This summer will see France host the Women’s World Cup: a tournament that, while seismic in its sporting impact, has historically been routinely overlooked. The way that women have been treated in sport – whether dismissed, fetishised, or relegated to second-class status – holds a mirror to a culture that often treats us the same elsewhere. Now, Nike is making efforts to level the pitch.
This week, the behemoth brand invited some of the world’s greatest athletes to Paris to showcase its focus for 2019: to explicitly champion women in sports. Using the World Cup and the kits they have created for it as a catalyst for development across the board, Nike has reworked its strategy – rather than adopting the “shrink it and pink it” approach that has long defined female sportswear, adapting its design from menswear templates, it is designing pieces from scratch to explicitly support and enhance female performance. While that might sound like banal product development – the width of a football jersey’s neck, now widened to be pulled over a ponytail, or the curve of its hem, gradiated to flatter the body, is hardly going to make headline fashion news – the simple idea that women deserve the same attention that has long been afforded men is astonishingly radical.
“It’s critically important,” explains Nike CEO Mark Parker. “And it’s in our brand DNA – going back to our co-founder Bill Bowerman, who was all about getting insight from athletes in terms of what they need and turning those insights into innovation.” Equally, by championing women like long-time Nike ambassador Serena Williams; Caster Semenya, who is facing astonishing misogyny from the IAAF; and Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first woman to wear a hijab while competing for the US in the Olympics, it’s placing women front and centre through their “Dream Crazier” narrative, which refigures the idea of the hysterical woman as a positive force. “If we show emotion, we’re called dramatic. If we want to play against men, we’re nuts. And if we dream of equal opportunity? Delusional. When we stand for something, we’re unhinged. When we’re too good, there’s something wrong with us. And if we get angry, we’re hysterical, irrational, or just being crazy,” narrates Serena Williams over the searing orchestrals of its latest advert, which debuted during the Oscars. “A woman winning 23 grand slams, having a baby and then coming back for more? Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, and crazy. So if they wanna call you crazy? Fine. Show them what crazy can do.”
“We love athletes who are, I’d say, more critical,” continues Parker. “Serena’s a great example of an athlete who really likes to push the envelope in terms of what she wears, what she needs. She’s very demanding both in terms of performance and in terms of style. She likes to make a statement, and she likes to push things. That’s what makes us better.” It’s incredibly rare to hear someone talk about female demands in that way – as a catalyst for change rather than an inconvenience – and while it might make for savvy media spin, that approach has genuinely filtered down to product level. Besides the new custom football kits created from recycled polyester, which will be dressing 14 federations this summer, the brand is launching 42 new styles of sports bra which harness the development at their disposal to serve the bodies of women (that takes their range up to a staggering 57 options). A FE/NOM Flyknit Bra uses single-layer weaving to fabricate a bra without the irritation of stitching, wire or bonding but using the functionality of highly-engineered technology. The Motion Adapt 2.0 uses a foam and polymer blend which stretches with movement, but locks with velocity: a piece that will suit the demands of yoga as well as it will jogging (their designers heard some women were taking three different bras to the gym to suit the different requirements of different types of athletics; this eliminates that need). Again, it doesn’t sound very sexy on paper – but how brilliant that someone has made 42 bras that revolve around performance?
Incidentally, Nike will be providing sports bras and Pro Hijabs to young women without the means to afford them through their community initiatives. Research has shown that, as early as primary school, girls are twice as likely to avoid sports as boys on the basis of confidence – and anyone who ever skipped P.E. class out of physical insecurity can attest to that fact. “We felt that if we could go in and make a difference with those girls, adolescent girls, we could actually help catalyse change – economically, socially,” reflects Parker. “Giving women and girls the opportunity to really participate equally, to have those opportunities… well the impact is well beyond just how well they do in a sport. It affects their whole life.”
Equally important is the appearance of its new offering: the idea that women might prefer aesthetics to performance is clearly a tired misnomer, but it’s just as frustrating to consider the two mutually exclusive (Williams in particular has long been shattering those stereotypes: from the Nike denim skirt and studded top she wore to play the US Open in 2004, to last year’s Virgil Abloh-designed tutu and compression fishnets). “When we feel good, when we look good, we play really well,” reflected Janett Nichol, Nike Vice President of Apparel Innovation. “What takes you from elite to super elite is mental,” said Jarrett Reynolds, Senior Design Director. Here, finally, both the physical and mental barriers that have long held women back both within the sporting arena and beyond are starting to be dismantled.
“The World Cup is a huge moment for sports, and a huge moment for women. We rally around these types of events,” says Parker. To see a brand actually doing so with a female focus is heartening. Seeing it materialise with a tangible output? Even better. Nike has long been an industry leader, both in terms of product and politics. Let’s hope the steps they’re making here reverberate far.