanted to win a championship. If I rushed back early, I could’ve hurt our team’s chances at a title. So I really tried to make sure my ankle was as healthy as possible so I could be ready for the playoffs, even if that meant sacrificing a possible MVP title for that year. It wasn’t a “win” in the traditional sense, but it was a win for our team, and that’s what mattered to me.Generational Greatness means upholding the work of those who came before you. I joined Jordan Brand because I wanted to be surrounded by greatness. It’s starts with Michael Jordan himself. He’s the standard of greatness, he changed the game forever. We’re in his brand, competing in his name, and I want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to honor the standard he’s set for us.&nbsp;

The Minnesota Lynx All Star and Jordan Brand athlete is well familiar with the blueprint for success.

The Future of Women’s Basketball is Limitless. Napheesa Collier is Busy Building It

If golfer Tony Finau had to name his Flu Game moment, it was during the 2018 Masters. He had just sunk a hole-in-one on the par-3 course at Augusta National. He celebrated by taking off sprinting toward the hole, when improbably, he took an awkward step and dislocated his left ankle (fair warning for anyone who wants to look up the video: it was gnarly). In grimacing pain but undeterred, he popped his ankle back in place himself and resumed play, where he’d complete the week with a top 10 finish. Oh, and two months later, he’d make the final group at the US Open. And he’d qualify for his first Ryder Cup. All in a year when he could put barely any pressure on his left foot.Digging deep to test his physical limits is a signature quality of Finau, who joins Jordan Brand this month as the newest member of its Golf roster. You wouldn’t know any such challenge existed just by looking at him. The lithe 6’4” athlete has one of the most powerful drives on the pro tour, able to crush the ball at over 200 mph since he was 17 years old. He was recruited for hoops out of high school, and he descends from a proud lineage of skilled Tongan and Samoan athletes, particularly in football. When his personal calling to golf was too great to ignore, he worked as hard as possible to reach the sport’s top level, rolling the dice by auditioning for a reality TV golf show, then undergoing a brutal mini-tour schedule for years that forced him to travel at a ruthless pace across the country. Was it worth it? No question. Below, Finau talks about the twists his career has taken, his moments of greatest perseverance and all things drive.&nbsp; Certain career moments cause you to flip your definition of what winning means. Take that Masters in 2018. It was an incredible moment, that hole-in-one, followed by the most embarrassing moment of my life on national TV. Fast forward to the end of the tournament. I birdied six out of my last seven holes. I shot 66 that Sunday. Walking off the 72nd hole, I truly felt like I won. I felt like somebody should’ve given me the green jacket. In life, we’re going to fall down a lot more times than we’re going to win. But does that actually mean that we lost? I don’t look at it that way.

There’ll be windows of your life where you need to gut it out just to see what you’re really made of. I turned pro in 2007, but I didn’t get onto the PGA Tour until 2013, so there was a six-year period where I had to tough it out on the Mini-Tour life and learn how to play the game, travel and take the small wins where I could. On the Mini-Tour, you’re fighting for every dollar, your literal livelihood. There were plenty of nights I slept in my car and I went without eating just so I could scrape by. Those were some of the hardest years of my life, but also some of the greatest, because I learned what I can become with a little bit of sacrifice.&nbsp;Individual sports demand a certain kind of passion. In a sport like golf, you don’t have any teammates to lean on. It’s just you out there. Some people have a hard time without that team component, but when I started golfing at a young age, I found I really enjoyed the game’s individual aspects. It was on me to figure it out, to piece together the ways I could improve. When I got on the golf course, it was a matter of locking in and learning how to focus.Composure has nothing to do with your athletic skill but has everything to do with the life of an athlete. My brother and I went on The Big Break, a reality TV competition on the Golf Channel, in 2009. I was 20 years old at the time. We were around the camera 24/7. Everywhere we went, they were recording us. It was crazy, and it took some getting used to, but I remember leaving that experience and telling myself, “You’re going to be a great golfer. This media exposure is how it’s going to be if you turn pro.” Being on the show got me to the point where it didn’t really matter who was watching me. I just needed to stay focused and play my game.&nbsp;Sport was only part of my family’s background. Being Polynesian, my mom had a luau show as I was growing up, so I learned how to play a lot of different instruments as a performer in her show. One of the first instruments I learned was the to’ere, which is like a Tahitian drum. I also did traditional Polynesian fire dancing as a kid. Music and dancing were as core to my identity as sport was.&nbsp;It’s easy to be an on- and off-switch person. But greatness means being your best at all times of the day, not just when it’s convenient. My mom used to tell me, “The way you do one thing is the way you do all things.” Golf is just one example. Trying to be great at a game that’s impossibly hard, a game you can’t perfect, doesn’t mean that you stop trying. You keep trying to reach for more out of yourself. I’m trying to be great in all aspects of my life, whether that’s on the course, in the gym, being a husband, being a father. I’m trying to push past my own limits in all aspects of my life.&nbsp;

Golfers tend to be pretty superstitious people. One of my rituals is that I wear green every Sunday. My mom, she passed away in 2011 — her favorite color was green. Wearing green is a way I like to honor her, a way to remember she’s with me all the time on the course.&nbsp;Joining the Jordan Brand marks a new chapter in my career. Obviously Michael represents excellence at the highest level. Jordan Brand is incredible to be a part of and Michael is an incredible individual to represent. I met him for the first time when I was 17, and during the times I’ve played at his private course in Florida, The Grove, he’s always told me, “Anytime you’re in this area, you’re welcome here.” So in 2024, I’m playing a playoff event. I know I’m going to be in West Palm after the playoffs, for a shoot I was doing with one of my sponsors. My son was with me on the trip, and the thought crossed my mind, “It would be the coolest thing on Earth if I could bring my son to play The Grove.” I texted Michael on a whim and asked him. He got back to me 30 seconds later: “We’re actually closed for the weekend, but I’ll open the course just for you and your son. Please bring him and we’ll make it happen.” We played 18 holes that day and had the entire course to ourselves, just me and my son. That single experience is something I’ll never forget. That’s the effect Michael has on people. You can download more images as well as an accompanying film welcoming Finau to the Jordan Brand family by clicking <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://media-assets.nike.com/en/pitches/jordan-brand-welcomes-tony-finau-to-its-golf-roster?secret=29e440c91211da0d9af84d3e374afd15" target="_blank">here</a>.

The pro golfer and newest member of the Jordan Brand Golf roster has never backed down from a challenge.

For Tony Finau, Going the Distance is a Mindset

While most of us got through middle school trying to blend in, Jane Hedengren remembers wanting to leave her mark: Breaking her school’s record in the mile. She was 12 years old, new to organized track, and intent on sealing the record by the end of the school year. Her father John took her to a college track on a cold fall afternoon for 400-meter repeats to test her capacity. She was trying and failing to hit her splits. That’s when John, a former runner at Brigham Young University (BYU), joined her for the workout, cutting through the chilly, high desert air, pulling up the pace but staying near enough to encourage Jane as she willed herself forward. She’d eventually hit those splits, and she’d later break her school’s record that spring.&nbsp;Now out of high school, Jane Hedengren has established herself as one of the most accomplished amateur distance runners in American history. She arguably had the most dominant high school season ever in 2024, male or female, breaking nine high school records spanning the mile to the 5K. She’d be the first to say that she hasn’t accomplished these feats alone.&nbsp;Along with her family’s support, Jane’s teammates include those coaches and runners from the Nike Elite Program, which invites 40 of the nation’s top runners to experience the comprehensive training tools provided by Nike coaches all year long, culminating in some of the nation’s preeminent meets during the cross-country, indoor and outdoor seasons. All seasons in which Jane dominated.Here, in her own words, she speaks to how that support has set her up for a professional running future — and starting her own collegiate running career at BYU in the fall.

