nike digital transformation case study

Nike's Digital Transformation Efforts Continue to Win Big

Nike’s digital transformation enters the metaverse and embraces supply chain automation.

Long a pioneer in the retail sector , over the past decade Nike has emerged as a true digital visionary. The embrace of cutting-edge technology combined with a “Consumer Direct Acceleration” (CDA) strategy has not only enabled Nike to survive the turbulence of the last two years, but thrive. 

In fact, according to the company’s most recent earnings report , digital channels and applications now account for 26% of Nike’s revenues, its Q3 earnings revealed, with digital sales in the US up 33% on the same quarter last year. Furthermore, Nike revenues for the quarter were $10.9 billion. Net income was $1.39 billion, down 4% on the same period in 2021.

In the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nike made a number of savvy digital investments including the launch of its mobiles apps (NIKE mobile app, the SNKRS mobile app, the NTC (Nike Training Club) and NRC (Nike Run Club). Nike’s exercise app, the Training Club, alone was responsible for boosting sales in China by 30% during the pandemic.

In partnership with intelligent automation provider Laiye , they also launched a chatbot that not only helped e-commerce customers find what they were looking for, but could also offer the shopper personalized product recommendations. 

The company has also made significant investments in data science technology , acquiring data integration startup platform, Datalogue, in 2021 as well as two predictive analytics tools Zodiac (2018) and Celect (2019).

However, the transformation hasn’t stopped there. Here’s a look at what else is on Nike’s digital transformation plate. 

Nike Enters the Metaverse

In November 2021, Nike introduced the world to Nikeland , its Roblox -hosted metaverse. Since then, 7 million people have visited to browse merchandise, build and style avatars, design sneakers, play games, and roam its immersive 3D landscape. 

Later that same year, Nike also acquired digital sneaker company, RTFKT, to help them expand into the NFT space and, so far, the partnership has proven to be successful. For example, in April of 2022, Nike and  RTFKT Studio launched CryptoKicks Dunk Genesis, a collection of 20,000 non-fungible tokens (NFT) shoes that can be purchased and worn by your avatar in the metaverse. A total of 600 pairs of NFT sneakers were sold out in just  6 minutes, generating a total revenue of $3.1 million . 

Supply Chain Transformation

Perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, Nike began reimagining its supply chain to reflect its increasingly digital, D2C strategy. To start, the company opened dozens of new regional distribution centers and launched a “sole train,” a dedicated high speed Los Angeles-to-Memphis train to transport items from the nation’s largest container ports and the company’s omnichannel facilities. 

Similar to many companies, they also expanded their use of physical robots (or co-bots , short for collaborative robots, as they call them), advanced demand-sensing technology and inventory optimization platforms to not only increase the speed of order processing and helped them triple their order capacity during the holiday season, but increase the accuracy of demand forecasts and minimize environmental impact. 

As Nike themselves put it in a recent blog post, “Using AI and machine learning, Nike is leveraging technology to forward-position the products that consumers love most and deliver faster, more precisely, and without compromising sustainability.”

Nike’s Next Move

When it comes to Nike’s long-term digital transformation ambitions, the race has only begun. In April 2022, it was announced that Nike had hired Dantley Davis as vice president of digital design. A long-time industry player, Davies helped build Netflix’s widely emulated digital interface and, later, served as Twitter’s first chief design officer. This move signals that a new era of innovation is about to commence. 

So does Nike's announcement that they plan to build a new technology center in Atlanta. According to Footwearnews.com , “As part of this new office, Nike said it is launching three ‘Centers of Excellence’ focused on disciplines that are particularly strong in the region like logistics and supply chain, which Nike is using to accelerate its digital-first supply chain strategy. Nike added that the center will also focus on cybersecurity and will establish an East Coast cybersecurity command center. The facility will also explore artificial intelligence and machine learning to help reimagine consumer experiences.” 

Furthermore, Nike also recently announced it will revamp its Nike China digital ecosystem including the Nike app and nike COM, snkrs app, Nike wechat applet, NTC wechat applet and other self owned digital platforms this July. Many also speculate that Nike will begin developing the next generation of fitness apps - ones that use biometric data to provide users with workouts specifically tailored towards their unique exercise habits, preferences and needs. 

