Nike puts top female athletes on catwalk

Nike is set to win womenswear market and recent media extravaganza in Manhattan has shone light on some of the company’s creative marketing strategies. The preview of the upcoming spring line in collaboration with Brazilian designer Pedro Lourenço was a star-studded event featuring top female athletes striding down the runway.

Among the athletic models were basketball star Skylar Diggins, world record marathoner Paula Radcliffe, sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, boxer Marlen Esparza and others, 27 female athletes in total. Black-clad staffers wore colorful sneakers and held up signs to entice journalists on a global scale: “Eastern Europe,” “Japan,” “Greater China.”

Nike currently collects about $5 billion a year in the women’s market, roughly $18 of every $100 of its revenue. The company expects to expand its sales to women by 40% within the next four years. “There’s more opportunity now than ever before,” Nike CEO Marc Parker told the crowd.

Nike’s move to reach women’s market seems to be in direct competition with Under Armour, which has been very prominent in courting female consumers and focusing on women who work out without scoring points, engaging in activities such as yoga and pilates. But Nike affirms that the company strategy stands on its own. Amy Montagne, a vp and general manager of Nike’s women’s line, stated, “Our competition is ourselves,” she said. “And our future is about the potential we have.”