The indoor and outdoor seasons give you many opportunities to prove yourself. Nike Indoor Nationals this year was special, because I was able to run the 5k for the first time on the track. I had to put myself out there.Good coaches can turn a phrase and get you motivated. During that Nike Indoor Nationals meet, one of my coaches from the Nike Elite program, Juli Benson, told me, “I know you’re in a good spot. Let’s see if you’re in a great spot.” Then it was like the lesson my dad taught me: You’ll see once you’re in that last 2K of the race. I was able to close out hard. A lot of good stuff can come from having an open mind and getting the most out of yourself.&nbsp;This year was a season of firsts. Last fall was my first time at <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/nike-cross-nationals-2024-official-images" target="null">Nike Cross Nationals</a>. It was really exciting to feel as fresh as I did on race day. The field was strong, so I wanted to stay patient, because the course with the weather conditions can be unforgiving. I kept steady early on and maintained my pace. It’s special to finish a race and not expect that level of performance out of yourself.

I love how running has different disciplines within it. Cross country and track are special in their own right, and they’re so different. I love how the competition of cross country takes place in this long, tough terrain. It embodies what running is all about: Being out in nature, competing with other runners. Track is really fun for me. It’s a bit quicker, and competition also plays a role, but there’s a certain thing to be said about trying to hit certain times. You’re also able to use a variety of distances as a guardrail to monitor how you’re feeling.&nbsp;Your performances aren’t the only part of your racing that evolves. Your training changes, too. Strength training has been a big part of my development process. Early on, I was running around 30 miles a week, doing some light workouts here and there with some cross training. As the years have gone on, I’ve upped the intensity and volume. This last season, I was doing up to 55 miles a week while doing more intense workouts and feeling good and strong. I think I realized I had a talent probably right around my sophomore year of high school. I had been working and staying more consistent. Plus, no matter how I performed, I always had a love for running. I loved the freedom it afforded me. I could get away from my life’s stresses and have this thing I could work toward and use to discover more about myself. That happened as soon as I started running, and it’s evolved as I’ve gotten older and have been more in touch with the sport.&nbsp;

You can always find a new challenge to overcome as you get older. I’m really excited for this next chapter with BYU. I’m open to trying new distances, racing against different competition. I want to try it all. It’s great that college isn’t just a one-off experience. You learn these lessons over time. I'll have time to get a hold of things, find my rhythm and routine, get to know my teammates, <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/women-running-culture-mumbai-india-nike-after-dark-tour" target="null">Coach Diljeet Taylor</a> and the other staff.&nbsp;I’ve been really careful about thinking too far ahead. People will ask me about aspirations like medaling in the Olympics or finding a prominence on the world stage. Those goals are incredible, obviously, and I’m working toward them, but the truth is, I don’t know where I’ll be in a few years. What I can focus on right now is keeping myself healthy, enjoying the sport and loving those around me.&nbsp;I’m taking things one step at a time.&nbsp;

Proving her talent across Nike’s cross country, indoor and outdoor championships, Hedengren finished her high school career as one of the most accomplished middle- and long-distance runners of all time.

How I Got Here

Indoors and Out, Runner Jane Hedengren is Rewriting History

Think <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/jordan-brand-luka-4-official-images" target="_blank">Luka Dončić</a>, and your mental picture is likely his signature step-back jumper. The unthinkable passes that land perfectly in the hands of his teammates. The creativity under pressure and borderline court omniscience that cause endless headaches for his opponents.You likely know Luka as a fierce competitor who brings a trademark tenacity to each play. A generational talent, fueled by an expert basketball IQ. A force to be reckoned with, owning every possession and controlling the pace of the game.But Luka, a consummate hooper, also contains multitudes off the court. He loves the serenity of the ocean and grilling a good cut of beef. He’s <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@espn/video/7467995779832024362?lang=en" target="null">as comfortable gaming</a> as he is driving to the hoop for a Euro step, and if he weren’t on the hardwood, he’d choose running point on the gridiron. Above all else, he’s incredibly proud of his 1-year-old daughter, Gabriela, whom he considers his greatest inspiration.Here, Luka shares more about his passions away from the game and how they make him a better player, when he knew he was living his childhood dream, and the crossover skill between two of his favorite pastimes, fishing and basketball.Getting out on the water is one of my favorite things. My father had some small boats when I was young, and we started going out together when I was maybe 7 years old. Today, renting a boat reminds me of my childhood: I love being on the ocean, just relaxing, driving the boat and getting some sun.I enjoy the peace of the ocean — there’s so much space and nothing more important than appreciating the views and catching some fish. The last time I was in Mexico I caught a marlin. That was an amazing moment. Probably the coolest thing I’ve ever caught was a little shark. Once I had a very big fish on the line, battling for seven to 10 minutes, but it escaped right under the boat — a definite disappointment.Fishing betters my game and basketball betters my fishing because they both require an essential skill: patience. Mostly, I like to fish to get out on the water, relax and enjoy the sun. But fishing is a reminder of the patience that’s required in basketball and in life. You need patience no matter what.

My mentality away from the game is much more relaxed. I think off the court I’m more chill — staying home, enjoying time outside, not talking too much. On the court, I like to talk more and be aggressive; it’s&nbsp;working hard and having fun.I was born with an intense competitive drive. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been competitive in almost everything I do. That’s why it’s important for me to compete hard on the court and then to recharge with other hobbies and have time with my family and friends.If I had to pick a position in another sport I’d love to play quarterback. When I was younger, I played a lot of sports. Basketball was obviously my favorite, and I played outdoors almost every day after school. I also tried tennis and soccer —&nbsp;just being outdoors was fun for me. I’ve since really grown to like American football, and I have a strong arm and great vision, so I think I could QB pretty well.When I’m not training or competing, I like to go out and grill, usually a good steak and some corn. I normally cook out when it’s sunny, which helps me relax with my family and recharge for my training and busy schedule during the season.My daughter brings me the most pride of anything in the world. She’s my greatest supporter in life, even if she doesn’t know it yet. That drives me every day. She’s 15 months old, and I love spending time with her and playing with her.I remember when I realized I was living my childhood dream. I left my home when I was 12 years old to go alone and play for Real Madrid. I was just settling in during my first year with the team. But in my second year, I started to come into my own. Playing for the best basketball club in Europe, that’s how I knew I was making my dreams a reality.I don’t usually get nervous before games. But when I do feel some nerves, like before my first home game with the Lakers, I tell myself to remember that I’m good at what I do — I just need to go through my routine and do what I do best.The best advice I return to is simple: Have fun, especially on the basketball court. When something doesn’t go as planned, I just remember: “You’ve been doing this your whole life. You know how to do it. Go out there and have fun.”

The Los Angeles Lakers guard goes deep on fishing, grilling and the secret to staying sane on the court.

