Early 2019 saw Nike expand its empire with the launch of its first ever yoga line via a ‘Why Yoga’ campaign led by four athlete ambassadors, blog content positioning yoga as a ‘secret workout weapon’, plus a series of branded yoga workouts on its app called ‘Enhance Your Yoga Training’.
Geared towards both sexes with a focus on versatility and easy movement and available in-stores and online from January, the launch campaign was led by a team of Nike endorsers – including NFL players Larry Coleman and Khalil Mack, WNBA star Alana Beard, NBA players Kevin Love and Chandler Frye, as well as athletes Alana Beard, Christian Coleman, plus US women’s soccer striker Christen Press – featuring in an online animated ‘Why Yoga’ video series in which they discuss how yoga has helped them as professional athletes.
This kicked off on 8 January with an initial introductory spot,
before the individual athlete spots began rolling out from 25 January with a Khalil Mack film,
followed in February by a spot starring Cleveland Cavaliers NBA players Kevin Love and Channing Frye,
and then Larry Fitzgerald,
and Christen Press.
The spots were supported by a lookbook featuring skateboarder Korahn Gayle, WNBA player Alana Beard, Dennis Hartmann and US Paralympic athlete Scout Bassett and a set of social media content pieces.
and Nike also released a new series of yoga workouts on its app – called ‘Enhance Your Training with Yoga’ – which focus on helping athletes reach particular goals such as ‘finding strength and stability’, to ‘improving endurance’ and ‘getting more flexible.”
“At Nike, we’re dedicated to giving athletes every edge we can, and we know yoga is essential to reaching another level of athletic performance and mental strength,” said Nike Training VP Jamie Jeffries.
“We see a big opportunity to innovate in this space, including Nike’s first yoga-specific apparel collection for men and a new Collection of yoga workouts through our Nike Training Club app.”
Comment:
While Nike has offered yoga-related products in the past, this is its first yoga-tailored line and sees the sportswear behemoth move in on the growing menswear boom and on the territory of specialists like Lululemon and Athleta (both of which are currently focusing on trying to establish a male customer base).
Indeed, Lululemon recently outlined a strategy to grow its menswear into a $1 billion business by 2020.
While Lululemon’s early male-focused work focused on exploring the definition of strength, masculinity and awareness and work/life balance (see ‘Strength To Be’ case study), Nike’s tack takes a different approach in highlighting yoga as a supplement to other sports and exercise with and the messaging emphasising how it helps professional athletes from a range of different sports compete better.
The move into yoga sees Nike continue to focus on its expansion and innovation pipeline. Indeed, early 2019 also saw Nike open two ‘House of Innovation’ flagships with customization elements and mobile-heavy convenience features and it also unveiled plans to expand its Nike Live format that localises merchandise.
Links:
Nike Training
https://twitter.com/niketraining
https://www.instagram.com/niketraining/
https://www.youtube.com/user/Nikeprotraining
Nike
https://www.instagram.com/nike/
https://www.youtube.com/user/nike
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