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How Nike's 2024 Olympic jerseys came about

The 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games are less than two months away and viewers around the world are excited to watch the participants compete and break records in Paris. For sports and fashion brands, the event represents an important branding opportunity to dress each country's delegates on their path to gold.

Nike, which equips more than 100 federations in team and individual sports, presented its athletes' equipment in April in Paris at a special event to which the company also invited the press, including Fashionista. The “On Air” event began with a monologue about the history of the brand's Air shoes, which led to the grand unveiling of the 2024 Olympic jerseys for American sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson, Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge and several other athletes. Nike also announced a Blueprint shoe collection (released in July) as well as collaborations with designers like Martine Rose, Ambush and Sacai ahead of the Summer Games. The latter was presided over by Serena Williams, while Travis Scott and veteran Brazilian soccer player Ronaldinho sat in the front row. Some of the pieces unveiled at the event also sparked some backlash, but more on that later.

The 47-year-old company has sponsored Team USA since 2006. This year, however, more is being spent on the Olympics than ever before. (Exact numbers were not disclosed.) The uniforms are a big part of this: You'd expect Olympic jerseys to incorporate country names and colors into something with a patriotic feel, but it's the technology in Nike's clothing and shoes that stands out.

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Tatyana McFadden

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Believe Kipyegon. Photos: Courtesy of Nike

The brand has been preparing for the summer event for several years (even before the pandemic), focusing on fine-tuning features like Dri-Fit and Air for even better performance, as well as testing items over Zoom and in parking lots their Beaverton, Oregon headquarters. Athletes, from Olympians to the average person, serve as primary sources of feedback.

“You need diversity in your pool,” says Kathy Gomez, vice president of footwear innovation at Nike, noting the importance of incorporating “gender, size, ability and shape” into the process. “These projects require a certain amount of playing time, time and intensity, but you also need the voice of an everyday athlete. Testing is a very intimate experience, getting to know them and understanding but also understanding their data.” them. We do everything we can to make the athlete feel like they are part of the process.”

Nike also uses statistics from the sports research labs on its 400-acre campus to inform its products via proprietary algorithms—think: take the results of a group of marathon runners to optimize a digital prototype for miles of running before creating samples. As Janett Nichol, vice president of apparel innovation, puts it, “Data is the new design.”

“It allows us to amplify the benefits we provide, whether it’s compression, breathability or weight,” she says. “To make a garment, we don’t have to cut it into several pieces and then put all those elements together. We're able to send data through a digital computing system and everything comes out.” (Nichol points out that “bespoke printing,” or using an individual athlete's personal numbers to create their custom uniform, is also possible. )

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Julian Weber

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Kerolin. Photos: Courtesy of Nike

Gomez's proudest shoes in the 2024 Olympic uniforms include the Alphafly 3 and the GT Hustle. For the latter, her team wanted to develop an efficiency-based basketball shoe that could leave the athlete “more in the tank” (defined as an increase in oxygen conservation). To achieve these results, all the right ingredients had to be chosen: there are two Air Zoom aerosols and a full-length carbon fiber plate, and the upper is made of Flyknit in a radial pattern to wrap the foot.

“When you think about efficiency in basketball, it’s about keeping your foot locked. Support in all directions and comfort are two things that can be opposites. The ability to get a hold that encloses you but doesn't feel too tight comes from that. “I'm obsessed with the details,” says Gomez.

Not only does Gomez appreciate the GT Hustle's mechanics, she's proud of the development process: it was unique in that it started with a woman in mind rather than a man's foot and body (currently the status quo). About four years ago, she decided to “start every project with women” instead of using the deluge of data and access to “top male athletes” to “leak” it and apply it to female athletes without taking their individual needs into account. her team did the opposite.

“It really forced the team to really get to know women — not just what they want to wear on their feet, but what they care about, the whole athlete and the nuances,” she says.

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Ah, Wilson

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Rai Benjamin. Photos: Courtesy of Nike

While Nike focused much of its preparation for the Olympics on refinement, there were some sports – like braking, which will debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics – that offered more room for experimentation. Nike already manufactured and sold breaking gear, but worked with athletes like Team USA's Logan “Logistx” Edra to produce Olympic pieces and its first-ever breaking shoe.

“I have to make sure my shoulders and back are covered because I turn on my back and shoulders. I have to wear pants because I spend a lot of time on my knees doing footwork,” says Edra. “For me, the clothes have to be a little loose, but not too loose, because then you lose the shape and the lines of the movements. I like to balance out the width.”

Despite the large production and excitement surrounding the reveal, Nike received some backlash after “On Air.” Critics said the track and field uniforms on display appeared to hypersexualize female athletes, and Paralympic athletes criticized the brand for not offering individual shoe sales. In response to the former, a Nike spokesperson said there are nearly 50 unique competition styles to choose from, meaning athletes won't must compete in the skimpiest of clothes if they don't want to. (Each sport that Nike makes jerseys for also has its own range of options.)

These games aren't just an investment by Nike in the world's top athletes: The company warned in March of falling revenues as inflationary pressures persisted, and are therefore part of a major effort to compete in an increasingly competitive sportswear market.

“We make shoes and shirts, but they embody everything an athlete aspires to be or dreams of being,” says Nichol. “Because we spend so much time talking to athletes. We are a conduit to express their biggest ideas.”

Disclosure: Nike paid Fashionistas travel and accommodation to participate in the Air Showcase.

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