Luka Dončić Is More Than Just One of the Best Players in the League

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

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

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

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

The Legend of Victor Wembanyama is Growing

If there was ever a moment that showed <a href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-sabrina-2-official-images-sabrina-ionescu" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sabrina Ionescu</a>’s ability to see the game differently than the rest of the world, it was on November 9, 2019, when her Oregon Ducks played an exhibition game against the greatest dynasty in sport: The USA Women’s National team. The night before the game, Ionescu texted her teammates. We have nothing to lose, she encouraged them. Go out and play our way. Don’t let another team come to our home floor and dictate our system. This was in response to an opponent that hadn’t lost to a college team in 20 years, longer than some of Sabrina’s teammates had been alive.&nbsp;But where other players saw crushing odds, Sabrina saw opportunity. She would lead her team to an improbable victory, 93-86, posting a 30-7-4 statline. Defeating a global powerhouse. Securing college basketball’s triple-double crown. Becoming a No.1 draft pick in the WNBA. Helping lead the New York Liberty to its first Finals appearance in over two decades. Every time Ionescu sees an obstacle, she sees right past it.&nbsp;Ionescu’s ability to process the game at an elite level results from a lifetime of dedication to her craft. For her, perfection is found in the smallest of details: the angle of the foot during a jab step, the arc of a stepback jumper, the spin on a crosscourt bounce pass to a teammate. To see what she sees, we asked Sabrina to share about her focus and determination and her pursuit of excellence.&nbsp;&nbsp; ﻿Craft is a lot bigger than what’s seen in a stat sheet or on the scoreboard. It’s about mastering a process, not necessarily just one aspect of a game, or one technique. When you master a process for how you see improvement — maybe its scoring, maybe its facilitating for your teammates, maybe it’s doing the little things — you end up encompassing everything on the court.&nbsp;Mentally, practice is sometimes more exhausting than a game. In practice, I try to put myself in specific moments and situations over and over again. Whether it’s where a defender would be or a buzzer-beater shot, I'm always using my imagination to create situations when I'll be under pressure. And that takes a lot of work. But if I’ve put in the mental preparation, the work in practice actually sets me free during games, because I’ve already lived that moment in my head.&nbsp;The offseason is the time to work on those aspects of your game that you want to elevate. I’ve worked a lot out of one-on-one situations lately.&nbsp;I know I’m a great passer, but I think finding ways to create space on my own and not needing a screen or needing my teammates to get me open is a next step for my game. I’ve also focused on being able to attack downhill and make decisions and finish around the rim.

Competitiveness has always been one of my superpowers. I’ve always been a competitive and intense kid. I used to fight with my brothers all the time during games growing up. The older I’ve gotten, the better I’ve been able to harness my desire to win and use it for my advantage.&nbsp;Not everyone has the same driving force for success. I became a better leader when I realized that some people are more competitive than others and have different desires. For me, that realization hit in middle school. I saw that some of my teammates were just playing for fun, or to see if they liked the game. But I knew I still had to relate to them for our team to be the best it could be. And that meant knowing that not everyone is motivated the same way I am. I had to learn to accept that. Now, I’m on a team that demands excellence from one another, and we hold each other accountable. Everyone in my circle is aligned to the same goals I have. Second place isn’t an option.In college, I loved being able to help put a program on the map. I had the opportunity to go anywhere in the country I wanted coming out of high school, but I wanted to go to a program that wasn’t as established yet, because I knew the reward would be greater. We sold out almost every game my senior season, and we were competing for a national championship.The coaches who know you the best are often able to push you the hardest. I had the same coach from fourth grade to my senior year of high school. He coached me harder than I think he ever coached anybody else. If my jersey wasn't tucked right, if my socks were different heights, if my shoelaces were tied differently, I was running laps. He would act like I was putting myself above the team, but he was really showing me how I needed to act as a leader and how I need to be pushed. The higher up you want to go, the higher up you want to be, the higher the expectations.

I’d tell my younger self to have a kind of tunnel vision for her process. What that means to me is to focus on your own journey, rather than allow someone else to tell you what you can or can’t be. While I think I did a good job of that, but when I was drafted first overall and turned pro, I could feel a different pressure to speed up the process and succeed. I wish I would’ve reminded myself more to keep my tunnel vision, no matter what.&nbsp;As a player, you remember the people who saw the potential that was within you. I don’t just want to prove people wrong who doubted me. I want to prove people right who believed in me.&nbsp;

The all-star guard on her incredible focus and determination, and her relentless pursuit of excellence.

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When he debuted the Kobe 3 in 2007, Kobe Bryant subverted expectations, just as expected. The Lakers played an away game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on December 20, days before the signature players from other brands would reveal their holiday colorways, alight in wintery themes. His Kobe 3: Black. No nonsense.&nbsp;That legacy of stealthy, unsung precursor defines the Kobe 3. It preceded arguably the most influential lowtop in basketball history. It preceded what became Nike Basketball’s “Signature Shoe” in the Hyperdunk, which would debut in the summer of ‘08. And yet, the 3 is immovable in Kobe’s footwear legacy. He wore it for his decisive MVP campaign in the ’07-’08 season. And, talk to any Kobe fan: it’s a cult favorite, raising basketball shoe design to an elevated art form.

<h3>How We Made It</h3>Before the Kobe 3, the Kobe 2 sought to be the most technically advanced footwear in basketball. But its overt technology — modeled after the functionality of Nike Free and barefoot movement — emphasized a kind of science as its aesthetic. Nike Basketball Creative Director Eric Avar, who took back the reigns of the Kobe line with the 3, wanted to fuse performance and artistry into the design of the Kobe 3.“Kobe was probably one of, if not the most progressive players I ever worked with in terms of wanting to push performance technology in design,” says Avar.&nbsp;

But the shoe wasn’t love at first sight. Even Kobe knew the shoe’s design would be polarizing.“When people first saw the shoe, they were like, ‘Oh, I don’t know. I don’t know,” Kobe would remark with a laugh.&nbsp;The Kobe 3 released to the public in 2008 in the Orca colorway. Across the mid top's upper was an all-over pattern of striped TPU caging made to resemble basketball netting. The forefoot and heel Zoom units were bridged by a carbon fiber shank, which helped the shoe maintain its torsional rigidity during sharp movements. The midsole featured Lunarlon Cushioning, a first for the Kobe line. On the outsole tread, the traction pattern was arranged in diamond shapes, inspired by the middle name, Diamante, of Kobe’s daughter Natalia.&nbsp;

<h3>How It Took Off</h3>Kobe Bryant wore the Kobe 3 en route to his MVP award in 2008. In the postseason, he’d lead the Lakers to the NBA Finals, where they fell just short of an NBA title. The season might not have been Bryant’s best statistically, but it was arguably the height of his presence across basketball. He was everywhere in 2008. MVP. First-Team All League. First-Team All League Defense. Co-Captain of Team USA’s Redeem Team. He put together all of the pieces of his game, meanwhile directing his teams as the undisputed Alpha leader.As the releases continued, the shoe took on more expressive looks, thanks to the shoe’s upper design being conducive to an imaginative palette. Christmas Day against the Phoenix Suns featured an unmistakable yellow and purple combination. In the ‘08 All-Star Game, though he only played a few minutes because of a torn ligament in his pinky (Of course he played), he laced up a deep red and gold colorway. In 2013, the Kobe 3 was re-released as part of Nike’s Prelude Pack in the Kobe line. While seven of the shoes were based off of his career milestones, only one shoe was inspired by a setback: the Kobe 3. The black colorway was covered by a custom fresco-style graphic, inspired by the swirling psychological torment that Kobe felt upon losing the 2008 NBA Finals.&nbsp;

<h3>What’s Next</h3>The Kobe 3 is <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/kobe-3-protro-halo-official-images" target="_blank">the latest model to receive the Protro treatment</a>. The upper now has a mesh backing against the TPU netting to provide greater support. The midsole features a full-length Zoom Strobel. The traction has been retooled. Even the tongue was revamped to be more comfortable. No feature was ignored for a modern tech upgrade. It’s maybe the most expansive Protro to date.“We were always pushing the limits of Kobe’s shoe to be faster, more precise and to be modern,” says Avar. “Kobe was big on being bold, aggressive, provocative and making an impact. Working together, we were on a never-ending quest for the perfect shoe from him.”

A legacy as stealthy, unsung precursor defines the Kobe III. And yet, it's immovable in Kobe’s footwear legacy.

