FOCUS-With Kipyegon, Nike Hopes to Break a Record

Nike has actually lost market share with women

Kipyegon's run not likely to have instant organization impact, state experts

Nike to commercialize breathable brand-new sports betting bra by 2028

By Nicholas P. Brown and Helen Reid

NEW YORK/LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) - Nike is betting its undertaking to help Kenyan professional athlete Faith Kipyegon run a mile in under four minutes will regain the attention of ladies consumers who have been looking elsewhere for running shoes and clothes.

Industry professionals and ladies runners say it will take more than a bold spectacle to draw ladies back to the brand.

Kipyegon's effort, branded "Breaking4", set for Thursday at the Stade Charléty in Paris, becomes part of brand-new CEO Elliott Hill's efforts to pull Nike out of a sales depression and improve its image.

From 2021 to 2024, Nike's share of the global sports betting footwear market dropped from 28.8% to 26.3%, according to Euromonitor International, with customers defecting to smaller sized, more recent brands like On and Hoka.

Nike's popularity has slipped with females in particular. Sales of Nike Women products grew just 4.4% over that three-year period, while Nike Men sales grew 13.5%.

Nike has actually been "consumed with getting females back" given that at least 2021, stated a former Nike supervisor who requested anonymity as they were not licensed to speak openly.

Understanding its female customer base and how to attract more women has actually been a crucial internal top priority as Lululemon and others have eaten into its market share among women, the person included.

Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike declined to comment on those details. But Chief Innovation Officer John Hoke informed Reuters the company is doubling its investment in research study on females athletes' anatomy and biodynamics versus 18 months back.

Hoke declined to divulge the amount of that investment, but said in an interview that the company's Sports Research Lab historically "had over-indexed on males, so what we are doing is we're now right-sizing."

Kipyegon will use new track spikes that are lighter than those she wore to win 1,500-meter gold at the Olympics last year, a running match with 3D-printed beads to decrease friction, and a 3D-printed sports bra Nike says is more breathable than anything on the market.

Mindful that track spikes are a specific niche item, Nike is putting its marketing focus on the bra, in development for more than two years, which it sped up for Kipyegon's run, Hoke said.

Prototypes have been tested on other Nike professional athletes, including WNBA star Caitlin Clark, he said, including that the business plans to market it commercially by 2028.

Nike's objective with Breaking4 is to attract the attention of serious runners, states David Swartz, an analyst at Morningstar. But whether and when the publicity will translate to sales is unclear.

Nike has actually introduced a line of running shoes and clothing in Kipyegon's name, however the individuals probably to purchase them may not overlap with Breaking4's target market.

Angelina Monti, a Pittsburgh-based physiologist who, at 23, has actually currently completed in 17 marathons, states she's captivated by Kipyegon's effort, but isn't most likely to base a purchase on it.

LESS GROUNDBREAKING

The market is more competitive now than in 2017, when Nike held its last informal record effort - Breaking2 - in which professional athletes Eliud Kipchoge, Lelisa Desisa and Zersenay Tadese tried to run a marathon in under two hours.

None was successful at the time, but Kipchoge did break two hours in a subsequent 2019 attempt and the buzz created around the Vaporfly shoes he wore assisted Nike's market share in running climb to a record high.

The Vaporfly, first presented in 2016, consisted of a carbon plate to assist runners go much faster for longer, and sparked a "super shoe" race among sports betting brands. Nike's innovations for Kipyegon's effort seem less groundbreaking, experts state.

"The fit appears to be rather unique and envelope-pushing, whereas the footwear just appears to be a better version of what she has run in in the past," stated running shoe designer Richard Kuchinsky.

Still, "it's nice to see (Nike) buy a female, even if this one feels more of a stretch than Breaking2," said Alison Wade, a previous college track & field coach and developer of Fast Women, a newsletter dedicated to ladies's competitive range running.

Nike has actually announced a number of initiatives concentrated on women since Hill took over, consisting of the "After Dark Tour" series of half-marathon and 10-kilometre races in seven cities all over the world.

But as it tries to regain reliability with females, it starts at a deficit.

In April, the business consented to settle a 2018 suit from female employees alleging extensive office discrimination.

Nike's partnership with Kim Kardashian-owned Skims drew criticism from some former workers for its focus on products to make women "feel strong and attractive." The partnership has yet to release a product.

Any record Kipyegon sets on Thursday would be unofficial, as she will have pacers and won't be in a main competitors. Running specialists are skeptical Kipyegon can break a four-minute mile, which would need shaving 3.1% off her previous record.