Research, Strategy & Design — Nike
Nike Pro Combat owned game day. The question was: what does performance look like for the other 23 hours? We went to the athletes to find out.
Nike Pro Combat had defined the competition baselayer — the gear athletes wear on game day. But athletes don't stop being athletes when the game ends. They train at 5am, go to school, hit the weight room, practice, and then do it all again. Nike needed a line that owned that entire day.
The challenge was to create and define Nike Pro Training — performance sportswear for the competitive athlete's all-day, everyday life beyond game day.
We went directly to the athletes. Primary research at Lake Oswego High School and Bonney Lake High School mapped the full day-in-the-life of a 17-year-old competitive athlete — from the 5am weight room session through school, practice, and the social hours after.
The research protocol included day-in-the-life mapping, naming and messaging word sorts, feature selection exercises using actual Nike Pro Combat product, and jersey feature/benefits discussions.
Gear serves five roles in an athlete's life: Functional (ready for anything), Emotional (badge of honor), Tactile (light, strong, fast), Self-Actualizing (always an athlete), and Reminiscent (band of brothers). Training gear isn't just clothing — it's identity.
We also identified three macro trends reshaping athletic apparel: modern athletic fit had evolved from oversized to form-fitting, performance materials had shifted from flashy to functional, and premium details were now expected rather than differentiating.
Nike Pro Training was positioned as "Performance Sportswear" — the all-day complement to Nike Pro Combat's game-day focus. The narrative: our athletes live on the field of play. They have total commitment to their sports. They're never done training, and never done preparing for the win.
We developed the Vapor Collection — the pinnacle "concept car" collection for Nike Pro Training. Ten product designs with wearable samples, each evaluated at three distances:
At 10 feet: modern athletic silhouettes grounded in culture, reinterpreting classics like the varsity jacket, hoody, and board short. At 2 feet: functional zoning, embedded structure, and digital integration. At 1 foot: light, fast performance details inspired by the Nike Pro Combat Speed Machine uniform.
The collection also integrated digital features across three tiers — lifestyle (smartphone and audio integration), motivation (Nike Fuel and app integration), and performance (motion-tracking and bio-feedback sensors).
Consumer research and insights report. Strategic target definition. Brand narrative and messaging. Product line architecture. Nike Pro ecosystem definition. Design strategy for the Vapor pinnacle collection. Ten pinnacle product designs with wearable samples. Digital integration strategy.