History

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The History of the Kobe III

On a late July afternoon, while his three-year-old twins were napping, American shotputter Joe Kovacs went to the basement of his home in Dublin, Ohio. He was bored, so he figured he’d get in some light training. He loaded 540 pounds on his barbell and benched it for a breezy double, no music, with the U.S. Open playing on his television in the background.You could easily assume that this casual power is what makes Kovacs so accomplished in the shotput. He’s won the world championships twice, he was the Olympic silver medalist in 2016, and his outdoor PB of 23.23 m (76 ft 2 1/2 in) is the second farthest throw of all time. But a shotputter has ideal biomechanical proportions, and at a height of 6 feet, Kovac’s strength is a requirement to stay at the top of his event.&nbsp;“I need to stay strong and powerful, because the shorter you are, the less you can use your body’s levers to your advantage,” says Kovacs. “Some guys in the Diamond League roster are 5, 6 inches taller than I am. They can generate velocity through their levers in ways that I can’t.”&nbsp;Plus, all that brute strength is simply the end note to the most important facet of his technique. “Velocity is what makes the difference in a big throw — strength plus speed. That combination starts with your footwork,” he says.&nbsp;Here, Kovacs calls out the essential elements for a winning throw. Look for them when he steps into the shotput ring this weekend in Silesia.

The ShoesA shotputter’s real estate is small: a circle just seven feet in diameter. Feel is everything in a performance zone this tight. That’s why footwear is an uncompromising part of a thrower’s toolkit.&nbsp;Kovacs, along with many other pro shotputters, opt for the Nike Zoom SD. The no-sew upper conforms to the foot,&nbsp;the Flywire cables help keep his center of gravity over the footbed as he’s generating immense force on the spin, and the textured outsole offers him more ground feel as he’s traveling across the circle. This season, Kovacs has been testing a new version of the SD currently under development, which includes a carbon fiber plate. He laced them up out of the box during this year’s Pre Classic in July, took his practice throws, and promptly delivered one of the best throws in the world this year, a 22.48 meter heave.“It gives that diving board affect, but because it’s so thin, I can still feel all the textures of the circle,” he says. “Shotputters are ultimately trying to sprint from one end of the circle to the other. If your feet aren’t locked into the ground, you leak the energy you could be channeling into your throw.”

The SpinThe first bit of wisdom Kovacs received as a young thrower came from American shotputter Reese Hoffa, another Olympic medalist and former world champion, during a high school camp in Pennsylvania. Don’t do the glide, said Hoffa — a technique where the thrower moves linearly across the circle, without rotating. He told Kovacs he could generate more velocity by trying the spin instead, an unusual recommendation for a young thrower. Out of principle, almost all high school throwers learn the glide first, as it doesn’t require the coordination of the spin.The result: Kovacs creates an insane level of speed as he exits the spin and launches the shotput off his neck. He suggests fans to look for speed across the circle as the separating variable between a good throw and a great throw, no matter how massive an athlete looks.

The SignalsOne of the best parts about track and field, Kovacs says, is the unbiased measurement of an athlete’s performance. It’s the stopwatch and the measuring tape that determine the winner. That said, there are subtler cues that can tip a viewer off to whether a throw has something special. Listen for the sounds of a thrower’s ground contact across the circle, their shoes scraping the surface. More ground contact usually means a good throw. (Notice a theme? It all goes back to footwork).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Another cue to watch: the level of spin on the shotput as it soars through the air. If it’s spinning, it means the thrower didn’t get all of their force behind it. Kovacs uses a cueball in pool as an example. A weaker shot is one that’s wobbling and spinning after contact with the pool cue. Sometimes, in practice, Kovacs will write his name on the shotput in permanent marker so that the spin is legible to him and his team.“My whole career has been one big experiment in combining all these elements of a throw. It becomes this puzzle, or a game, something you’re always trying to perfect. What if I try this? What if I change this? Those decisions involve all these different facets, from strength, to timing, to technique. For me, that experimenting will never stop being fun.”

The two-time world champion gives some advice on how to watch the shotput. Spoiler: It’s not all about strength.

Fan 101

Joe Kovacs on What It Takes to Throw A Winning Shotput

Atlanta Dream guard Allisha Gray is having a banner year. The WNBA All-Star starter is posting career highs in the 2025 season in points, rebounds, assists, three-pointers made, and minutes played, in which she leads the league. But even more impressive than her stats is the manner in which she makes versatility look totally natural. Name the players who have averaged 18 points, five rebounds, three assists and at least two three pointers per game in a season. She’s the only one. During the 2024 All-Star Weekend, she won both the Skills Competition and the Three-Point Contest, a double victory she’ll defend in Indianapolis starting tonight. She’s already off to a hot start. On Friday morning, after her team’s practice, she won a half-court shot contest. As basketball’s talent level rises across the board, both in the women’s and the men’s game, Gray is proof that you don’t need to sacrifice one skillset to evolve the others. If you’re going to win in this era of basketball, better competition requires a better game, in every way.We spoke with Allisha about her excellent year, where she developed her commitment to a well-rounded game and her take on her role in a stacked league.&nbsp;

The past offseason was perfect to make leaps in my game. I was really locked in to develop my one-on-one play. The Unrivaled League was ideal, because you’re going head to head against some of the league’s best players, so you have to be able to create your own shot. And defensively, you have no choice but to step up. Nine times out of ten, you’re on an island, so you don’t have any help. Your individual defense needs to be strong.My toughness was being shaped before I even played basketball. I mainly grew up with my two brothers. Playing outside in the backyard, I learned how to stand my ground against them. Every game we played was competitive, to the point where my parents would need to separate us so we wouldn’t go at each other.In basketball, if you’re outmatched, you need to figure out your edge. I was never going to overpower my brothers. But I could outwork them and outsmart them. When I started beating them in one-on-one and shootouts, that’s when I started earning their respect.&nbsp;I view winning literally. I’m so competitive, victory means winning over someone else. Winning the Georgia state championship in high school was the moment when that was solidified for me. We went undefeated that year. It’s not only that we won — we didn’t lose, to anyone.&nbsp;

Growing up in a military household, you don’t have any excuse for giving less than your best effort. My dad was in the army. It was "Yes, sir" and "Yes, ma’am" for as long as I could remember. He was my basketball coach until I went off to college. I’d be in a hard workout, and he’d tell me, “I’m not gonna let you fall short of your expectations in front of me.” Did I mention he was my principal at school? [Laughs]. It was a tough environment, but now that I’m older, I know he had a vision for what I could accomplish.Scoring isn’t everything. It’s crazy to me how a lot of people focus on the points that a player puts up, and nothing else. You can impact the game in so many different ways. Why wouldn’t you train to get better in every area?My go-to Nike product? That’s easy. My goggles! I started wearing them after I got an eye injury during a 3x3 game. I’ve worn them ever since.The league is stacked. You can't take your talent for granted. You have so many elite players who are working on their craft. It makes playing in the All Star Game so meaningful, knowing that you’re mentioned in those same ranks.&nbsp;I’m not giving any ground in the Skills Comp or the Three-Point Contest this year. I'm focusing on both again this weekend —&nbsp;I won't limit myself to one or the other. I’m confident, and I’m feeling fit and ready. Then again, with how many minutes I’m playing this year, I was gonna get in shape, right?&nbsp;

The Atlanta Dream guard is having a season that epitomizes a well-rounded player. That's not just a product of the talent level across the W, but of her lifelong work ethic.

Allisha Gray is Leveling Up Her Game — All of It

KARINA, a member of the South Korean pop group aespa, officially joins the Nike family this month. The small steps that have led to the group’s success — consistent hard work, sacrifice, and the dedication to push through obstacles — reflect the same mindset that an athlete needs to succeed, says KARINA.We spoke with the 25-year-old artist about why taekwondo has been a lifelong instructive sport, how the Air Max Muse pairs with practically everything, and why partnering alongside Nike was a natural fit.

