The Paris 2024 Olympics are still three months away, but Nike was early in the starting blocks, taking over the city’s Palais Brongniart with a three-day event and showcase.
The Brand brings Power to Paris Ahead of the Olympics.
Guests toured a museum-like maze of rooms dedicated to footwear and athletic gear along with displays highlighting its research and development programs: All in support of the reveal of Nike’s new Air shoes.
The imposing exterior of the building — formerly a stock exchange — was dominated with 30-foot-tall statues of some of the brand’s signed athletes: soccer stars Kylian Mbappé and Alexia Putellas, basketball stars LeBron James and Victor Wembanyama, sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson, and fencer Beatrice Vio.
The event unveiled new Air shoes for soccer, basketball and running. Products on display include the Maxfly2 and Victory 2, which will be available at select retailers in May, the Pegasus 41 will hit stores in June, and the G.T. Hustle and the Air Zoom Mercurial, which will be available in July. Nike also previewed its new Pegasus Premium, set to debut in 2025.
It all culminated in an evening event where athletes from myriad disciplines took to the stage to model their kits and shoes, emerging from behind a dazzling mesh-like digital screen and hamming it up for maximum applause.
Pre-Olympic Kick-Off Event
The only thing missing was the public, as the event was mounted for media and investors only. The three-day event was billed as an “innovation summit.” The title seemed a pointed answer to equity analysts’ concerns that Nike has lost its forward momentum in recent quarters, a wariness that was solidified by its latest round of financial results.
It’s all meant to showcase Nike’s new “innovation supercycle,” said President Consumer, product and Brand Heidi O’Neill, directly answering those critics.
O’Neill stepped into the role last August with the express mission to help Nike get its groove back.
With the new pilot program, Nike is planning several additional activations during the games centred at the Pompidou Center modern art museum before and during the summer games, which will have consumer-oriented events including meet-and-greets with athletes. This sounds so exciting and a reason to stay in Paris for events such as this.
“The Pompidou event will be about providing a more democratic experience for all consumers,” O’Neill said. “Maybe not everyone gets to go and experience the games, so we are bringing a little bit of that to consumers that can’t be there.”
Nike is heavily leaning into this marketing strategy on new brand positioning, with the slogan “Making athletes’ dreams come true.” With younger, upstart brands such as On and Hoka hitting their stride, O’Neill said the competition from newer brands has helped her hone a new brand voice for Nike versus the previously scattered messaging.
Part of the the Nike Air Event 2024 launch.
These products will be designed to give the average consumer a glimpse into how the brand serves its elite athletes — particularly around the Olympics — that will then scale to a broader audience that will be served through a mix of its direct-to-consumer and retail partners as it seeks to better balance its mix of sales channels.
The company works with 5,000 athletes in person in its research labs each year, said vice president of Nike Sport Research Lab Matthew Nurse, with 70 per cent of those being women to address the specific body type needs, including variations in injury risk, performance, recovery challenges and hormonal fluctuations.
“We haven’t always built products specifically for her,” he said of the female consumer. “Five or six years ago we made a concerted effort to over-index more than 50 per cent of our athletes [be female].”
In labs, Nike employs a combination of AI, computational design, AR and VR, plus deep mind sciences in product design. Nichol said that while the company is using AI, it is still using humans in the design process. “You absolutely need a human at the centre of all of this, we are dealing with human athletes, and it’s humans that can unlock what athletes need. There’s also a massive amount of emotion that goes into the work that we do,” she said.
O’Neill added that the company had lost its way by venturing too far from its sports roots. “Sport can still carry us to new places. We had to get back to the athlete.”
To that end, Nike paraded some of its best and brightest at the Paris event.
“But now we’re at a place where we’re in high demand. Everybody wants to attend a game, everybody wants to watch a game, everybody wants to see how some of our young talents that’s in our game develop and are marketed,” she said.
With more eyes on women’s sports, brands are eager to lend support. “Because once you want to invest in it, you’re more apt to get a return on your investment,” she said.
Chiles, who took silver at the Tokyo Games, is focused on getting the gold this year.
“At the end of the day, I’m always thinking about gold. I love gold, I wear gold jewellery all the time, so it’s in my brain 24/7,” she said. “Everybody’s thinking about the gold. We’re hungry for it.”
Are you coming to Paris for the Olympics? What are you most excited about? Drop a comment below.
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