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Digital Innovation and Transformation

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Nike: Just do it. Differently!

Nike is responding to the COVID-19 by leveraging its digital resources to connect athletes with customers, strengthening its digital ecosystem and boosting online sales.

Just do It, at Home!

Nike is well known for its branding, marketing and advertisement strategy, which is considered a best practice by many scholars and practitioners in the marketing space.  From a simple and powerful logo that represents the iconic brand, to a long-lasting slogan that calls for action and attitude. At the same time, the company associates its image with high performance athletes and a lifestyle that everyone somehow pursues.

The company’s main slogan “Just do it”, created back in 1987, calls for movement, action, empowerment and initiative. So, what about now, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when everybody is stuck at home? without gyms, without social gathering, no jogging and no social interactions where you would have the opportunity to show off your new Nike air? How to send its message and keep customers engaged while they pretty much stay at home?

Impact of COVID-19

Just like many other companies in the consumer and fashion industry, Nike was heavily affected by COVID-19 lockdown. As a global brand with 1,100 stores, Nike closed more than half of stores in China as early as February to protect its employees;  and decided, by mid-march to close all stores in the US, as the virus started to spread in the country. Even for stores that remained opened, the foot traffic has declined significantly.

Pathways to a Just Digital Future

  Nike’s response

In response to the pandemic, Nike boosted its digital strategy and its direct sales, and adapted its message to the “new normal’. Nike created different digital spaces for customers to interact with the brand’s big influencers: the high-performance athletes.

With slogans like: ”Play inside”, “ Play for the World”, “You can’t stop us” featuring athletes and regular people playing in their living rooms or backyards, Nike is reducing the distance between these athletes and their customers and keeping customers engaged during lockdown.

The company also deployed many digital contents and platforms for free:

•  Nike’s digital ecosystem : A library of digital workouts and resources for free, including Nike App , Nike Training Club App ( NTC ), Nike  Running Club App ( NRC ), social channels, nike.com , and its podcast TRAINED .
•  Livestream workouts. Live workouts are streamed every Saturday by Nike Master Trainers for free on the Nike Youtube channel .
•   Digital Fitness Challenges . A flagships initiative during the COVID lockdown has been the The Living Room Cup – a digital workout series where athletes set challengers for users to take part in at home. Global Athletes like Lebron James or Cristiano Ronaldo stream themselves doing a workout and challenge users to compete against them. Players can share their results on their Instagram profiles using the hashtags #playinside and #thelivingroomcup.

Just like its slogan says, Nike campaigns are not only informative, they are actually pushing customers to do something!  Using the COVID-19 as a marketing campaign may seem opportunistic, but for Nike, it goes beyond that, it is a matter of connecting to customers and keeping the business and the brand alive in customer’s mind !

If you can make some sales in the process, much better!

So, the question is: Is this working? Is the company able to monetize it?

Recent Results

Nike stocks recently soared 11% in the latest earnings announcements, reflecting an increase in online-order and passing Wall Street estimates. It is clear that Nike is taking the opportunity of COVID-19 to engage even more with customers and to expedite its online sales.

The “Digital Transformation” at the forefront of Nike’s brand strategy

The digital offerings Nike is leveraging during the Pandemic is not an isolated initiative, it is a result of a “digital transformation” that has been in the forefront of Nike’s brand strategy for several years now.

Nike has put digital in the center of its strategy as a key enabler of the so-called ‘Consumer Direct Offense’. The plan is to improve its digital marketplace toward boosting online direct sales model, and cutting back on certain parts of its wholesale business.

In that same line, the company recently announced its new CEO, appointed in October 2019. John Donahoe, a long-time tech executive has been on Nike’s board since 2014 and was president and CEO of eBay for seven years.

Some of the other key elements and capabilities of the digital transformation at Nike are:

• Social commerce . The numerous mobile apps and platforms create an ecosystem that integrate the social component with shopping-centric apps and convert customer’s engagement into sales.
• “Sneakerheads” Platform. The launch of the SNRKS app, intended for “sneakerheads”, offering limited-release, high demand shoes for its most-engaged customers is being used as a key source of ideas and suggestions for new designs to a bigger customer base.
• Analytics. Nike uses its digital ecosystem to collect data in every interaction and in its different channels, to identify customers preferences and to design new products.