What’s your defining Nike memory?&nbsp;As a child, I loved watching TV. It was where I first saw musical artists perform, and it fueled in me a dream to become one of the stars on that stage, who were always wearing Nikes on their feet. That was when my connection with Nike began. The brand is like second nature to me now. I’ll rock the Air Force 1 without thinking twice.What’s your earliest memory of sport?&nbsp;Growing up, I was exposed to many sports, including ballet, swimming, futsal, basketball and taekwondo, in which I earned a black belt. As you level up while earning more belts, you grow in both athletic skill and the athlete mindset. It’s in that mindset that you learn patience, you gain respect for the process, and you develop a can-do spirit. Even now, with my packed schedule, those lessons from taekwondo are still with me. They’re the foundation of my sport background, helping me stay focused no matter what situations I face or decisions I make.What similarities do you see in your background as an athlete and an entertainer?I believe that anyone who uses their body to move with passion and gives their best effort is an athlete. What athletes and entertainers have in common is how they pour countless hours into a defining moment, like a performance. While entertainers give their all on stage, athletes push their limits in pursuit of victory. Compared to the glorious moments of winning or performing, the hours of practice or rehearsals aren’t that glamorous. Athletes and entertainers need endurance to reach their goals, but the result is so worth it in the end.&nbsp;

What’s your most memorable Nike shoe or piece of apparel?&nbsp;It’s not an exaggeration to say that I’ve grown up with the Air Force 1 and the Dunk. My favorite Nike shoe right now is the&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/air-max-muse-official-images" target="null">Nike Air Max Muse</a>&nbsp;in the silver colorway. I first tried them during a short trip around Europe after Milan Fashion Week. What I love most about them, aside from the comfort, is how it can elevate my whole outfit. I can pair it with a leather jacket and jeans. How could I not fall in love with a shoe like that?&nbsp;What are you most looking forward to in partnering with Nike?&nbsp;Nike empowers self-expression and encourages people to challenge stereotypes and forge new paths. If you’re confident in your dreams, you should keep pushing forward. Hopefully my journey combined with Nike’s message can inspire more people and bring positive influence to the world.

The 25-year-old artist on her black belt in taekwondo, how the Air Max Muse pairs with everything, and why partnering with Nike was a natural fit.

Welcome to the Family

5 Questions With K-Pop Star KARINA

Images: <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="/company/people/cameron-strand-contributing-photographer" target="_blank" class="ql-size-small">Cameron Strand</a> Two world records broken. Nike athlete <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/faith-kipyegon-profile" target="_blank">Faith Kipyegon</a>'s 1500m WR, forecast last week during her <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/topics/breaking4" target="_blank">#Breaking4 attempt</a>, and Beatrice Chebet's 5000m WR. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/pre-classic-bowerman-mile" target="_blank">New national records set</a>. Personal bests across the board. All in front of a sold-out crowd at Eugene’s Hayward Field, a venue considered sacred ground in the world of track and field. The 50th anniversary of the Pre Classic was every bit worthy of the meet’s namesake, <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/how-steve-prefontaine-set-the-pace-for-nike" target="_blank">legendary runner Steve Prefontaine</a>, and the images below show what fans of this sport have always known: For witnessing drama, suspense, electric energy and endless passion, there is nothing better than the athlete magic of track and field.

The drama, suspense, energy and passion — if you're not yet a fan of track and field, you're about to become one.

Incredible Scenes from the 50th Anniversary of the Pre Classic

Words: <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="/company/people/davis-jones-senior-editor" target="_blank" class="ql-size-small">Davis Jones</a> Images: <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="/company/people/cameron-strand-contributing-photographer" target="_blank" class="ql-size-small">Cameron Strand</a>To fully understand the look on Niels Laros’s face after narrowly clinching this year’s Bowerman Mile in Eugene, you have to go back to the ringing of the bell lap, when he still trailed the race leader, American Yared Nuguse, by more than three seconds.In front of a sold-out crowd in Eugene, Ore. at the 50th&nbsp;Pre Classic, the 20-year-old Dutch runner tapped into his own brand of Hayward magic. He separated himself from the chase pack with 400m to go. Then, at the final 200m mark, he took off for Nuguse, running an unthinkable 25.9 second split and making up an almost 8-meter gap in the homestretch. The two racers lunged at the finish line. A few seconds later, Laros saw the official time, wearing a look of disbelief: 3:45.94. He’d won the Bowerman Mile by one-one-hundredth of a second and set a new Dutch national record. His final lap — 53.3 — was one of the fastest fourth laps since the United Kingdom’s Steve Cram broke the world record in 1985.“Man, that Hayward magic is real,” says Laros. “It’s a once in a lifetime feeling to experience a race like that.”For 25 years, the Bowerman Mile has brought together the world’s most talented milers, assembling pros, world champions and Olympic medalists. The event is one of four premier mile races left in the world: the Dream Mile in Oslo, the Wanamaker Mile in New York City and&nbsp;&nbsp;the Mile Invitational in Iowa. Of those, it’s produced more sub-4-minute miles than any other race, counting 418 such performances to date, including this year’s race in Eugene.&nbsp;Speaking of which, the 2025 race was arguably the deepest mile race in history, featuring the most men in one race under 3:50 (13), 3:49 (9) and 3:48 (8).What makes the Bowerman Mile stand apart? Fast times don’t always correlate to a fast track. The latter can be an immeasurable mix of qualities tied to time, place and circumstances, leading to generational performances. But talk to anyone who’s competed in the race, and they’ll tell you: there’s something different about the Bowerman Mile.&nbsp;

The Competitive Field

Year after year, the Bowerman Mile draws a stacked lineup, assembled with reigning world champions and record holders. Since 2000, it’s taken a time of 3:51.84 or faster to win the event. The race’s buy-in is all the more impressive considering that its results don’t count toward points at the end of the pro circuit, even though it’s classified as a Diamond League meet.A runner who always circles the date of the Bowerman Mile is Australia’s Cam Myers, who finished sixth this year and set an Australian under-20 record with 3:47.50. In 2023, at just 16 years old, Myers ran as a pacer for Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who clocked the Bowerman Mile’s fastest-ever time in 3:43.73, setting a European and Diamond League record.“We all want to win this race in particular,” says Myers. “It’s intensely competitive, and it’s the perfect environment for fast times.”Whether or not a record falls at the Bowerman Mile, each year’s race teases out greatness in every runner, carrying the makings of a personal best.

Grant Fisher, who holds the American Record in the 2-mile distance, ran his first Bowerman Mile this year, laying down a 3:48.29. The race is a self-fulfilling prophecy, he says. When racers know they are surrounded by a fast field, they all raise their game. Plus, the Bowerman Mile is almost always rabbited, or led by a pacer. Runners know they’ll get wrenched to their physical thresholds. Once the pacer drops, there’s no time to think. Just go.“We all know the pacer is going to take us deep into the race,” Fisher says. “When the pacer drops, the field is of such high quality that these amazing times just keep rolling.”

Consider one of the Bowerman Mile’s most memorable performances — when Alan Webb, then a high school senior out of Virginia, broke the national high school mile record set by Jim Ryun that had stood for 37 years. The pacemaker took the first 409 meters at a searing 54.6, equivalent to a mile pace of 3:34.8.At the race’s halfway mark, Webb had moved up from last place to 13th. The pace was brutal, and yet, with 400m to go, Webb remembers how his body felt loose, light and capable of much, much more. He began picking runners off on the backstretch. His turnover cycled with a power that outlasted men a decade older, who had competed for medals, who had set national records.&nbsp;“Sometimes, the stars align in a race, and I knew this was one of those moments,” says Webb, recalling the moment. “When I got to that bell lap, I was able to find something in myself. Running the Bowerman Mile has that effect on people.”

The Historic Location

The grandeur of the former Hayward Field, with its wooden grandstands and its Bowerman Building as the sentinel watching from the track’s eastern end, is different from how a spectator would describe the view from the updated stadium — a colossal venue built for the modern age. Webb remembers while he was barreling down the backstretch in 2001 how the extreme slope of the west grandstands gave the feeling that the fans “were right on top of you.” The passion and knowledge of the fans sitting in those seats rivals any locale in track and field.&nbsp;

“Even before Prefontaine, Oregon had a history of domestic milers who were very, very good, people like James Bailey, Dyrol Burleson and Jim Grelle back in the Bowerman coaching days,” says Pat Tyson, who ran for the University of Oregon in the early ’70s, where he was roommates with Pre himself.&nbsp;&nbsp;“The mile always had a cache among fans here, even before the Bowerman Mile officially began.”

