- 13 hours ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Kamal, thanks for having us here on your turf today, obviously in New York City at Nike's headquarters in New
00:06York, on the eve, more or less, of the World Cup 2026.
00:11You're outfitting 12 teams, including, obviously, the most important for maybe the U.S., but France and Brazil and quite
00:17a few others.
00:18Kind of talk about what's at stake for Nike in an event like this that is, without a doubt, the
00:24biggest international sporting event.
00:26Yeah, listen, first of all, thank you.
00:28Thank you for this, but we're really excited.
00:31This is a moment where we prove ourselves.
00:34This is what we live for.
00:36I'm so excited that we get to, in a way, show the world all the great work that all of
00:41our teammates have been doing.
00:42And it's the opportunity for us to just put our mission to, in a way, at play, right, to bring
00:47inspiration and innovation to every athlete around the world.
00:50This is it.
00:51So it doesn't get any bigger than that because football is the biggest global sport.
00:55And we're excited about everything that we're going to show the world, from the innovation, right, on the pitch and
01:02how it transcends into culture.
01:04So it's a big moment.
01:05And it's kind of interesting.
01:06I mean, Elliott Hill has put a big focus on sport overall, but particularly on football.
01:10And forgive me if I interchange football and soccer a year and there, obviously, here in the U.S.
01:15We're a little behind on that.
01:16But it gets to this idea of just how big it has become for the nontraditional audiences.
01:22It's obviously been big internationally.
01:24And this is also the 30th anniversary where Nike really kind of made that big push into international football when
01:30it signed that deal with Brazil,
01:31which at the time I think was, like, the most lucrative deal between a brand and a national team.
01:35And you've re-upped that through 2038.
01:37So that's got to be an important relationship, right?
01:39It is critical.
01:40It is critical.
01:41And listen, it is critical because I think Brazil has been a really important part of our history.
01:47We saw in Brazil something really special that allows to shape the identity of what Nike football stands for today,
01:53right?
01:54That attacking, brilliant, creative, unexpected kind of football.
01:58We saw Zhinga.
02:00We shine a light.
02:01And Yoga Bonito became this amazing invitation for the world.
02:05So it is critical to us.
02:06And we're really excited to have partners like them.
02:08But it's all of them.
02:10We feel tremendous responsibility now with the tournament coming into, of course, home soil.
02:15We have tremendous partners in U.S. Soccer Federation as well.
02:19So, yeah, it's really exciting what we can do in moments like this.
02:23And the history that it has for us.
02:25I think about that moment because it was also around the time when soccer started to become a lot more
02:31popular here in the United States.
02:33And that deal that you had with Brazil, and more importantly, the designs that came out of that, it really
02:38kind of defined the aesthetic for quite a few years.
02:41Looking around at some of the designs you have for this year, whether it's with the U.S. team or
02:47Nigeria, France, et cetera,
02:50you see the partnerships that you have with the various fashion designers.
02:53Talk about why it was important to not just sort of focus on, obviously, the technology, the sport itself, but
03:00also on that fashionable side.
03:01Yeah, listen, I think one of the big components of football is the emotion, right?
03:06It's for us, we need to start with the athletes, and we want to make sure that we always serve
03:11the athletes with the best.
03:12That's why AeroFit and our national team kids are at the center of it, is we want to make sure
03:18that we provide athletes with the best to perform in a moment like this.
03:22But then we want to make sure that fans around the world find a way to also connect with the
03:28pride of those federations.
03:30And that's where, in this moment, I think we took a different approach to make sure that we had an
03:34offering for absolutely everyone.
03:36But it was not just about the product.
03:38I think in today's world, people want more than just product.
03:41It's the story behind it.
03:42It's making sure that there's an authenticity to the relationship that led to whether it's the design or the product.
03:49And that's where we're really excited, but also we feel proud that we have this roster of people that we've
03:54been working with for many years, communities.
03:57And our job is just to extract the best of that and make sure that we put it in a
04:01way where communities feel excited, feel seen, and so that we invite different people through different pathways.
04:08And that's, in a way, what we're going to try to do this summer is making sure that everyone feels
04:14represented and everyone feels that there's something for them so that they can celebrate football or the culture around it.
