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Nike appears everywhere sports is - TV events, clothing on athletes - and in cities where it's opening its Nike Town stores, ads are ubiquitous. On the Net, Nike seems to be testing the waters with a slow, safe "grassroots" Internet campaign, until, feeling more comfortable, it decides to go full steam.
Nike has had a modest Web site encouraging customer feedback. This week, it stepped up its cautious push into the Internet - hiring a hot-shot consulting company, and readying a small spring training Web special to be launched on Saturday. It seems a muted voice for a company with Nike's marketing muscle.
But Matthew Childs, Nike's director of interactive communications, hints that Nike has ambitious plans for a Coney Island of the Web. "We wanted Vivid to design us the neatest amusement park on the Internet."
The noted interactive designers Vivid Studios will be Nike's "Web Architect of Record" and will consult with the shoemaker about the direction of its Web strategy and oversee other, future contractors.
Nike brushes aside reports that it's interested in buying a cable channel or - failing that - using the Internet in place of television. Childs says those reports have taken Nike's statements out of context.
"We wanted a company that was focused on using the Web to the best of its abilities, rather than trying to do stuff that's best done in other broadcast mediums," Childs said. "Nike has always been athletes creating products for athletes, and yet you lose that when you're in a broadcast medium. You lose the one-on-one interaction. In theory, the Web is good at that. What we'd like is the best human-computer interaction we can get out of the medium."
Shelly Hale Young, analyst at Hambrecht and Quist, points out that Nike is probably following one of its established patterns. "Nike does a lot of things quietly at first and dabbles, and sometimes stumbles while they learn. Then they make a big splash."
Golf, for instance was developed as an interest by Nike over a period of 10 years, Young says. "They dabbled, sponsoring tours, but they didn't have any good products. When they decided to get serious about it, they just went for it and got the best." Young describes how Nike took on Tiger Woods from an early age, seeing the potential he offered a new generation of sports fans. Golf is going to be US$200 million business for Nike in this upcoming year, she says, from less than $50 million over the last several years.
"Outer wear, hiking wear, skate shoes, snowboarding - they're dabbling, quietly, so if they make mistakes or do things wrong not a lot of people know about it," says Young. "They come out very strong when they have the right mix."
The first in the Nike site's series of event-based programming, a special dedicated to baseball's spring training, is being launched this weekend, with help from Vivid. "We aren't interested in being the definitive site on anything. What we're doing around spring training should exist like a little jewel, where you come and have this experience."
Nathan Shedroff, creative director of Vivid, says one of the things that drew his company to Nike was that there was little pressure to rush things. He points out the absurdity of companies trying to stake an early claim on the Net. "It's like rushing out to be the first to get a phone number." If you're as big as Nike, people will call you no matter how long you wait.
