Nike design chief talks Colin Kaepernick, empowering women, and the future of retail in Asia
- John Hoke talks about why companies should take a stance on issues, the Just Do It anniversary ads’ message, and Nike’s pivot to the women’s market
- He also explains the mutual benefits of Nike collaborating with fashion designers such as Virgil Abloh and Riccardo Tisci
Global companies are rarely out of the spotlight, but 2018 has been a particularly busy year for Nike. From a controversial 25th anniversary celebration of the Just Do It campaign to a successful Fifa World Cup – where the brand sponsored 10 teams, including champions, France – and a lawsuit involving gender discrimination, the company has made headlines.
Despite the ups and downs, Nike has maintained double-digit growth, cementing its role as the world’s leader in sportswear.
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That’s good news for John Hoke, Nike’s chief design officer and the man behind the first Nike Town, which opened 25 years ago in New York, who is now tasked with engineering the future of the company with help from his team of more than 1,000 designers around the world.
As a brand, Nike is up there with the likes of Apple and Harley Davidson as a quintessentially American success story, and its products have been embraced by the fashion community. In the eyes of luxury consumers, Nike is now on par with European powerhouses such as Gucci or Chanel.
“This transition began roughly 10 years ago, but in the past five years the interest in the activewear space has just picked up,” says Hoke during a recent visit to Hong Kong.
“To me it’s the convergence of several things that turn youth on today. Luxury fashion houses have seen what the youth market is doing and are paying attention to what turns on the market, and the pace of change in the market is picking up because of devices and unlimited images, and people really trying to self-curate and go deeper into the stories and narratives of brands that they find interesting.”