04:20When we talk about the culture around it and, more importantly, trying to define that culture, and forgive me, I'm
04:26going to bring up one of your main competitors.
04:28Obviously, Adidas is the official world sponsor of the World Cup.
04:33It's the three stripes, of course, on that ball.
04:37But Nike has had sort of a reputation, even when they aren't the official sponsor of something, whether it's the
04:42World Cup or the Olympics, of always making sure that everyone knows that that swoosh is there.
04:48I think back to the 84 Olympics in L.A., of course, 96 in Atlanta, and Michael Johnson's Golden Shoes.
04:56You're on the outside looking in, and I do wonder, is it more advantageous to be on the outside rather
05:02than sort of inside the stadium?
05:04Well, I wouldn't say it's advantageous.
05:06I think for us, what is really important is that we are at the heart of the game, right?
05:11For us, it all starts with athletes, and we have the best roster of athletes that are going to represent
05:17their country in this moment.
05:19And our number one job is to make sure that we serve those athletes with the best of the best,
05:24that we can either reduce distractions or just enhance their tremendous potential.
05:28So that's number one.
05:30And then, of course, we have an amazing roster of partners through the federations, and therefore, we are part of
05:35it in that regard.
05:37So I think for us, it's really important is that we think on how we show up in this moment
05:42and elevate the best of the game, because this is what we live for.
05:46We live to make the sport better.
05:48So I think that we are in a very advantageous position ourselves.
05:52We look at what we have and what we do with it, the stories we tell, the partnerships, and how
05:57we continue to push further with every single one of them.
06:01And I think that you'll see that reflected through the summer from the boots to, of course, the federation kits
06:06to the collaborations to everything around it,
06:09whether it's how we prepare athletes through a lens of training into how we help them recover.
06:14So I think we always craft our approach not around the things we have, but really around the things that
06:21we need to deliver in order to push the sport forward.
06:24You put a lot of time and effort into this, a lot of money, I assume, as well, with regard
06:28to this marketing push.
06:29This is already a multibillion-dollar business, football, for Nike.
06:33How do you measure whether what you're going to do over these next few weeks around the World Cup is
06:38a success,
06:39that you've actually done what you set out to do?
06:42Yeah. Well, listen, internally, of course, we are looking at these investments across the board,
06:48and we are really thoughtfully measuring every single aspect of our efforts,
06:53whether it's innovation resonating with the players, first and foremost,
06:57and they're, of course, engaging with communities, with consumers, the reaction.
07:01But the reality is that this is not just about how we win in the moment and how the investments,
07:06in a way, pay off in the moment,
07:08but really this is a really intentional investment towards our future because this is not just about the moment,
07:14but it's about how we continue to lead in the sport, but also across all sports.
07:19Because this is the play we've made last year is really going back to vertically being authentically rooted in every
07:26single sport,
07:26obsessing every detail, sustaining that effort, not just being in the moment, but sustaining it,
07:32and then making sure we connect the dots when possible.
07:35And I do think that that's the beauty of football is it allows us to connect the best of our
07:40sport-led offense in a moment
07:41and really create, in a way, exponential compounding momentum.
07:46Your marketing approach is interesting, too.
07:48I mean, you have, obviously, your actual official athletes as part of this.
07:53You've got Kim Kardashian.
07:55Of course, you have this partnership with Skims, entertainers,
07:59but you also have the streetball league that you'd set up as well.
08:02Kind of connect the dots between kind of that high and low, forgive the phrasing,
08:07and where authenticity sort of intersects there.
08:10Yeah, great.
08:11And I will probably invert what you said.
08:13But for us, football has, in a way, always started in the streets, the beaches, and, of course, the courts,
08:20in a way.
08:21So we've spotted talent or potential there.
08:24And so for us, Tomah is a really important platform that is not about this moment.
08:29We've been in the journey of elevating street soccer and, in a way, street football around the world
08:34for now more than 18 months and around more than 60 cities around the world.
08:39And the reason why I said that is because that's where you find the true essence of the game.
08:43You find the passion.
08:44You find the connection.
08:45You find how communities experience it.
08:48So we start from the ground up.
