Nike Targets Women With New Hip-Hop Line
Fitness-Dance Gear, Moves
Go From Gym to Nightclub;
A Sweat-Wicking Corset
In a recent music video, R&B artist Rihanna struts in a tight cropped shirt, baggy khaki pants and a white fedora. The outfit looks fresh off a streetwear designer's rack, but Nike Inc. says it is actually made for a sweaty gym workout.
After years of catering to men with professional endorsers like Michael Jordan, Nike is angling for a new kind of athlete: dancers. The Beaverton, Ore., sportswear company has created shoes and sexy apparel designed for female enthusiasts of popular aerobic activities, such as fitness dance. The high-energy workout was born out of a rising interest in hip-hop and upbeat dance music typically found in music videos starring Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez.
It is all part of a push by Nike to increase its appeal to women, who represent an undertapped market. With that in mind, Nike's latest fitness-dance line includes tissue-thin tank tops, low-rise baggy pants and flirty short skirts that are meant to look good in the gym and at the nightclub. Pants and tops can be tucked up or left long, and many of the pieces can be layered on top of each other, allowing dancers to customize their look.
Every piece aims to help a dancer move easily and stay cool by using performance fabrics that wick away sweat. The $125 "Nike Speed Corset" combines flexible built-in boning for support in a sweat-wicking fabric to avoid overheating, and the $36 "Fantastic Fedora" is lined with a headband to remove perspiration. Two different footwear styles offer arch support for dancers who often push up onto their toes and specially designed leather and rubber soles for sliding dance moves.
Nike will be looking to snag women such as Grace Kim, a 22-year-old college student and self-confessed "gym rat" whose workout includes spin-cycling and the occasional funk or hip-hop dance class. "It's just not cool to look sloppy, even when you're working out," says Ms. Kim, of Santa Monica, Calif.
Women's products made up 20% of total Nike-brand sales in its year ended May 31. The company also sees bigger opportunities in fitness walking and yoga, and says the entire women's division has seen double-digit growth. Nike had revenue of $13.74 billion last year.
Through much of its history, Nike has played down female-centric trends such as aerobics, allowing rivals including Reebok International Ltd. to claim that turf. Nike has at times targeted women, mostly by copying the hard-edged, sports-marketing strategies that made it so popular with men in basketball and football. But the results were hit or miss, says Mindy Grossman, vice president of global apparel.
"We were taking the men's formula -- big athlete, big marketing -- and trying to apply it to women. But that's not how she responds," says Ms. Grossman, who was hired five years ago in part to revamp the company's women's business. "We intentionally said we need to find the formula that's most relevant for her."
To do that, she and her team are focusing on activities women do, even if it veers away from the traditional competitive sports that Nike was founded on decades ago.
Senior Nike executives have come around to the idea of fitness dance, but the notion drew mixed reactions of " 'dance isn't a sport' to total excitement," when it was first discussed several years ago, says global general manager Darcy Winslow. Nike launched its first fitness-dance collection in spring 2005.
The attitude shift is helping Nike grab a bigger piece of the women's active market, which is rapidly outpacing sales of men's active products. While sales of women's sports apparel grew 9% to $17.4 billion in 2004 from 2000, sales of men's sports apparel dropped 11% to $13.4 billion, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, a trade group.
Retailers are giving more floor space to women's products. David Campisi, president of Sports Authority Inc., says its women's division, helped by strong sales of the Nike line, posted double-digit revenue growth in 2005.
Female consumers are "willing to spend more and buy more," Mr. Campisi says. The average purchase from women tends to be higher than for men, he says, in part because women like to buy color-coordinating products. "We've all recognized it's not all about the testosterone," he added.
The growth reflects increasing numbers of women working out, and the acceptance of sport-influenced looks as fashionable. Nike's core fitness-dance consumer is a 22- to 28-year-old woman who "won't sacrifice fashion for function," Ms. Grossman says. "She wants both."
Along with its merchandise, Nike is hoping that its series of fitness-dance DVDs and gym classes lures more female consumers by tying in to popular culture. To push the dance concept, Nike enlisted Rihanna to star in its "Nike Rockstar Workout -- Hip Hop by Jamie King" DVD, its fourth in a series of fitness-dance workouts. Later this month, an hour-long extension of a Nike-branded routine will be taught in dozens of 24 Hour Fitness gyms. The workout was created by Mr. King, a choreographer to celebrities such as Madonna and Ricky Martin.
"It's cool to dance now," says Mr. King, who rattles off dance routines featured in everything from stadium tours and MTV videos to feature films such as "Moulin Rouge!" and "Chicago."