Nike has been one of the few companies that spot on with its response to  COVID-19 by showing social responsibility when closing stores early, creating new space to engage with customers during the pandemic, and by taking the opportunity to expedite its digital transformation. The world will be different after COVID-19, and Nike wants to keep its place as an iconic brand and a company that sells a lifestyle that still make sense in the “new normal”.

Nike News. “All The Ways Nike Is Helping Athletes Play Inside — for the World.” https://news.nike.com/news/nike-play-inside-play-for-the-world .

Bain, Marc. “Nike’s App for Sneakerheads Is Fueling Its Digital Business.” Quartz. https://qz.com/quartzy/1655111/nikes-snkrs-app-is-fueling-its-digital-business/ .

“Nike’s Digital Strategy Is to Treat Everyone the Way It Treats Sneakerheads.” Quartz. https://qz.com/quartzy/1747382/how-nikes-snkrs-app-community-inspired-its-digital-strategy/ .

Gillil, Nikki. “How Nike Is Striking the Right Tone with Its Response to Covid-19.” Econsultancy (blog), April 15, 2020. https://econsultancy.com/how-nike-is-striking-the-right-tone-with-its-response-to-covid-19/ .

Hanbury, Mary. “Analysts Say Nike’s New CEO Choice Signals a Direction That Should Worry Some Mom-and-Pop and Department Stores.” Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/nike-new-ceo-choice-digital-strategy-warning-retailers-2019-10 .

“Nike Leaps 11% After Results Suggest It’s Weathering Virus Era.” Bloomberg.Com , March 24, 2020. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-24/nike-sales-top-estimates-as-it-weathers-early-days-of-covid-19 .

Mobile Marketer. “Nike Offers Workout App for Free as COVID-19 Keeps People Indoors.” Accessed https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/nike-offers-workout-app-for-free-as-covid-19-keeps-people-indoors/574721/ .

Rival IQ. “What You Can Learn from Nike Branding Strategy,” March 16, 2018. https://www.rivaliq.com/blog/nike-branding-strategy/ .

Student comments on Nike: Just do it. Differently!

It’s really cool to be able to see how Nike’s digital strategy is actually playing out during this pandemic. I am curious to see if these engagement / online sales numbers extend after the pandemic is over. Specifically, since online sales are increasing across the board at most ecommerce compnies, is this just a macro effect, or is it really because the digital apps that Nike has invested in is really helping to drive that growth? Another question I had was whether this growth will be sustained throughout the pandemic. It does seem that a lot of people were massively buying items especially in the beginning but as quarantine became more normalized, the buying has been shown to taper off. Will that especially be the case for sneakers since we’re not going outside as often now?

Interesting post! Thank you for sharing.

I hadn’t heard of a lot of these initiatives – including the Living Room Cup, which is a great way for Nike to maintain engagement with its customers during the pandemic. Nike clearly is now generating far more data, via these digital channels, than they were before. I wonder how well equipped Nike is to take advantage of this data? It seems they have been building up their analytics capability over the past few years – with the acquisitions of data analytics companies Zodiac and Celect – so they’re probably well-positioned.

I also wonder how they can maintain this data capture in a post-coronavirus world – I would love to see them use their digital ecosystem to support the in-store shopping experience (e.g., to instantly check stock). Given the acceleration in adoption of their digital ecosystem, due to coronavirus, the business-case for developing these features has become even stronger!

Great post! I studied Nike’s data analytics, digital strategy and its ” consumer direct offense” for my last post: https://d3.harvard.edu/platform-digit/submission/nike-just-do-it-with-data-science-and-demand-sensing/

Indeed it has been working very hard on its digital strategy even before COVID happened and because of that infrastructure in place, they are able to reap benefits now. They are focused on collecting as much user information as possible to make their datasets robust for analytics. It is, therefore, crucial for them to remain connected with their consumers at this time when stores are closed so that they can continue getting information about them. These fitness apps are one great way of doing so.

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Dec 24, 2020 — Read time: 4 mins

How Nike’s digital transformation helped them thrive during Covid-19

Per a recent article in Business of Fashion, the forward-looking company was able to grow their share price and re-establish the exclusivity and covetability of their brand by implementing a digital-first strategy.

