Photo: Nike
For years, we’ve seen a common theme across industries shifting their priorities to cater better to women, and in 2022 the results have spoken for themselves. Some highlights in this past year include a significant increase in WNBA viewership as reported by ESPN and Nike fiscal reports that Jordan Brand’s women’s business has tripled since 2020 with its biggest year to date – $5.1B in revenue.
With Nike celebrating 50 years this past summer, there’s plenty to learn from the brand’s continued success.
Within Nike’s mission statement, you’ll find an asterisk attached to the word “athlete.” Their mission is to “bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.” The asterisk brings us to co-founder Bill Bowerman’s quote, “If you have a body, you’re an athlete.” While this may be baked into the company’s foundation, it has shown up specifically through its women’s offerings in recent years.
In 2017, Nike introduced the first sports hijab with U.S. fencing star Ibtihaj Muhammad. At the top of 2019, the brand launched its inaugural yoga-specific apparel line, and the first plus-sized women’s mannequins showed up in London stores later that summer. By fall 2020, we saw them release their first maternity collection.
Photo: Nike
“In the past, I feel like the brands were telling women what they should wear and were only giving limited selections of how they saw females in their shoes,” Jennifer Ford, co-owner of Houston’s Premium Goods, said. With narrower colorway and apparel options, it was more challenging to fit sneakers into women’s wardrobes outside of what the brand offered. “Women have spoken, and the brands are listening.”
Listening is also a major component for retailers selling to women. “I think one of the challenges is how long retail has been a certain way,” Abby Albino said. She’s a partner at Makeway, the women-owned, women-funded, Toronto-based sneaker boutique serving women exclusively.
They used insight groups to learn the pain points of women consumers in the sneaker industry. “Listening is number one. Two is representation,” she said. “Making sure women walk into our space and that they see themselves in all of our products is super important.”
Alongside their larger vendors like Nike, Makeway curates their store with small, locally owned BIPOC women’s brands to do so. “It’s cool to see small businesses see their body balms merchandised besides a Jordan. Never in their wildest dreams does that happen.”
Ford pointed out how the broadening of women’s products has afforded women sneakers that actually fit better and are made for their feet rather than wearing grade school-sized shoes. “For the consumer – and myself –, we’re looking for trends and quality in merchandise at affordable prices, and two, access.”
In the past, Ford said the difference in male and female consumers typically came down to cost. “We lost our female consumer at a certain price point. If she had to go over $120, it was usually a turn off,” she said. That’s changed significantly. “Being in business for 18 years, I never would’ve guessed we would sell out large quantities of [women’s] sneakers at $220, but it’s due to the shoes being a better fit, better materials being used, and better color story.”
With Nike’s expansion and investment in diversifying women’s products, how the brand gets them into women’s hands has also shifted, particularly in partnering with women-owned retailers even if they’re not exclusively serving the women consumer. Access has become a big challenge across the sneaker industry but disproportionately affects women consumers.
“Women have been fighting so hard to finally have something for themselves, and now they’re fighting to get that product online and against resellers which is kind of funny because I can’t say that I personally know any female resellers,” Ford said. “So, they’re fighting men to get the product that they want for themselves.”
This is what Julie Hogg, co-founder of Wish ATL, is looking forward to most in the future. “I think what’s really exciting to me is the innovation and creativity that’s not only coming from the design but to the store release method.”
Admittedly, she says they haven’t yet mastered the best way to release shoes, although her team is committed to finding new ways to combat bots and are finding success. “We used Facebook Live to release a shoe by playing a video during which the product was made available for purchase. It worked great,” she said. “We also have added some fun trivia to our raffle entries. This way, we know it’s actual humans entering the raffle, and the winners and pickups are restricted to local surrounding areas.”
At Wish, in addition to these methods for women’s exclusives, they’ve also tried “ladies first” early release shopping and pick-up times for in-store drops. “This has made sure the shoes made specifically for women actually reach women,” she said. “Our community knows that we strive to be fair and honest, and in turn, they show support for us trying to continually improve their release experience.”
In addition to retailers evolving both their in-store and online shopping options for women, Nike has also expanded their digital experiences for women through partnerships and programs to continue its mission of creating more opportunities for women and young girls to see themselves as athletes. The brand announced they’d work with Megan Thee Stallion in September 2021, highlighting the Houston-born rapper’s fitness through dance.
Photo: Nike
This year, Hottie Bootcamp and Meg’s Audio Guided Run became available within the Nike Training Club app, as well as a short film about her personal fitness journey through her craft called “What Are You Working On?”
Much like Nike is reaching more women through Megan and highlighting dance, they’re also catering to more women through life experiences outside of fitness, namely motherhood. Following the launch of its maternity line in 2020, the brand introduced “Nike (M)ove like a Mother” in NTC. Leveraging gynecologists, Nike’s trainers (including certified pre and post-natal specialists), a women’s health physical therapist, and moms, the program is meant to take mothers on a 48-week mental and physical journey – offering all levels – from pre to postpartum and the apparel to go with.
With how the sneaker realm works today – between exclusives and the aftermarket and the unending cycle of hype – brands have to go beyond simply creating products for women. By partnering with more women throughout the brand ecosystem, they’re affording consumers to find more opportunities to see themselves in the community and hopefully actually obtain the products.
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