Interview with Nike Sponsored Athlete

Saskia Bullen is part of the New Zealand Women’s Soccer Team. She is also one of the first women soccer players to be sponsored by Nike in New Zealand. After previously being sponsored by Adidas; I was interested to know why she made the change. I asked her 15 questions therefore the interview was quite extensive. I pulled out three particular questions that answered my query about the brand switch.

How did your Nike sponsorship come about?

Adidas originally sponsored New Zealand Soccer. But I think around 2004 New Zealand Soccer was offered money to change to Nike. With the change, Nike wanted to have a few female players solely sponsored by Nike. They asked me and I accepted.

What convinced you to change from Adidas to Nike?

With Adidas I was offered $3000 a year in gear. Nike offered me $5000 a year in gear. They also claimed to be more efficient and would use me a lot more to promote women’s soccer.

How strong is your brand loyalty to Nike compared to Adidas?

When I was sponsored by Adidas, obliviously followed all the guidelines they set out for me. Such as, I wasn’t allowed to wear another sports brand clothes when I was attending a sports event. I had always liked Adidas clothing so when there sponsorship first came about it was a bonus. However, I would still purchase clothing from other sport labels to wear when I wasn’t in public view. I feel being sponsored by Nike I have to be more responsible. They have made it a point that I am an ambassador for women’s soccer and have promoted that. I am now more recognized and therefore and a lot more conscience of what I buy and what I wear. So I guess you could say, my brand loyalty is stronger towards Nike.

Once your Nike sponsorship has expired, will you continue your brand loyalty with Nike?

Well I still have another 3 years left of my sponsorship deal. If I continue to keep on playing, they have an option of extending my contract. At the moment I really enjoy using Nike products and the benefits they provide. So in the future I will probably buy Nike products for training use. But if I see another sports label with some trendy clothing or shoes, I wouldn’t hesitate in buying it.

All the small things…

I was once told, “If you do all the small things in life well, the bigger things will take care of themselves.” This is purely the case of Nike Inc. Every year the company strives to ensure everyone in the world, has the opportunity to be great.

NikeGo is the Beaverton based organization, community affairs initiative. The primary goal for this particular initiative is to get more kids physically active. In 2004 NikeGo donated $500,000 for a new soccer field in Chicago. The FieldTurf is made of 75,000 pairs of athletic shoes. The shoes come from another Nike initiative, ‘Nike Reuse-A-Shoe program.

Every year, 900 Nike employees take part in a day dedicated to helping the Beaverton community.

“In just one day, Nike employees in Oregon will volunteer more than 4,500 hours, providing assistance to over 35,000 people — and 600 animals — throughout the Portland area. The Beaverton sports apparel company is teaming up with Volunteers of America Oregon and Hands On Portland to bring volunteer assistance to 41 community projects throughout Multnomah and Washington counties.” (bizjournals.com)

Recently, Nike has expanded their marketing partnership with the NBA. Nike uses many different NBA stars to endorse their product. However, Nike ensures a percentage of the profits are used to encourage children to play basketball.

“Nike will join the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program in Europe and the Americas and explore new markets to expand the program with the league. Basketball Without Borders, a basketball instructional camp for young people that also promotes friendship, healthy living and education, is currently in its fourth year with camps in the Americas, Europe and Africa.” (bizjournal.com)

Nike is a massive company known throughout the entire world. So when they achieve the little goals in small communities, it makes a bigger difference.

Nike Sport Research Lab

The competitive advantage is what every person and company is aspiring for. Everybody wants to be that little bit better than their competition. With the increasing number of sports brands and their ability to reach large sales figures, it is fitting that Nike created the NSRL (Nike Research Sports Lab).

“The Nike Sport Research Lab (NSRL) is philosophically and physically at the heart of the Nike World Headquarters campus in Oregon. The 30+ women and men working on the discoveries of tomorrow aren’t sequestered in an underground lair or otherwise toiling away in obscurity. They anchor the foundation floor of the Mia Hamm building, the epicenter of Nike design expertise. From there they collaborate with clusters of designers upstairs to bring to market products that take athletic performance beyond the next level. ” (nikebiz.com)

The NSRL is led by an ex NASA astronaut advisor, Mario Lafortune. In 1996 Mario gathered the best sports researchers in the business and established his Nike Lab. This lab is special because it is not run by your typical lab coat scientists. These scientists are ex-athletes who have expereinced the ups and downs of athletic competition.

These scientists study every aspect of the athlete. Including biomechanics, physiology and sensory/perception.

“To do all this, the scientists have an incredible array of measurement and analysis tools. Their data collection includes virtually every variety of muscle sensor, pressure platform, breath analyzer, foot scanner and thermal imaging device that has ever fluttered into the sci-fi imaginings of the most psychotic geek researcher. Two of the most striking are the high-speed video cameras that capture soccer kick data at 1,000 frames per second and the scanner that produces in just seconds a perfect 3D digital image of your foot, even if you’re a size 22, as was one recent visitor. (nikebiz.com).”

By creating the NSRL, Nike have set the benchmark for all other sports brands. With the amount of funds available to Nike; it is inevitable they create the resources needed in order to have the competitive advantage.

Nike: More than just the Iconic sneaker brand

Over the past 15 years Nike has endeavored to dominate every shoe market of importance. In order to do this they have taken over several major brands.

Nike made its first acquisition in 1988. Cole Hann was an up and coming dress and casual shoe designer. Cole Hann looked to utilize the same technology used for developing athletic shoes into fashionable shoes. This ideal appealed to Nike, as it wanted to develop a more athletic yet casual shoe for its athletes. Nike paid $80 million dollars for the acquisition of Cole Hann. It seems to have been a worthwhile investment.

In 1995 as the ice hockey business began to develop, Nike wanted to be a part of it. A brand named Bauer who is well known for producing high quality ice hockey skates and sports gear was brought out by Nike. It is believed that Nike over paid for this brand because at the time it was at the height of popularity. Nike paid $409 million for Bauer.

Over the past few years the popularity of extreme sports has sky rocketed. Nike heavily researched the extreme sport market and discovered buyers in this market were very brand loyal. Nike knew by starting there own apparel line would not be very successful so they decided to purchase in Hurley International for $95 million in 2002/ Buy purchasing this skateboard maker has helped Nike crack the youth market. However, Nike has taken a more hands off approach so the consumer doesn’t become distracted by a big known company such as Nike taking over the exclusive brand loyal market.

The most recent purchase by Nike has been in 2003. Nike paid $305 million for the retro style sneaker brand named Converse. Nike endeavors to keep this brand fresh and in doing so has allowed Converse to make its own decisions.

With the purchases of these brands it is evident Nike is wanting a stronger market share. I think it is a great marketing strategy that Nike has used by taking a more hands off approach. By allowing these brands to develop themselves gives the original consumer satisfaction that what they are buying is being represented by the original people that created them.