Hayward Field is a place where fans take on the role of engaged sports scientist versus passive spectator. They’ll set their personal stopwatches to the smoke of the gun and scribble a runner’s splits in the margins of their program.&nbsp;Kaarin Knudson knows. She ran for UO’s track &amp; cross-country team from 1994 to 1999. A seven-time NCAA qualifier who won the NCAA’s Woman of the Year for Oregon in her senior season, she now serves as the mayor of Eugene. Her experience as a civic leader and a former athlete gives her a uniquely personal view on what makes Eugene’s passion for track so special.

“I have distinct memories while at UO of going on my easy runs and being stopped by community members, people I didn’t know; they’d congratulate me on a race I ran the previous weekend,” says Knudson. “When you’re an athlete, it’s motivating to be surrounded by a community who both root for you on race day and who recognize you when you’re ‘offstage,’ so to speak.”Few competitors benefit from the Hayward energy quite like those who ran for UO during their college years — runners like Cole Hocker, who’s run his top three fastest mile times at the Pre Classic. During his rookie season in 2022, he donned the Nike kit in front of his home crowd for the first time at the Bowerman Mile. This year, he improved his personal best to 3:47.43.“Every time I get the chance to run at Hayward, I remind myself to appreciate the moment, just because of the history that has happened there before me,” says Hocker.&nbsp;

The Special Distance

The mile and its cousin, the 1500m, are separated by a little more than 100m. Depending on who you ask, the difference in how you run the mile compared to the 1500m is marginal. Webb jokes that you’re basically doing the same event, but the mile comes down to “who’s willing to suffer a little longer.” Others, like Laros, say the tactical game of the mile is slightly different than the 1500m. For him, the main difference comes from the start.&nbsp;“Because you’re starting on the opening curve in the mile, you have less time to figure out your position before you need to tuck into the right spot,” says Laros. “You basically have to get shot out of a cannon and find a good slot so you’re not sorting it out on the corner and running a little extra distance.”The cultural power of the mile gives it a revered place in the consciousness of running, along with the marathon. Both are niche distances in track and field, yet still count for world records.&nbsp;The wonder of the mile might come down to its clean simplicity. Four laps. Taking the laps at one minute a piece add up to four minutes, considered the standard for the elite miler. The starting line is in roughly the same place as the finish. The same fans who cheer on the field at the gun are the same who cheer at the finish.&nbsp;

One could argue that the mile distance, in fact, was the spark that lit Bill Bowerman’s fascination with long-distance running performance. As a freshman at Oregon playing football, he met Ralph Hill, the first elite miler he befriended at the university. One day, Bowerman ran 400m around the track at an all-out sprint to test his speed. The clock read 63 seconds. Bill Hayward, UO’s track coach, leaned over and smirked. “Just so you know,” he said, “Ralph goes that fast for four laps.”

Its relative scarcity at the professional level adds to distance’s mythical status. Pro runners don’t get many opportunities to compete in the mile. You might get a couple shots at it per year, between Eugene, Oslo and New York City.“You can jump into plenty of 1500m races during the year. But it’s no guarantee you’ll get into one of these mile races on the pro circuit,” says Webb. “That’s assuming you’re healthy when your name gets called. If you get a chance at the mile, you better put it all on the line.”That motivation fuels every competitor in the Bowerman Mile. From the young racer who’s traveling to Eugene for the first time, to the seasoned pro who wants to assert their world ranking, the Bowerman Mile summons a kind of communal willpower. For Laros, participation among those four laps, holding nothing back, is a rare privilege, one that can be tough to describe. Ironically, sometimes a fast time takes a backseat to the opportunity to step onto that 1609m starting line.“Winning this race meant even more to me than setting the national record,” he says. “Obviously, running a fast time gives me a lot of pride, but taking the win here, at this place, was what I’m most proud of.”

The Bowerman Mile at the Pre Classic has produced more sub-4:00 times than any event in the world. Here’s what makes it so fast.

Inside the World’s Fastest Mile Race

Every image tells a story. Here, a Nike photographer breaks down one of their favorite photographs and the unique sport moment it represents.﻿

Photographer Cameron Strand reflects on capturing the surprise of Niels Laros' win at The Pre-Classic

Cameron Strand on capturing Niels Laros' win

"As a photographer, so much of what makes a shot meaningful is when you capture a moment that can never be duplicated. You try out certain techniques like these slow shutters in very high-pressure moments, like during a fast race. You get one attempt to get it right. If it works correctly, it’s an unforgettable feeling. At the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/incredible-scenes-from-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-pre-classic" target="_blank">Pre Classic</a>, capturing the surprise of Niels Laros as he squeezed by Yared Nuguse in the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/pre-classic-bowerman-mile" target="_blank">Bowerman Mile</a> was one of those moments. I was shooting the race from the infield. More often than not, photographers love to position themselves straight onto the finish line at track events so they can get the clearest shots of the winners. If they’re shooting for a brand, they’ll try to get clean looks at logos and faces. I tend to go the other route. I knew I wanted to get a panning, slow-shutter shot of the winner crossing the finish line, to break up some of the sharper photos I had taken earlier in the day. But during the last lap, Niels turned up the heat, running a crazy split in the last 200 meters. Everyone was jumping out of their seats to see if he could catch Nuguse, who was trying to hold on. I positioned myself close to the finish line. It turned out that the slow shutter was the perfect approach for the situation. Not only did Niels run a crazy final hundred meters, but it was looking like it would be a photo finish.This image reminds me how, if you dig down deep enough, you can do things you might not have thought were possible. If you see the look on his face once he finishes, you can see how shocked he was that he won the race in the dramatic way he did. It was the same surprise I felt after I tried something different for one of the fastest, most important races of the day, and ultimately, captured a moment that couldn’t be duplicated."

— Cameron StrandSee more of Cameron’s work on Instagram: <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.instagram.com/cameronstrand/" target="_blank" class="ql-size-small">@cameronstrand</a>

Cameron was born in Rochester, New York, but grew up in the small town of Brighton, Michigan. Skateboarding and snowboarding were his life until he minted himself as a photographer. For the first 15 years of his career, after he moved to Los Angeles, he shot for skate brands almost exclusively, constantly pushing himself to capture a familiar subject in a fresh, dynamic way. It was like DIY photo school. Try never to be at ground level, and use everything around you to build a more interesting photograph in camera. Foreground elements, reflections, the grit of the street, sun flare, off-kilter perspectives, light trails — This creative restlessness culminated into a signature look that continues to evolve in exciting ways.His approach to visual storytelling envelops you in the moment. You feel like you’re the runner trying to beat your personal best, hugging the curves of a racetrack on a motorbike, bouldering with your friends, cycling against a spectacular natural panorama, or rounding up cattle at golden hour. “I like the challenge of making the product the focus but having each image feel honest and human,” says Cameron.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Cameron Strand

When Niels Laros powered through to win this year's Bowerman Mile, our photographer was ready.

The Nike Moment

What It Takes to Capture a Photo Finish

Images: <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="/company/people/sofieke-van-bilsen-contributing-photographer" target="_blank" class="ql-size-small">Sofieke van Bilsen</a>No matter where you were watching Faith Kipyegon take to the track to <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-athlete-faith-kipyegon-breaks-mile-record-time" target="_blank">break the 4-minute mile</a> — in standing-room-only crowds of employees at Nike’s worldwide campuses; at watch parties in Chicago, Los Angeles, Eldoret, Kenya; on digital billboards in New York City, London and Mexico City; or gripping the edge of your seat inside Stade Charléty in Paris — the emotions of <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/topics/breaking4" target="_blank">Breaking4</a> were palpable: excitement, nervousness, elation, pride.The images below reflect every feeling and show what track and field fans have always known: Faith Kipyegon is a champion. The team at Nike knows it too.“I feel so proud of myself that I’ve tried,” Faith said post-attempt. “Today was a learning lesson, that I have to give it my all, and that’s what I did —&nbsp;I gave it my all. And it’s shown me that everything is possible, and I think I’ve shown other women out there that can be true for them too. We have to push ourselves toward what we dream of and dare to try.”Faith, we can’t wait to see, and support, what you dare to try next.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Go trackside to see and feel the emotion from the champion's historic attempt.

