The relationship between Nike Global and Nike Japan was full of opportunity but slowed by roadblocks on each side. The language barrier was nothing compared to the gap between the global performance mandate and largest region only wanting to compete in fashion. So in 2004 Nike opened the first Design Studio in Harajuku.
My strategic responsibilities were to help performance categories like Running and Basketball connect with Japanese athletes while relaying streetwear opportunities to the NSW team. Soon I found that the layers within Nike Global were nothing compared to the dynamics that existed within the territories, the country itself, the business and the consumer expectations.
Nike Basketball had tried for years to break into the Japanese basketball market but consumers trusted local brands that focused on high school athletics. Our big break was the opening of the Design Studio and Japan's first NBA contract happening in the same month.
Yuta Tabuse was ready to wear something new so we delivered the Zoom Brave to signify his effort in taking his skill to the biggest stage in basketball.
We worked with John Jay and the Weiden + Kennedy Tokyo team to not only launch the product to also add dimension through the molded quarter created by Tokyo designers to bridge the past and the future.
The storytelling continued through ad campaigns and print media that dominated high school athletics in Japan.
With a solid start in basketball we decided to tackle a bigger consumer in Japan - the performance runner. The Nike Japan team had already focused on the Ekiden as the premier event to win the consumer. The annually televised relay race is the equivalent to the Final Four basketball tournament in the US.
Nike was a beloved brand in Japan but not as a performance brand. Local brands Asics and Mizuno dominated sport to the point that at my first meeting with Nike sponsored Toyo University Ekiden coach the team wore Asics and Mizuno to train. This was our best relationship.
So I focused on building the relationship by traveling an hour to Toyo University weekly to their 7AM practices. Over 6 months the coach and the team saw that our team was dedication to building product that solved their performance needs and please their uniform aesthetic.
That aesthetic was the big leap because Nike Global had given the Nike Japan team Asics-inspired designs to appease their consumers. That wasn't working so the VP of Japan - former competitive runner - Jim Godbout proposed we take inspiration from authentic heritage.
The Prefontaine, originally designed for track legend Steve Prefontaine who tragically died before he had the chance to race in the shoe before the Montreal Olympics.
While the shoe was a success with a 250% buy-in the first year of production, the shoe and its successors had an unexpected gold medal in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Along the way we approached more performance opportunities like sumo, women's training and boxing. By placing design at the center of the conversation, Nike found footing on performance shelves in Nike Japan allowing the larger business to grow as athletes and non-athletes experienced the brand together.
