Game On? Game Over?
After years of courting rumors, Nike done just did it.

By Billy Miller

What did Nike know, and when did the company know it? The question of when and where the Beaverton, Oregon-based footwear and apparel giant would make a move on snowboarding was answered with a Fall '97 clothing line from Nike's All Conditions Gear (ACG) group. Still up for hearsay, however, is when and if snowboarders will see swoosh footwear and, in what would be a rare hardgood foray for a company with softwear billions, possibly even boards.

It's familiar territory. As the decade opened, Nike was backing pro-surfer Laird Hamilton and his Aqua Gear bid to form an alliance with water-based sports like surfing and windsurfing. The effort's nadir came when Aqua Socks covered beachgoers' feet and sponsored pro-rider Noah Brandon wore Aqua Gear on a 1991 SNOWboarding cover shot by Trevor Graves.

Team ACG would just as soon forget Aqua Gear, and would prefer you did, too. The home for Nike's snowboarding gear is with the swoosh division for mountain biking, climbing, hiking, and outdoor pursuits.

A talented group spearheads the outdoor division effort--U.S. Director of Merchandising Seth Ellison spent seven years at Quiksilver; clothing designer Scott Hutsenpiller designed Tommy Hilfiger's premiere snowboard line and worked for Patagonia; Product Graphic Designer Michael Hernandez worked at O'Neill; and Craig Trames (Sales Manager), Sean Vali (Product Line Manager), and Product Developer Rick MacDonald are all longtime Nike employees braced to make headway in an already beyond-saturated market.

BMOC

Frequently referred to as the "footwear and apparel giant," Nike pockets run deep. Thanks to savvy marketing and sponsorship of uberathletes and events in most every discipline, the swoosh has become a ubiquitous symbol of global sports culture, a logo so familiar to consumers it's now recognized worldwide without the name.

Nike's financial picture has been an ascending sales chart. Started in 1972 with waffle-iron experiments in an Oregon garage, and named for the Greek goddess of victory (What's in a name? Nike was almost called Blue Ribbon Sports), predictions are for sales to boom from 6.4-billion dollars last year to nine-billion by the end of May and as much as fifteen-billion by 2001. That's employment for 16,000 worldwide--5,300 of those in Oregon at an average annual wage of 47,000 dollars.

A 100-million dollar, 101-acre, office and manufacturing expansion is in the works. The seven new buildings add a conference center, skating rink, and Olympic-sized pool to the already well-amended, tree and lake-lined 74-acre sprawl known as the "campus" for its casual, college-like atmosphere.

Sports rule on campus. Each building is named for an athlete (Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, Nolan Ryan), sculpted busts and plaques with athlete bios line the walkways, and memorabilia of past and present Nike greats is everywhere.

For lunch, workers and their many visitors can choose between a giant cafeteria (with nutritional stats on the menu and heart-healthy choices denoted by a swoosh), a formal dining room for business or visiting athletes, or the Boston Deli (a souvenir-encrusted neighborhood joint that's a spooky spitting-image of Cheers). You could skip lunch altogether and run or cycle on the wilderness trails or work out in a spacious, well-stocked gym; every need is thought of, catered to.

No one here got in by accident. Nike employees are smart, savvy, and as Sean Vali points out, "willing to call bullshit on ourselves." Nike's ad agency and main image-manufacturer Wieden and Kennedy isn't in New York or L.A., but twenty minutes away in Portland.

Nike comes to the snowboarding battle well-armed, but such exacting standards become hard to live up to. Corporate chains of command can be notoriously difficult to navigate. Buzz, hype, spin, and innuendo are steadily manufactured--as much by the people inside the gates as out. Team ACG was subject to all the snowboarding rumors--it had bought Airwalk, Burton, Morrow, or Ride, or formed an alliance with dozens of companies. In a business where information flows freely, it can be hard for even employees to know what to believe.

Product Is King

ACG began its snowboarding efforts a year ago with corporate support and a new approach. "We knew we needed to learn the steps and start the business like any other business," says Vali.

Concurs Michael Hernandez: "ACG was top of the mountain--elitist. We wanted to come off the mountain to the consumer, the outdoor athlete. What they were positioning was experiential, but you don't need to tell that to people already out there. You need to bring good gear."

The result, says Trames, "Was like changing a camera's wide-angle lens to a zoom."

Pieces in the Fall '97 line are part of a three-part base, thermal, and outer-layering system containing trademarked fabrics like waterproof Storm-F.I.T. and moisture-wicking Dri-F.I.T. Ideas were culled from diverse Nike pursuits like running, climbing, cycling, motocross, soccer, and hockey.

Most of the pieces are technical bibs and jackets with ample outdoor features, but some shells are freestyle-snowboarder simple. There's Therma-F.I.T. fleece layers--even a down vest that works as streetwear.

Nike recognized snowboarders' general aversion to big chain discounters who stock the swoosh, so it has the battle for brand loyalty to snowboarding's heart--the specialty retailers. But Nike won't hire new reps, according to Craig Trames. Instead, the company will use ACG sales reps more versed in other outdoor pursuits.

