Nike’s Support of the WNBA: An Analytical Overview

The WNBA All-Star Game just wrapped up this weekend in Phoenix. The tickets were sold out and the arena was packed, all in anticipation of the league’s best players showing us that there’s never been a better time to be a women’s hooper. Of course, those who’ve passionately followed the growth of women’s basketball know that the game’s rise was inevitable.

Nike has been in the game for decades. Since the league was founded in ’96, Nike knows that women’s basketball changes the world for the better. Today, women’s hoops is not having a moment. It’s leading a movement. Here’s a snapshot of the brand’s support:

15: Nike-sponsored players who will play as WNBA All-Stars or USAB team members this year, the most of any sports brand. As the biggest champion for the game, Nike partners with the world’s best players who share our belief that basketball can break barriers, push limits, spark change and move the world forward.

2018: the year Nike began as the WNBA’s uniform partner, revealing a new uniform system for each of the league’s 12 teams. To help celebrate the league’s 25th season, Nike also created the most comprehensive player, team and fan apparel collection in WNBA history with the Game Theatre Collection. Nike’s commitment to providing high-quality basketball apparel extends beyond the league. In 2019, the debut of the Swoosh Fly collection reimagined staple pieces core to the game, like hoodies, sweats and penny jerseys, and redesigned them exclusively for the female body.

20: player-exclusive (PE) footwear partnerships, most recently with Seattle Storm guard Jewell Lloyd, Chinese guard Yang Liwei, and New York Liberty forward Jonquel Jones, who will debut a KD17 PE in September. Nike has led the PE space in women’s basketball for years. No company has invested in player expression through footwear like Nike, and this doesn’t stop with just colorways. Introduced in 1997, the Nike Air Swoopes 1 was famously the first signature shoe designed for a female player. Two years later, Charlotte Sting guard Dawn Staley rocked her own signature shoe, the Nike Air Zoom S5. Today, Nike is honored to support its newest signature players — New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu and Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson — as well as many of the league’s stars who wear Nike PEs.

2023: the release year for the Sabrina 1, the most successful signature launch led by a women’s basketball player in sport history, with top continental sales in North America and China. The Sabrina 1 transcended the women’s game and caught fire in the NBA. Over 80 NBA players wore the Sabrina 1 during the 2023-24 season — equal to starting lineups for 16 teams.

200+: number of teams in Nike’s China High School Basketball League, making it the largest women’s high school basketball league in the world. In North America, the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) is widely expanding. Nike believes the next generation of WNBA players can come from anywhere, at any level, from grassroots play to elite competitive play. These leagues are the game’s future. That’s why Nike is investing in more youth leagues than ever before to give more young girls the chance to develop their skills.

12: the WNBA teams that supported the launch of Game Growers in 2019, a program that gives middle-school girls the platform to grow sport in their own backyard, Together, Nike and the whole league created the program to put the power in the hands of young girls to increase sport participation in their communities. The program lives on today.

72: athletes who have attended Nike x WNBA Women in Nike (WIN). This program helps retired WNBA players learn how to apply their skills and insights gained from pro sport into a corporate setting. Fifty-eight of those WIN players are now full-time employees across Nike, Converse and Jordan Brand.

Through Nike’s partnership with the WNBA, we’re inviting more girls, women and fans into the game’s next chapter. The women’s game is rising, and it’s nowhere near done.

 

 

 

 

 

Photo/NikeNewsroom

 

Nike newsroom contributed to this column