Behind the Scenes of Faith Kipyegon's Breaking4 Attempt Day

From the moment Faith Kipyegon broke the women’s mile world record in Monaco in 2023, there was a palpable energy in the air, a sense that something bigger was beginning.&nbsp;As Nike Footwear Innovation Lead Carrie Dimoff puts it, “I’ll never forget the feeling in the stadium. It was electric. Everyone was amazed but already starting to wonder: Could this be the beginning of the sub-4-minute mile for women?” You could call that the start of Breaking4. But the essence of Faith Kipyegon and Nike’s project is more timeless: Showing all athletes* that barriers are meant to be pushed and dreams meant to be big. Says Faith, “I get motivated by thinking of what I can achieve, the boundaries I can break, and how I can empower the next generation. You can’t limit yourself. You have to go for that dream. I want to show women especially that anything is possible.”Here, a visual chronicle of Faith and Nike’s Breaking4 journey — and clear evidence of the power of daring to try. *If you have a body, you are an athlete.

Faith in the Nike Sport Research Lab

Experimenting with Pacer Formations

Faith and Eliud Walking in Camp

A visual reflection on the shared goal — inspiring all athletes to dream big and break barriers — between the world’s fastest woman miler and Nike.

Feature

The Breaking4 Journey: Faith Kipyegon and Nike’s Unforgettable Project

Every image tells a story. Here, a Nike photographer breaks down one of their favorite photographs and the unique sport moment it represents.

Photographer Sofieke van Bilsen reflects on a culminating moment in the Breaking4 journey

Sofieke van Bilsen on a special Breaking4 moment

"I think this photograph shows the ethos of the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/behind-the-scenes-faith-kipyegon-breaking4-attempt-day" target="_blank">Breaking4 project</a> — runner Faith Kipyegon’s attempt to break the 4-minute mile. This race meant more than a time, a competition, beating others. It showed young girls and woman that they can believe in themselves and dream big. I took this shot minutes before the race started. Faith had completed her warm-up, got her <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/faith-kipyegon-breaking4-speed-kit-behind-the-design" target="_blank">Nike suit and spikes</a> on and was ready to go. The pacers were about to be called up to enter the stadium, and Faith had a moment to herself. She was walking nervously around, putting her head on the table. On the other side of the call room, the pacers were mingling and chatting. Even though she was divided physically in a room, this was a project that was done together.I was personally invested in it too. I’d been following Faith’s <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/faith-kipyegon-nike-breaking4-journey" target="_blank">Breaking4 journey</a> for months prior to the attempt. Visiting her, together with the Nike team in Kenya, to capture her extensive training sessions, as well as the process and the innovation side of the moonshot. For the attempt itself, in Stade Charléty in Paris, the pressure was high to get the shots I needed but not disrupt Faith’s focus. When I took this image, I was roaming, photographing the pacers, and giving Faith space. Then I saw this framing: Faith alone in the call room, clearly nervous, surrounded by walls, which seem to make the intensity of being trapped within her own anxiousness even stronger. She is in the spotlight, the light shining on her. Then, the contrast to the pacers, ready to be called out, without the constraints of the walls, wearing pink, smiling, and mingling together, in a darker environment — like they will run in the shadow of Faith’s dreams. To me, this image says that there are no limits that you should put upon yourself. Everyone should dare to dream, and you are never alone to achieve those dreams."

— Sofieke van Bilsen See more of Sofieke’s work on Instagram: <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.instagram.com/sofiekevanbilsen/" target="_blank" class="ql-size-small">@sofiekevanbilsen</a>

Experience what the champion runner was feeling minutes before attempting to break the 4-minute mile, through our photographer's lens.

Faith Kipyegon and Her Breaking4 Pacers Minutes Before History

Words: <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="/company/people/davis-jones-senior-editor" target="_blank" class="ql-size-small">Davis Jones</a> Images: <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="/company/people/dan-vernon-contributing-photographer" target="_blank" class="ql-size-small">Dan Vernon</a> and <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="/company/people/sofieke-van-bilsen-contributing-photographer" target="_blank" class="ql-size-small">Sofieke van Bilsen</a> At its core, Breaking4 — <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/breaking4-faith-kipyegon-vs-the-four-minute-mile" target="_blank">Faith Kipyegon’s project with Nike</a> to run a sub-4-minute mile — has always been about heart and belief. That’s what’s powering Kipyegon, alongside <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/faith-kipyegon-breaking4-speed-kit-behind-the-design" target="_blank">cutting-edge Nike performance products</a>. But don’t think for a second — certainly not the 7.65 seconds Kipyegon needs to shave off her world record mile time —&nbsp;that Nike didn’t consider hundreds of other factors to get Kipyegon across the line in a time starting with a “3.”To complement and amplify Kipyegon’s bespoke products — including a one-of-one Nike Fly Suit, <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/nike-new-performance-material-flyweb" target="_blank">a revolutionary FlyWeb Bra</a> and a first of its kind Victory 2 Elite FK spike — <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/meet-the-dream-team-behind-faith-kipyegon-s-breaking4-attempt" target="_blank">the Breaking4 team</a> dialed in the attempt’s aerodynamics and efficiency. Preparation and location. Weather and, well, vibes. Each of these points contain smaller details that the Nike Innovation team scrutinized from every angle, all in an effort to nail a perfectly orchestrated approach with Kipyegon. Dive into 10 of the ways Nike offered its support.

<h3>1. Let Faith Be Faith </h3>Faith Kipyegon isn’t toeing the line for Breaking4 as merely an elite runner. She’s built a case as one of the greatest middle-distance runners of all time. She’s the current world record holder across three distances. Her three gold medals in the 1,500 meter span almost a decade and counting. There are intangibles too. She has her training preferences perfectly tuned. She understands her own athleticism like a driver knows its race car. Nike’s role in Breaking4 wasn’t to reset Kipyegon, but to add to the capabilities of an already historic runner.

History of the Women’s Mile

Faith vs. the 4-Minute Mile

<h3>2. Instill Confidence</h3>In the beginning of Breaking4 strategizing, the Innovation team debated the trajectory of Kipyegon’s 1-mile racecourse. What if the path was a straightaway, like in a road race? Remove all the curves, and ensure a pacing formation could be linear instead of skewed for left turns? ﻿When the team shared this with Kipyegon, she was vocal: She’d feel more confident and comfortable running on a track, where she’d built her entire professional career on reading the eight lanes, tuning her focus to the inside rail.“Whether it was a feature of the racecourse, her pacer formation or a detail in her apparel, building her confidence meant everything to us,” says Amy Jones Vaterlaus, VP Innovation, NSRL. “We listened to her intently. We watched for cues she’d give off, maybe without even realizing it. Ensuring she can move freely, without distraction, is just one more way we can help build her confidence.”

<h3>3. Choose the Right Time of Year</h3>Kipyegon’s professional schedule weighed heavily in choosing the month for the attempt. If she’s to peak in mid September during the World Championships in Tokyo, she has to give her body the ideal window of time for training periodization, or the scaling of her preparation to leave her feeling ready to go. The optimal timing: late June.

