Giving Tuesday is here, and we’re highlighting how Nike, Jordan and Converse employees give back to the causes that matter most to them. Take it away, Kennard McClellan, Lauren Thomas and Jillian Rolland. Shout out the organization you'll support this Giving Tuesday, when the Nike Foundation is offering a 2X match on all NIKE, Inc. employee monetary donations made on Give Your Best, our employee giving platform.
At Nike, we believe basketball is more than just a game. It’s an opportunity to break barriers, build community and expand sport for the next generation. The newest N7 collection celebrates the power of the sport within the Indigenous community, something that hits close to home for Nike N7 General Manager Sam McCracken, a member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes — and a former girls basketball coach at the high school level for more than 30 years throughout the Western United States. Through his current work with Nike N7, McCracken is committed to help give more Indigenous kids a chance to play basketball and other sports. The N7 Fund provides grants — administered by CAF America — to nonprofits that create youth access to sport in Indigenous communities across North America. This investment continues Nike’s legacy of support for Indigenous communities through the N7 Fund and other grants, totaling over $10.8 million to nearly 300 organizations since 2009. Two of our N7 Fund grantees — the Notah Begay III (NB3) Foundation and Rise Above — are using the investment to help grow the game for girls. This year, NB3 created its first basketball team for Native American girls (ages 10-13), with an Indigenous woman as its head coach. Rise Above hosted multiple youth basketball clinics and has plans for an all-girls camp next summer. Learn more about how Nike’s tapping into the power of basketball and other sports to level the playing field.
How do you follow up on one of the most pivotal sporting moments for women’s football? You follow through. Last week, Nike and Football Australia announced a 10-year contract extension, which will continue to support all levels of the game in the country, from Australia’s elite national teams, the Matildas and Socceroos (senior, youth, para), through to grassroots programs. Nike’s investment will also focus on Football Australia’s Legacy ’23 strategy, increasing access to the game for young girls and women. This strategy is driven by an audacious goal: to make football the nation’s first sport to reach gender parity in participation. Bold? Yes. Possible? Absolutely — especially when passionate people on both sides are committed to dreaming big. For Chris Incoll, Nike Sports Marketing Lead in Pacific Australia, his day-to-day work demands this kind of thinking, alongside national leagues and organizations, to bring about lasting change. The momentum created by the past two major tournaments for the men in 2022 and women in 2023 is just the beginning. “It’s a privilege to work closely with Football Australia to build generational impact across the sport,” says Chris. “I strongly believe in the power of sport to bring people together and change their communities for the better. Delivering on a shared vision and purpose with Football Australia has been the highlight of my 13-year career at Nike.”
Climate change is one of the most existential threats to sport we will ever face. And we know it isn’t just a sports issue — it’s a community issue too. That’s why Nike launched the Community Climate Resilience Program (CCRP) to help provide access to urban green spaces and parks and increase sports participation in the communities that need it most. In the year since CCRP launched, Nike has worked with Trust for Public Land to transform more than 117,000 square feet of public park space in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, serving nearly 100,000 adults and children. The positive outcomes have had a powerful impact on the employees working on the project too. “In some cases, we’re going into neighborhoods that are park deserts without walkable access to real green space. By creating and opening these spaces, we’re unlocking the first real public parks for many members of these communities,” says Patrick Reaves, Nike Director of Business Integration for Social and Community Impact, who’s helped lead the program. “The site visits have been especially meaningful. Going from brainstorming this project in our office to seeing tangible change — a finished green schoolyard for a community — is incredibly rewarding. And given the scale of climate inequity, I hope it's a catalyst for even more positive impact." Find out more about how Nike is helping to improve communities’ climate resilience.
What “team” means to us: showing up for each other, for our community, and celebrating the joy of sport — for all. That was the vibe as Nike Taiwan again joined one of the largest gender-inclusive celebrations in Asia, the 2023 Taiwan Pride Parade. Alongside the parade, the team hosted a “Be True” exhibit of photographs and illustrations inspired by the LGBTQIA+ community and its impactful legacy in sport and beyond. Launched in 2012, Be True is a company-wide effort to create more inclusive spaces in sport and part of Nike’s commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community. Learn more about how Nike Taiwan celebrates all athletes.