"I'll be the first to admit we don't have twenty hardcore snowboarders," Says Trames. "We'll go in humble, won't act like the authority, and let the product speak for itself." Such initial strategy seems to work--they'll be in longtime retailers like Zumiez, Zuma Jay's, and Inflight, among others, and Nike skipped having a booth at this year's SIA show--they're sold out for the season.

Just Source

It Is Nike involvement the latest sign in what many predicted would be snowboarding's consolidation apocalypse? The sport was weaned on the entrepreneurial spirit--bro manufacturers selling to mom-and-pop retailers selling to a hardcore constituency. The business, however, grows more well-financed, more corporate each day. This is not ski industry incest--all things Nike merge straight into the mainstream. In the end, will only the F.I.T. survive?

Only time and consumer choices can answer that. Nike isn't a mere bandwagoneer; the company is so red-hot right now it plays in its own league. "Nike is bigger than snowboarding, obviously," says Hernandez, sounding positively John Lennon-esque. "Look at all the other endeavors we do. In terms of sports culture and building technically superior product, you can't really lob us in with other brands that depend specifically on snowboarding."

Says Vali: "We have the consumer in mind. We're always looking at the end user. We're not surging in volume, but in leadership--fabric, technology, newness, freshness. You have your point of view, but what's your point of difference?"

And Nike has allied with special expertise to insure the swoosh isn't out swinging in the wind. Besides extensive global manufacturing and materials contacts, the company employed ski-and-snowboard filmmaker Greg Stump to shoot promotional video, and forged a development pact with Intrawest, owners of Blackcomb, Stratton, and Mt. Tremblant (with interests in Keystone and Mammoth). Blackcomb snowboard instructors will be uniformed in Nike.

They've also begun sewing up Olympic prospects by sponsoring the Canadian freestyle and Alpine teams. Inquiries about bigger moves get routed to the Equipment division and Product Line Manager Eric Lonsway, who insists boards aren't on the way soon. "Do you know how many manufacturers sent us boards with a swoosh on them?" he asks. "We're not Budweiser, that's not what we do. We never say never, but apparel and footwear--that's what we can do. Footwear won't be for a while."

Trames likewise admits that "boots are the bigger idea. There's confusion about step-ins. Right now, it's an O.K. Corral. Why get into that?"

Nike can say it and mean it. The two business resources most in demand are what they have in spades--money and time. Says Trames: "One of our first shoes was a soccer shoe. We spent 25 years in soccer, and we're just now able to play on a global field."

Adds Ellison: "There's no internal pressure on us, they [Nike Management] asked, ÎWhat do you think you can do?'"

Vali sums it up: "We had a stronger opinion about apparel. We're one of the largest apparel manufacturers in the world [second perhaps only to Levi's]. We put the pressure on ourselves. We knew we wanted to do something special this season, not [in great] numbers, but be a player. If it doesn't sell, we can funnel that information back and learn. This company doesn't have to flood the snowboarding market. There are other things to keep the lights on."

Soiree In Solitude

When it comes to the snowboarding market, Nike first donned its game face during a private party it hosted at SIA's On-Snow Demo in Solitude, Utah. A buffet spread and gourmet pastas were rolled out, and the open bar flowed freely for attendees who perused salmon slabs and catalog specs on the 26-piece ACG clothing line that includes socks, gloves, backpacks, and accessories.

Though Nike has flirted with snowboarding for a while (sponsoring rider Jeff Greenwood, a big-air event during the Snowmass Gran Prix, the XGames, and ads run in snowboard and outdoor magazines), the party marked Nike's most pointed positioning to date, opting to create a buzz and let retailers ride the product in Utah powder instead of manning a sales booth in Vegas.

Execs, however were adamant in emphasizing that when it comes to snowboarding, the company that usually just does it is taking it a step at a time.

"With snowboarding, we didn't want to come in and buy up the sport," says U.S. Director of Merchandising Seth Ellison. "We didn't want to be perceived as buying a bunch of athletes and expertise. We'll take the experience we have dealing with other athletes, and bring those same philosophies to the snowboard market. We're taking it slow, seeing how it goes, and making sure the product we produce is right for the snowboarding athlete."

Other Nike employees remained just as on-message, repeating the mantra throughout a private promotional video (shot in Blackcomb by The Blizzard Of Ahhs' Greg Stump) and line viewing downstairs. On hand were Canadian snowboarders consulting as part of a development deal struck between Nike and Intrawest, owners of Blackcomb and Stratton, among others. It was announced Canadian hopefuls would be Nike equipped for the 1998 Nagano, Japan premiere of Olympic halfpipe and Giant Slalom.

Upstairs, partygoers raged to the sounds of Portland's Drednek (out riding the next day bedecked in Nike gear), while employees deferred the question everyone wants asked--are swoosh footwear, even snowboards, in the sport-market leader's future? "The opportunity [for boards] is there," says Ellison. "Right now we're looking into it, and if it seems right for us to do it, we will."

Maybe he left out the "just" on purpose.

—B. M.