Nike’s latest triumph in the retail market once again proves how aptly the company is named.

The Radical Strategy That Drove Nike’s Pandemic Success traces the development of this strategy back to 2017 and before, when former Nike CEO Mark Parker announced that the brand would cut their roster of distribution partners from 30,000+ to just 40.

“With a big unveiling on October 25th, 2017, with his company’s stock trading at roughly $51, then chief executive Mark Parker committed corporate suicide… Where most CEOs are reticent to fire even a single customer, Parker had just pink-slipped thousands in a single day." Business of Fashion

Nike’s leadership team had taken stock of their identity as a brand: At their best, their footwear is highly desirable, aspirational, and collectable, associated with the lifestyles of celebrity athletes and performers. They quickly realized the worst thing they could do was to allow their merchandise to be sold in department stores or other retail locations where they’d be stacked on a shelf along with all the other brands in their category, undifferentiated and not linked to their powerhouse experiential marketing efforts.

With this vision of their brand in mind, Nike didn’t just reduce their footprint in partner stores—they went all-in on digital first strategy that linked their ecommerce with their in-store experiences, and focused on a data-driven model that would leave most CTOs and CSOs drooling.

A concept store is nothing new in retail, but Nike’s purpose for their Melrose Avenue, LA retail location is nothing short of genius. Selling shoes and clothing was almost secondary—the intention of the store was to be a customer-data-collecting engine, with information about which products were selling, and to whom, fed back into Nike’s strategic decisions for the brand as a whole. The most impressive data point of all? The highly customer-focused experience Nike created at this store allowed them to convert shoppers into Nike Plus members six times faster than any other retail location in their network. These shoppers also spent 30% more on their next online purchase with the brand than those who hadn’t visited the store, proving the value of creating the high concept experience.

Making this strategy work for you

The Nike leadership dubbed their digital transformation plan the “triple double strategy”. In 2017, they planned to double their 1) innovation; 2) speed to market; and 3) direct connection points to customers over the next five years. In fact, they outperformed their targets: With a plan to achieve a 33% lift in direct-to-consumer sales by 2022, they hit that target and kept growing by 2019.

The focus here is twofold: 1) Understanding what makes your brand salient with your audience; and 2) Understanding that digital transformation has become a must-have, not a nice-to-have.

It’s easy for companies to unintentionally dilute their brand. Nike themselves had been doing it for years by growing their wholesale business in an effort to grow their bottom line. But in the world of fashion especially, ubiquity is not a plus. The more exclusive a product is, the more consumers will want to buy. (The steady success of Hermès is all the proof one needs.)

If your company is suffering from this kind of identity crisis, it’s time to make some hard decisions about who you partner with and why, who you sell your products or services to, and the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

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• November 2018 (Revised April 2019)
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Nike: Changing the Sneakers Game

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• | Language: English
• | Pages: 23

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Anita Elberse

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Case Study | Inside Nike’s Radical Direct-to-Consumer Strategy

• Chantal Fernandez

In October 2020, in the middle of a global pandemic that had infected 188 countries, causing record sales damage across the retail sector, Nike’s share price hit an all-time high.

Like other retailers, Nike had been forced to close most of its network of more than 900 stores across the world, as had its key wholesale partners like Nordstrom and Foot Locker.

But the American sportswear giant’s performance during the pandemic, when its online sales spiked, signalled to many that Nike had the competency to prosper long term, in a future that will be increasingly defined by e-commerce and digital brand connections.

It was a validation of a strategy that Nike prioritised three years ago, dubbing it “Consumer Direct Offense,” but the seeds of the approach go back almost a decade.

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Above all, Nike is a marketing company. It doesn’t just sell sneakers; it sells the brand aspiration that imbues those sneakers with meaning. But to achieve the reach required to scale its business, Nike’s distribution strategy had long-relied on third-party retailers to sell its products, even if the consumer experience offered by those partners diluted its brand.

But in a future increasingly defined by e-commerce, fast-moving trends and, above all, the rising power of branding to drive consumer preference when competitors are just a click away, Nike realised that in order to thrive, it needed to take control of its distribution to better manage its brand and deepen its connection with consumers.