<h3>4. Game the Weather</h3>﻿Weather conditions on race day can be the dealbreaker for achieving fast times. Heat, wind and rain can all put an additional load on an athlete. Too much heat is a thermal burden that leads to overexertion. Too much wind — and around a track, there will always be a headwind at a certain point — creates drag forces that slow runners down. Weather doesn’t come on demand, of course, and the Nike team knew the ideal geographic location of the attempt would need to cross off as many criteria as possible: zero rain, less than 12 km/hr wind, moderate temperatures.

<h3>4. Minimize the Jet Lag</h3>﻿Anyone who flies internationally can attest to the physical and mental toil from zooming through time zones, leaving you sluggish and fatigued. Your body has a circadian rhythm, an internal clock, that prompts you to wake up and go to sleep. Somewhere in the middle of that time period is the bioenergetic sweet spot, when you feel most energized, or, in Kipyegon’s case, most physically capable. That made finding the right area of the world for the attempt paramount for Breaking4. Minimizing a shift in time zones would help keep Kipyegon’s body clock from feeling out of whack.“We knew she couldn’t arrive feeling drained,” says Jones Vaterlaus. “Paris having a time zone of one-hour difference from Kenya was a much easier decision than, say, somewhere in the United States, where Faith’s jet lag would be significant.”

<h3>6. Dial in the Track</h3>A track isn’t an inert surface. It possesses levels of responsiveness that can leave a runner’s legs feeling fresh, or it can be firm and dampening, diffusing the precious energy that a runner puts into the ground. Texture matters too. Its grittiness can be well-suited, or not at all, for traction as a runner digs into the turns. For Breaking4, the Nike Innovation team ordered swatches of 10 track surfaces from around the world, sampling from different stadiums, to find the composition ideal for Kipyegon’s performance, which included considerations like Kipyegon’s bodyweight and stride rate.“Our footwear solution for Faith was built on studying the interaction between Faith’s foot and the ground,” says Carrie Dimoff, Sr. Manager for Innovation Footwear. “Our formula had to consider the track surface she’ll be running on, and the properties the surface does or doesn’t carry. While we were still landing on the location, we were able to test our spike prototypes on the exact track surface so we could evaluate energy return and traction effectiveness.”

Stade Charléty Stadium, Paris France

<h3>5. Find the Ideal Stadium</h3>The team knew Kipyegon wanted to compete on a track to stay true to the historical spirit of her sport. That left Nike’s Innovation team with the crucial decision of which track. A track where a runner has preexisting history can give them the comfort they need to lay down a fast time. One of these options was in Monaco, where Kipyegon broke the mile world record in 2023. The team also considered Eugene, Ore. In 2023, Kipyegon stepped onto Hayward Field and cruised to a Diamond League title in the 1,500 meter while setting a Prefontaine Classic meet record. In the end, the team decided on Stade Charléty in Paris, where Kipyegon ran her world record times in the 1,500 meter and the 5,000 meter. “I absolutely think there’s special energy at this track,” says Kipyegon. “I have beautiful memories in Paris, breaking the 5,000 world record, breaking the 1,500 world record there. And now we are going for this special one, and I think the track will bring good results.”

<h3>8. Perfect a Pacer Strategy</h3>﻿Nike’s previous moonshot attempt, Breaking2, was a grand lesson in pacing strategy and aerodynamics. Nailing the drafting formation for Breaking4 would be one of the key elements to give Kipyegon the best chance to go sub-4. To help reduce the drag on Kipyegon, the Nike team considered countless pacer configurations, experimenting with the number of runners, the balance between men and women, and the geometry of the formation itself. They also thought about whether to introduce new pacers during the attempt. The upshot? Disruptions can make the smoothness of drafting go haywire; the choice to switch in runners midway through a lap can create micro-undulations in the air frequency, disturbing Kipyegon’s speed.“Creating a low air pressure pocket for Faith requires total synchrony among all the pacers in the formation,” says Kirby. “Experimenting with different formations is a lot like rearranging the pieces on a chess board. The timing needs to be right, the group positioning needs to be right, and the relationship between any single pacer to Faith needs to be right.”

<h3>9. Pump up the Color</h3>Color choice has the psychological power to motivate an athlete to reach her highest potential. Though the Nike Innovation team used little color in the Nike Fly Suit — one reason was that doing so would affect the aerodynamic properties of the material — the suit’s Nike Aeronodes are in a color-shifting purple, a nod to Kipyegon’s favorite color. The stadium itself will be awash in purple, covering the stands, the jumbotron and the signage around the track. At literally every turn, Kipyegon will see the color that motivates her. Beyond the day-of race environment, Kipyegon’s Nike Running collection is also rooted in purple. The collection, which includes footwear and apparel, is paired with accents of red and green, representing her Kenyan heritage. And on Kipyegon’s Victory Elite FK spike, gold accents denote her gold medal victories.

<h3>10. Give Her All the Nike Advantages</h3>The Innovation team gave Kipyegon the full gamut of Nike tools during her training leading up to the attempt. Some are at the modern edge of athlete recovery methodology, such as <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/hyperboot-by-nike-hyperice-official-images" target="_blank">Nike’s Hyperice boots</a>, a heat and air-compression massage tool. Others, such as Nike’s <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-vomero-plus-vomero-premium-official-images" target="_blank">new Vomero Premium shoe</a>, were ideal for recovery runs or long mileage. Then there were the innovations that were expedited so Kipyegon could benefit from their advantages before and during the race. Nike FlyWeb, <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/nike-new-performance-material-flyweb" target="_blank">a new 3D-printed material used for </a>Kipyegon<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/stories/nike-new-performance-material-flyweb" target="_blank">’s sports bra</a>, was moved forward in its production cycle for Kipyegon to train in it. “This attempt is the first time Nike FlyWeb will be tested on the world stage, and in a one-of-one bra,” says Janett Nichol, VP of Apparel Innovation. “Faith gave us a rare opportunity: She would not only wear it, she’d help us evolve it.”

When she takes to the starting line, in every way, Kipyegon will represent Nike’s latest and greatest.

Speed suit, sports bra, spikes, dialed. Here, other essential factors Nike considered to give Faith Kipyegon the best support for Breaking4.

Innovation

10 Details Nike Obsessed to Support Faith Kipyegon and Breaking4

When Marquis Mills Converse founded his eponymous company in 1908 in Boston, Mass., his mission was to create an operation that functioned independent of the industry’s monopolies, rooted in a community of the best rubber shoemakers. His first products were galoshes and waterproof winter boots, which meant demand for his wares dipped in warmer seasons. To keep his highly skilled craftspeople occupied year-round, Converse needed a summer offering. A canvas tennis shoe with a rubber sole debuted in 1910, but the company’s true breakthrough didn’t come until it saw an opportunity to apply its signature innovations to a sneaker expressly designed for a then-newfangled local sport: basketball.Invented in 1891 in nearby Springfield, Mass., basketball was growing in popularity and being adopted by regional colleges when Converse introduced its “Non-Skid” shoe in 1917, defining the design as the “All-American Basket-Ball Shoe.” It was crafted on the company’s original dress shoe last with two-piece quarter for superior ankle fit and paired with a non-skid sole that employed Converse’s patented diamond-tread pattern.&nbsp;

The sneaker was first marketed to the area’s coaches, who provided Converse with constructive feedback, including noting that they’d prefer a darker canvas upper because the light tan hue revealed too many scuffs and dings. In response, the company created a dark brown version of the Non-Skid, featuring black trim up the eye row. The iteration was officially branded the “All Star” in 1919, kicking off a new round of basketball-specific innovations that came to characterize the silhouette as the leading performance basketball shoe of the next half-century.As for the shoe’s namesake, Chuck Taylor (aka Charles Hollis Taylor), he arrived a few years later.

Converse Archivist Sam Smallidge on the intersection of Converse, Chuck Taylor, and basketball.

He was hired by Converse in the early 1920s…

The shoe’s journey from afterthought to global icon defies convention, which begins to explain why the Converse Chuck Taylor All Star has served as a talisman of self-expression for multiple generations, subcultures and genres: It has never tried to fit in.