I AM A WOMAN: THE METRO SPORT STORY

CATEGORY FOOTWEAR LEADER: NIKE SPORTSWEAR – OCTOBER 08 - JUNE 11

When is it time to innovate? 

When consumers tell you that products don’t match their expectations.

Metro Sport was conceived as the answer to a seismic shift in European consumer preference. This was the emergence of a more tailored, crafted and lower profile silhouette and the re-emergence of Puma. It was a good answer. $300M incremental revenue in just short of a year.

The style conscious consumer who pushes and sets taste is a consumer that should be cultivated, respected and served with the same level of innovation as others Nike Sportswear Consumers. What Nike and Metro Sport had not figured out was how to create for this consumer when low-profile diminished as a style trend.

My role was as Category Footwear Leader of Nike Sportswear was to re-set the strategy to create amazing products that returned MetroSport to long term sustainable growth and re-invigour leadership, team and community morale

Who is our consumer? What is our position? What is the innovation position? 

How do we segment the product line?

What should consumers always see when they see Nike products out of MetroSport?

Metro Sport helped Nike realize that this consumer is global and female led. Metro Sport also delivered some breakthrough thinking for a company used to talking about footwear through the lens of categories and platforms. 

METRO SPORT WAS SEGMENTED THROUGH SILHOUETTE: HYBRIDS, SANDALS, FLIP FLOPS, BOOTS, WEDGES, TECH SNEAKERS.

Then these choices were pulled through craft, build, trend right silhouette, material, print, pattern and graphic The results were some really iconic footwear - Gladiator Sandal, the first 200K per season sandal program at Nike over $50 and for women. 

Vac Tech was a uni body molding process that when saturated with color and placed on Nike’s iconic basketball silhouette shifted sneaker fashion. Suddenly the luxury sector was interested. Sneakers could be interesting stylish and provocative.

Metro Sport showed that when you stay true to a brand promise but choose to take risk on craft, silhouette, color, print, pattern and material on the silhouettes that are most coveted, things get interesting. This pushes up the tent pole of premium for the sneaker industry Metro Sport also reset NSW’s gender bias and demonstrated the potential existing in every woman who loves Nike and what that means for style.