08:49And we really, in this moment, I think the offense has allowed us to do that,
08:53is to reconnect with communities on the ground, being more intimate,
08:58and making sure we understand what moves the fabric, and then go all the way up,
09:02and then connecting also the elite all the way down.
09:05Well, I want to touch on that a little bit more, particularly because when, you know,
09:09obviously Nike's legacy is certainly, obviously, running first.
09:12But here in the U.S., basketball was a big component of that.
09:15And I think about some of the marketing pushes they made back in the 80s and 90s,
09:19which was, I feel like there's a lot of parallels with Tomah.
09:22You saw them out in just, you know, random courts in random cities.
09:25And it wasn't random.
09:27Obviously, it was a significant push.
09:29But this also gets to the idea of who's driving that.
09:32Is that coming from the top of your corporate structure,
09:35or is that coming more from the street level with regards to Tomah?
09:38Part of the new sport-led offense has allowed us to, in a way, empower, again, the cities.
09:43I think sport happens in the cities.
09:45It's where consumers live, where they experience sport.
09:47So I think we're really excited about how now we can empower the cities to find the insights
09:53and also find those locations and those communities
09:56that can help us provide a different point of view.
09:59But it also creates an opportunity for us to bring global-led strategies
10:04that we know that can scale across the board.
10:07So I think for us, the magic sits in both, right?
10:10When we think about innovation at scale,
10:13we think about things that from the top can then be executed across the board.
10:18And then how we empower the teams on the ground to really just bring the best of that flavor
10:22that is going to drive dimension across our business.
10:25So I think that that's where the magic happens is it's both.
10:29You've talked in the past about the idea of kind of unscripted approach to the way that you market.
10:35What exactly does that mean?
10:36Well, I think the unscripted comes to a lens of the disruption
10:40or the approach that Nike has always had to innovation, right?
10:44It's that we believe that innovation is the result of iteration, right?
10:48And our founder really believed that is that he always obsesses the process
10:53and he believed that you could always make things better.
10:57That's why we always push ourselves every year to even make things that are working really great better.
11:02So for us, that's a really important component, especially in football.
11:07I think football, you've heard it from Helena today.
11:09I think it's being really regulated, especially in these big moments.
11:14And we want to make sure that we are a brand that inspires players,
11:17whether that is the street football kid or the elite on the pitch,
11:22that they can actually loosen themselves.
11:25And Nike will always be a brand that enables the creativity, the unexpected plays.
11:30And that was why in Brazil we saw that.
11:33But I think now we want to emulate it and put it out for the world.
11:37I do want to touch on Helena Thornton, the advocacy who leads your branding at Nike.
11:41And she talked about this idea.
11:43I saw an interview where she talked about this idea,
11:46specifically when it comes to international football,
11:48that it kind of needed a fresh perspective.
11:50And I wasn't clear exactly what she meant by that.
11:53Does she mean that from the perspective of how it's played,
11:56how it's promoted, how it's marketed?
11:58What are you trying to do?
12:00What we've always discussed and what she meant is we see that football,
12:05especially on the men's side, has become way more structured and more regulated.
12:09And I think players today are a little bit more, in a way, constrained.
12:16But we believe that for us it's more about how we, across the board, enable great football.
12:23And I think for us that's it.
12:24Nike football has always stood for inspiration, for creativity,
12:28for joyful football.
12:30And I think that that's more is we want to rip the script when it comes to the kind of
12:34disruption that we bring to unexpectedness.
12:37And when Nike hits the game, you don't know what's coming.
12:40And we want to inspire the next generation to feel the same,
12:42that they can just be themselves, right?
12:44And they can found through the game ways to express themselves,
12:47whether on the pitch or off the pitch.
12:49I think that that's a little bit of our approach.
12:51I am curious about some of the changes that Elliot Hill has made.
12:55I mean, you were with the company before he got there.
12:57The company was structured a little bit more around men's, women's, etc.
13:01He came in, ripped that script up, said, you know, we're focusing on the athlete.
13:05This is about sport.
13:06So you've been a part of both strategies.
13:08And I'm curious as to how the strategy that Elliot Hill has now taken this company on
13:14differs from what you were doing before.
13:16Did it really require you to change what you do and how you thought about it?