Hold up. A revolutionary midsole foam derived from aerospace engineering...appearing in Nike’s record-breaking marathon shoes…now for basketball? This is the kind of futuristic design you can expect in Nike Basketball's “Greater Than” series, which just welcomed its newest addition: the G.T. Cut 3, marking the first time our Nike ZoomX Foam has appeared in a basketball shoe. Ben DeSanno, a senior product line manager with Nike Basketball, works with a team that's empowered to use the latest Nike technology to improve what players can achieve on the court, helping them uncover every possible edge over their opponent. The debut of ZoomX Foam is a huge moment for basketball performance — but there was another part of the launch that was especially satisfying for Ben. “The G.T. Cut 3 is the first time we’ll release both a kids-specific version and a lower-priced version with similar performance benefits in mind," says DeSanno. “We talk a lot here about expanding access to basketball for everyone. The launch of the G.T. Cut 3 is a major way we’re doing that through product design. It’s changing the game for even more people.”
When babies learn to walk, it’s like going from 0 to 100 — They go. Parents know best of all how quickly toddlers go from crawling to walking. So when Fanny Yung Ho became a parent herself, she realized she was in a unique position to design product that helped promote the early walking patterns for our littlest athletes. “As a footwear designer with 15 years of experience, I realized I actually have the skillset and the expertise to help design a better product for toddlers learning to walk,” says Fanny, a Nike Senior Manager in Design Innovation, NXT. “My teammates approached some of our colleagues on the knit team and asked how we could create a seamless, 360-degree Flyknit bootie. The Swoosh 1 took off from there out of that partnership.” Read more about the brand’s latest kids-first innovation.
Nike’s disability community is key to our success and brings creativity, diversity of thought and lived experiences to everything we create. Simply put, disability is a strength. To recognize Disability Employee Awareness Month in October, we celebrated Nike’s inaugural Accessibility Summit, produced by the Disability Network and the Accessibility Center of Excellence. The Summit brought people together from across the company to share employee stories, learn about innovative accessible product and show how Nike builds a disability-inclusive workplace. A key moment of the summit featured a panel with Tobie Hatfield discussing his work for more than three decades in designing accessible sneakers with people with disabilities. For Hatfield, centering the product on athlete feedback has always been core to Nike’s philosophy. “Listening to the voice of the athlete is not just their voice, but it’s their mannerisms, it’s their character, it’s all of it,” says Hatfield, Nike’s Senior Director of Athlete Innovation. “At Nike, the ‘voice’ is emblematic of the whole athlete and the whole person."
Cathy Swearengen-Duncan, an area manager at the Nike Distribution Center in Memphis, is no stranger to doing good work for her community. She learned early-on the importance of community, giving back and trying to lift up those around you. So when Cathy was given an opportunity to join her local Employee Grant Selection Committee for the Nike Community Impact Fund (NCIF), Nike’s employee-led, neighborhood-focused approach to grant-making, she couldn’t say yes fast enough. “Whenever anyone is looking for volunteers, I raise my hand. It just matters to me,” she says. Each committee member is trained on how to assess grant applications, and then they share their insights — as individuals who live, work and play in the areas they’re representing — to decide which organizations should receive funding. She's reviewed between 75 and 80 applications. Even as someone who volunteers frequently, she says, she was overjoyed that there were so many people who wanted to help others in the community. While each Nike teammate can only serve on their local NCIF Employee Grant Selection Committee once, Cathy is committed to finding other ways she can continue to make a difference through Nike. “Every time I go out into the community and meet someone connected to a nonprofit, I spread the word about NCIF and tell them to submit an application,” she says. “To see Nike help support these nonprofits in doing their work is amazing.”
Offering employees the best workspaces and work experiences is a NIKE, Inc. passion — and you could feel that energy in our EMEA Headquarters this week with the reopening of the Bill Bowerman Center (BBC). Built on 1928 Olympic grounds, the BBC is a tribute to our founders’ legacy, one that champions athletic achievement and the spirit of innovation. After a full renovation with sustainability, inclusivity and accessibility at the core, the BBC now has more than 100,000 square feet to explore, including best-in-class sports facilities, immersive spaces and an array of services to support our incredible Nike team. The terrace overlooking the Eliud Kipchoge Track & Field adds the final touch — and Eliud himself joined the team for the official renaming of the track. "The BBC has always been the epicenter of EHQ, and employees have eagerly awaited the reopening," says Pom Zwart, Senior Director, EMEA Headquarters. "This is where our teammates connect through sport, food and events, and I’m thrilled that we can welcome all of them, visitors, and the community again in a vibrant space that embodies the future of sport.” Sound like a company you want to be a part of? #JustDoIt #SwooshLife #NikeSpaces