It was definitely architecting a new retail, and a bold, retail vision for Nike.

Such an evolution is easier said than done, especially for a business as large as Nike in a category as competitive as sportswear. But by radically cutting back on its wholesale distribution and raising the bar for brand experience with the third-party partners that remained; expanding its focus on content, community and customisation to keep customers close; investing in its data analytics and logistics capabilities; and rethinking the role of the store as a brand stage, Nike drove a veritable direct-to-consumer revolution.

When the pandemic hit, these shifts went into overdrive.

“It was definitely architecting a new retail, and a bold, retail vision for Nike,” said Heidi O’Neill, Nike’s president of consumer and marketplace, and one of the most prominent executives leading the brand’s new strategy in recent years. “But it started with our consumer, and we knew that consumers wanted a more direct relationship with us today.”

In this case study, BoF breaks down Nike’s pioneering direct-to consumer strategy and how it has worked to the brand’s advantage, propelling its share price to new heights during the global crisis of 2020.

Click below to read the case study now.

• Mark Parker
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FACTUM 2023: Fashion Communication in the Digital Age pp 88–95 Cite as

The Perks of Being Digital. Nikeland : A Case Study

• Erika Temperino   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0002-8005-6284 6  
• Conference paper
• Open Access
• First Online: 09 August 2023

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Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics ((SPBE))

The increasing digitalization of consumer behavior and lives has created both opportunities and challenges for fashion brands seeking to engage with their audience. This paper aims to reflect on the perks of being digital for fashion companies, through the observation of Nikeland platform on Roblox as a case study for more general considerations. The paper begins by providing an overview of the current digital landscape and the increasingly marked need for brands to create a more engaging relationship with their customers. Two sections will be devoted to the case study, one for the description of the platform, resulting from a personal observation of this, and one for the critical discussion of the characteristics and advantages highlighted. In the conclusion section there will be a further discussion about the potential benefits derived from the use of a new digital business model and how, however, it is necessary to give priority to transparency and authenticity in this process towards users-customers.

You have full access to this open access chapter,  Download conference paper PDF

1 Introduction

Fashion is a complex phenomenon that has always interested many scholars. Among these, one that played a significant role was the German sociologist and philosopher George Simmel, fascinated by fashion and its impact on society, whose reflections appear particularly remarkable and current. Fashion, according to Simmel, has for the modern individual the charm of beginning and end at the same time, the charm of new and the charm of caducity [ 1 ]. Given what Giacomo Leopardi wrote in his Operette Morali about the parallel between Fashion and death [ 2 ], one might argue that he could have found a solid substantiation of his ideas if he had had the opportunity to experience modern society. Inserted in the metropolis in which everything proceeds with a fast and chaotic movement, the modern human being is driven by the propensity for the new, transitory and changeable, favored by the intensification of the “nervous life”, produced by the rapid and uninterrupted alteration of external and inner impressions [ 3 ]. Within the modern metropolis – or liquid society , as Bauman defines it [ 4 ]- the short life of fashion is highly encouraged by the hyper-connection to the digital world, to which all individuals are now subjected daily.

From the moment the internet entered our homes and lives, the race toward the digitalization of life has never stopped. The accelerator was hit by the spread of Covid-19, which had a very strong impact on our lives – both psychologically and economically. The fashion industry is now facing a digital transformation, attracted by the potential of technology and the digital dimension, from how products are being produced to the communication between retailers and consumers and individuals’ shopping habits [ 5 ]. During the sanitary hazard period, as the in-person purchase was not allowed, the fashion companies needed to quickly find a new way to communicate and to promote their new releases, to adapt to the new demands of their audience, and to minimize losses due to the situation [ 6 ]. These circumstances showed how necessary it was to invest in the digital front, to find alternatives to the in-person shopping experience. Digital tools are the perfect allies for the fashion industry: through them, companies can quickly adapt their businesses and communication models to expand their reach and to keep feeding the vicious life and death-cycle of fashion products. Above all, digital tools can satisfy consumers’ hunger for more and more new products, offered at the speed of a simple click or scroll .