13:21Yeah, it's a big shift, right?
13:23At the end, it's a big company.
13:25But the good news is that the fundamentals were always there.
13:29That's what he's been amazing is that he, in a way,
13:32allowed us to refocus on the fundamentals that made Nike great.
13:36So having experienced it before and now,
13:38what I could say is that we've taken the best of the best.
13:41But in this new offense, it allows us to have more depth and breadth
13:44in the way that we authentically serve athletes in every sport
13:48while never losing the ability to look across and connect
13:51what's best of our portfolio of the sport often.
13:55So it feels different in the sense that now we have a renewed focus
13:59across the end-to-end value chain of Nike.
14:03And it allows us to really obsess every single aspect to it,
14:06but with the scale that Nike can provide in serving consumers.
14:09So I'm curious just geographically in terms of who you appeal to.
14:14I mean, obviously, this is a global sport.
14:17The U.S. has obviously become a big market for international football.
14:22We're hosting it in three countries this year.
14:24I think in four years, it's going to be in a few different countries,
14:27including Morocco and a couple others, I'm thinking,
14:29basically in North Africa, and then after that in Saudi Arabia.
14:34We're now entering new markets where the World Cup traditionally
14:37hasn't always had a stronghold.
14:41How does that change your marketing approach?
14:43And more importantly, what does that mean potentially for growth
14:47or maybe the broadening of your revenue and your customer base?
14:50Yeah, listen, there's no doubt for us that's why this moment matters a lot.
14:55There's a tremendous opportunity here, but football is the biggest global game.
15:00That's why we got into football, so that we can leverage the scale of the sport
15:05and in a way appeal to more consumers.
15:07Of course, we see opportunity everywhere, and that's the beauty of this game
15:11is that we can grow everywhere, but our approach is always a combination
15:16of making sure that our point of view globally, it's really clear,
15:20and that through that point of view, we really anchor on what makes Nike football unique,
15:25and then we can create layers of dimension where you can bring the flavor
15:31of every single region, every country, every city, because football is not experienced
15:35the same in my country, in Colombia, as it is experienced in Asia.
15:39So we want to make sure that we create opportunities to, in a way,
15:43show those different edges of the sport and those different dimensions.
15:47Do you think we'll see a bigger push by Nike, and I'm talking with regards
15:51to the international football business, more into Asia as well?
15:55I mean, obviously, it has a stronghold in Europe, certainly a stronghold in Africa,
15:59and certainly Latin America, but what about Asia?
16:02I mean, I know China isn't in the tournament this year,
16:03but does that become a bit more of your focus as you look to the next couple of World Cups?
16:08Yeah, listen, it's always been important, and we have tremendously important relationships
16:13in China, for example.
16:14We have the China Super League.
16:16We have, of course, the national team.
16:18Our players, our China, actually unveil the new Mercurial because of time zone,
16:23and we have tremendous reactions.
16:24So China is really important for us, and the potential there is massive.
16:28We're actually seeing tremendous momentum with what we're doing right now
16:32and knowing that now the women have qualified for next year.
16:35So I think for us, we see tremendous opportunity on how we think about the women's side of the game
16:41and in Asia, and we're really having an opportunity to, of course, lean into that,
16:46but it's definitely a really exciting opportunity where we're continuing to invest as well.
16:50Camille, last question here, and I know you're not necessarily the one in charge of this,
16:54but I started this off talking about how you guys are kind of on the outside looking in.
16:58You recently poached Germany from Adidas, so three stripes will be a swoosh after 2027.
17:05Adidas' contract with the World Cup runs out after the 2030 tournament.
17:10You think we're going to see a swoosh on that ball come 2034?
17:14Listen, I cannot comment on that.
17:17What I can tell you is we're really excited about the future.
17:19We are making all the right moves to make sure that Nike continues to, in a way,
17:25serve consumers around the world.
17:26We're really excited about next year.
17:28Next year is going to be a tremendously important year as well for us
17:31as we continue to feel this momentum that we're seeing.
17:35So, yeah, I would say that stay tuned.
17:39All right. Thank you very much for having us.
17:40Thank you so much for me.
17:41Absolutely. Appreciate it.
Comments