Nike Taps into Nostalgia & Horror for the Women’s World Cup
Published 09 August 2023
2 min read
Strengthening its lead over rival Adidas in Fifa Women’s World Cup merchandise sales, two Nike campaigns deliver cultural clout and spotlight the potential for brands at the intersection of sport, retail and pop culture. See Women’s Sports Boom for more on harnessing soaring consumer interest in women’s sports.
- Nike x Martine Rose’s Surreal Spin on Nostalgia: A campaign promoting Nike’s latest collection with British-Jamaican designer Martine Rose plays with the ongoing wave of 70s/80s nostalgia. Instagram posts spoof vintage home-shopping TV shows and American 1-900 phone-sex hotlines (which flourished in the 80s), while a six-minute Martine Rose Sports TV YouTube video features a surreal football variety show hosted by American-British comedian Ruby Wax.
A pop-up at Labelhood Box Shanghai, a fashion incubation community, continues the retro 70s theme with vintage sports trophies, magazines, posters and TV sets. (For pop-ups’ engagement potential, see New Power Pop-Ups.)
Campaign casting also drives nostalgia, bringing together current British footballer Leah Williamson (Arsenal player and captain of the England women’s national team) and members of the Lost Lionesses – England’s unofficial team at the 1971 Women’s World Cup in Mexico, when the UK still banned women’s football. Also in the line-up: lifelong football player Lydia Birgani-Nia (Wales/Iran), head of partnerships & acquisition at the Institute of Digital Fashion.
(See Nostalgia Nourishes Unity in Super Bowl 2023 and Hopecore, Soft Living & Nostalgia in YMS 2023.) - Nike & Ambush Mine Pop Culture’s Horror Takeover: Another collaboration with Korean-American fashion designer Yoon Ahn’s label Ambush, campaign video Nite Sport (released in July 2023), directed by Ahn and shared on both brands’ socials, satirises the goth aesthetic permeating internet culture (see The Fear Renaissance). The clip stars American model and influencer Gabbriette Bechtel as an unsettling teen (channelling Wednesday) who joins her school’s football team. It garnered more than 250k views on Bechtel’s TikTok account in its first three days.
Nike X Martine Rose
Nike X Martine Rose
 Nike X Martine Rose |  Nike X Martine Rose |
Nike X Martine Rose
Nike X Martine Rose
 Nike X Martine Rose |  Nike X Martine Rose |
Nike X Ambush
Nike X Ambush
 Nike X Ambush |  Nike X Ambush |