This paper aims to reflect on how the Fashion industry no longer uses technology as a simple medium to better promote its products in a way we already used to see. The small big and digital world that dwells in cyberspace, called Nikeland, will be investigated to demonstrate how the Nike brand has used users’ enthusiasm for Metaverse , creating one by collaborating with Roblox . The aim is to illustrate the perks of being digital for a company and how the combination of these tools and competent and creative professionals can be, nowadays, a trump card.

2 Methodology

This case study is based on the combination of direct observation of the Nikeland platform and Roblox homepage data and – due to the lack of specific existing literature – the critical reworking of studies and reflections of other authors who have devoted themselves to the observation of similar cases and contexts. As support of the §3.1 Case Study discussion will be used some conference proceedings of the previous FACTUM conferences and some studies about other platforms of virtual world games. The fashion world is very vast and its relationship with the videogames industry and online platforms are attracting more and more interest from the academic community.

3 Nikeland : Where Sport has No Rules

According to the Nike brand, anyone who owns a body is in itself an athlete and therefore a perfect customer of this brand whose mission has always been to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world [ 7 ]. The brand has constantly stood out for its interest in innovation and digital transformation considering tools such as Artificial intelligence (AI), e-commerce, in-store experiential technology and smartphone applications – i.e. Nike Training Club and Nike Run Club - as integral parts of their business and communication strategy [ 8 ]. Since January 2020, John Donahoe, who has become an expert in the field of digital commerce and technology, has become CEO of Nike [ 9 ], intending to pursue the mission of serving consumers better, offering them more and more engaging experiences, obviously giving priority to the digital future of the company. Shortly after the announcement of the ambitious Metaverse project by Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, in November 2021 Nike and Roblox announced their partnership in creating a branded metaverse, called Nikeland [ 10 ] . Roblox is a famous platform, launched in 2006, that allows users to live many virtual experiences in specific digital spaces, within which they can play and socialize with other users. Nikeland is a part of this virtual universe, modeled after the company’s real-life headquarters in Oregon, in which users can wander around in a totally branded world -even clouds are marked with the famous swoosh - through their avatars, obviously dressed in Nike-branded clothes.

The place is divided into different locations – the lobby, Basketball area, Football field, Showroom, My Playground, etc. - and each of these allows different activities. The Lobby is the area where users can meet themselves, visiting the store and getting familiar with the game; The sports fields are intended for the game of reference sports even if with some modification to the traditional rules; The showroom is the area where subscribers can purchase Nike branded items and decorations for their personal spaces (My Playground). Thanks to a map members can move between all these various locations and enjoy the game. Exploring the Nike world and through competitions with or against other members, users can get many free items– like wearables to customize their avatar - or coins to buy them in the Showroom.

To enhance a connection between the virtual online world and the physical one, the Roblox engine uses smartphone accelerometers and augmented reality (AR) hardware to interpret a user’s movement during online play such as long jumps or running [ 11 ].

With this project, Nike wants to communicate that sports and play are part of an available and fun lifestyle for both the young and old generations, and it does so by offering these engaging experiences. The brand that in the past had successfully found ways to involve users creatively– e.g. allowing them to customize their sneakers with unusual designs – and physically – via the training apps – in this virtual space aims to involve them in both ways. Everything in Nikeland is possible, there are no rules nor physical logic – it’s possible to swim underwater for as long as the user wants – and there is no impediment to creativity: here users can do, be and dress as they prefer. Granted, only with Nike clothing.

3.1 Case Study Discussion

As we mentioned, Nike CEO John Donahoe has invested heavily in digital tools to communicate the brand’s mission and get closer to consumers. The Nikeland project has been one of the many attempts that have shown how the use of these tools can be beneficial for a brand. This first experience of the digital universe has registered over 31.5 million accesses to the platform [ 10 ] and has thus allowed the company to invoice a net income beyond $1.39 billion [ 12 ]. This high gain makes one believe that in the future the company will continue to offer more and more engaging and innovative experiences for its customers like this. The advantages of this experience – which is still provided free of charge – are numerous and quite lucrative and worthy of reflection. Some of these will be highlighted below.

The Nikeland platform combines the strengths of video games and social networks, creating a virtual space where users can socialize, compete and be creative, a great winning strategy that could represent an opportunity to grow brand awareness and test ideas for new designs [ 13 ]. The combination of competition and sociability has already been successfully used within the Nike app, where friends can train, maybe go on a run, and see them change positions in the rankings. The opportunity to socialize with others and have fun competing against them seems to be a great way to ensure that users use the platform in a fun way and especially for extended times.