To tap into pop culture, he pulled well-known moves from music videos -- Shakira's chest roll, Mr. Martin's hip-shimmying or Madonna's squats -- into the workouts. "There's a recognizability that will make people want to do it more," he says.
The point is to get average women up and dancing, something that 24 Hour Fitness gym executives say is already happening. "Dance is definitely something that members are starting to embrace," says Donna Meyer, corporate director of group exercise in San Ramon, Calif., where Nike's fitness-dance workout fills out a schedule already packed with everything from salsa to cardio striptease.
健身舞带动耐克女装销售
在不久前拍摄的一个音乐录像中，R&B女歌手蕾哈娜(Rihanna)以紧身短款上衣、宽松卡其布长裤和白色浅顶软呢帽的装扮亮相，这身行头看上去像是街头服装设计师的新作。但据耐克公司(Nike Inc)称，它其实就是一套运动服。
多年来，耐克一直在用像迈克尔?乔丹(Michael Jordan)这样的专业运动员来担当形像代言人，以吸引男性顾客。现在，其形像代言人又有了新的目标：舞者。耐克公司已经为健身街舞等有氧运动的女性爱好者专门设计了鞋和性感的运动服。健身街舞的出现还要归功于嘻哈风格快节奏音乐的兴起，这也是大牌歌星碧昂丝(Beyonce)和洛佩兹(Jennifer Lopez)典型的音乐风格。
耐克公司想借此开拓其鲜有涉足的女性市场。出于这一考虑，耐克在其最新的健身街舞系列中，推出了紧身短背心、低腰宽松裤、性感短衬衫，无论是在健身房还是在夜总会都适合穿著。裤子和背心可长可短，顾客还可以自由搭配不同款式，穿出自己的风格。
每款衣服的设计都有助于跳舞的人自如地活动，并采用透气吸汗材料让身体保持凉爽。售价125美元的“Nike Speed Corset”使用了一种吸汗的布料，其中还添加了柔软的支撑材料。两种不同款式的运动鞋为那些经常需要踮起脚尖的舞者提供了脚部的拱形支撑，并针对变换的舞蹈动作特别设计了皮制和橡胶的鞋底，
22岁的格蕾斯?金(Grace Kim)是一名大学生，她把自己称做是“健身迷”，她经常参加的运动项目包括健身单车、健身街舞等。像她这样的女性将会是耐克瞄准的目标。金说，即使是在运动的时候，穿著随便也会让人觉得不舒服。
截至5月31日的财年，耐克女装及女鞋的销售额占耐克品牌总销售额的20%。公司预计健身步行和瑜伽运动会带来更大的商机，并称整个女装部的增幅是两位数的。耐克去年的收入为137.4亿美元。
在耐克发展的历程中，有氧运动等以女性为中心的运动趋势一直未能引起它足够的重视，让锐步公司(Reebok International Ltd.)等竞争对手得以乘虚而入，抢得了这一商机。耐克时不常地也会将目标转向女性顾客，基本上还是套用其一贯的运动营销策略，它在男性群体中颇为奏效，不过公司负责全球服装业务的副总裁克罗斯曼(Mindy Grossman)称，这套策略用在女性客户身上并不管用。
克罗斯曼说，我们需要找到一套最适合女性的营销策略。
为此，她和她的团队将注意力集中在女性参与的运动上，虽然与数十年前成就耐克的那些传统竞技项目相比，这些运动项目已经有了很大的不同。
耐克高层已经意识到了健身舞的商机，但公司全球总经理魏斯洛(Darcy Winslow)说，几年前当第一次讨论这个问题时，大家对于舞蹈是否属于运动还争论不休。耐克在2005年春季推出了它首个健身舞系列服装。
态度的转变正帮助耐克从女性运动市场获得更多的份额，女性运动产品的销售正在迅速超越男性运动产品。根据体育用品制造商协会(Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association)的数据，从2000年到2004年，女性运动服装的销售额增长了9%，至174亿美元；而同期男性运动服装的销售额却下降了11%，至134亿美元。
零售商也在拿出更多的空间销售女性运动产品。Sports Authority Inc.总裁堪皮斯(David Campisi)称，在耐克系列女装强劲销售的带动下，其女装部2005年收入实现了两位数的增长。
堪皮斯说，女性消费者更愿意花钱买东西。他说，女性的平均购买额一般都要高于男性，部分是因为女性喜欢购买那些颜色搭配和谐的产品。
女性运动服装的旺销也表明女性参加锻炼的人数越来越多，运动服装被时尚所接受。耐克健身舞服装的核心消费者是22至28岁的女性，她们不想为了运动功能而牺牲时尚，她们想二者兼顾。
除此之外，耐克还推出了健身舞系列DVD和健身课程，希望可以吸引来更多的女性消费者。