The free access to the platform makes it possible to affirm a democratization of participation in sport: at Nikeland all limits are pulled down. There are no economic or geographical limits because users can connect simply from their homes and live unique experiences almost impossible to replicate in reality – such as playing with Lebron James during the NBA All-Star Week, training with their favorite teams or athletes, competing in famous sporting events, wearing clothes that in the real world would not be affordable or that would encourage others’ judgment, and so on. Accessibility and democratization of sports are one of the main values that the brand wants to convey.

The large space that the platform leaves to the users’ creativity is another element that guarantees a prolonged use of this game. In fact, subscribers can engage themselves in the invention of new games and the creation of new designs for the clothes and accessories they want to wear. The customization of the somatic traits and clothing style of their character – which is not a new idea because fashion has become part of the video games world for some time- allowed players to have fun creatively and to find a new way to express themselves: they wouldn’t have to create a character necessarily in their image and likeness, but they could use it as a medium of their personality and identity and dress it with the style they most prefer. The creation of the avatar as a citizen of a virtual world can represent the projection of a particular sphere of the player’s being, which in physical life fails to exhibit and represses. The alteration of identity becomes a means through which to reinvent oneself [ 14 ]. The player in the video game can temporarily adopts a specific imaginary lifestyle through the embodiment of the avatar [ 15 ].

The game became easily inclusive not only in terms of style and personality but also in physical terms because augmented reality allows to overcome the exclusion of physically fragile subjects and this allows them to feel part of something and make experiences that, otherwise, they would not have had the opportunity to try. By doing so, players can fully express their personalities and feel represented during the game. In this sense the company gains in terms of image, being perceived as inclusive by potential future consumers. The gain for the company, it goes without saying is both in terms of image and economic terms. The brand can earn through the collection of members’ data resulting from their activities on the platform: this data can be reused to get targeted advertising but can also be resold to third parties. Thanks to this data it’s possible to monitor the preferences and interests of the customers and understand how much they appreciate a given product and, based on this information, propose the product in physical and real form. Users have become what Toffler, in its The third wave [ 16 ], defined as prosumer , a consumer who is at the same time producer of the same products he consumes.

Has been created a synergic duo between the digital and the physical world, that now can communicate and share information to provide better experiences in both worlds. Proposing the experience under the guise of a game allows them to involve more and more and for a longer time the consumer but also to reach the younger consumer groups. The company knows how to get closer and closer to the youngest people, creating a relationship of trust with new possible customers and taking advantage of their familiarity with online games and the need to purchase virtual goods with real money to customize their appearance. Marketing opportunities with this platform are almost endless. Just think of the possibility of creating hybrid events, which take place simultaneously in both dimensions and there are no restrictions on anyone’s participation, no matter how far away the event is, everyone can participate from the comfort of their own home. The virtual world is so attractive for the total absence of rules dictated by logic because the only limit is represented by the human imagination. Nikeland is a perfect representation and extension of what Nike is like as a brand.

4 Conclusions

Through this paper, we have seen how the social context we inhabit is strongly influenced by technology, whose speed is reflected in many aspects of our daily lives. Due to the period of health hazards, which forced potential customers to stay at home and exclusively buy online, the major fashion companies have understood the need to invest even more in the digital sector. Undoubtedly, they creatively and boldly used both digital tools and consumers’ need for novelty. The digitalization and the push of the fashion industry towards the digital dimension have brought the need for the creation of new professional figures with the digital skill to take care of the new media platforms [ 17 ] with a creative and fashionable touch. Fashion companies have made their appearances on various screens and platforms, through collaborations with video games – such as Fortnite, The Sims, Animal Crossing [ 18 ], etc. – and social networks platforms – such as the famous Habbo and Second life [ 19 ]. The Zuckerberg Metaverse, as we know it up to now, is just a work in progress and ambitious project, but the audience seems to be excited about it. Many companies are already starting to use similar platforms, such as Roblox, to test the strengths of this new way of marketing and communicating their brand. As we have seen, the Nike brand has proved to be very far-sighted in the use of digital tools by collaborating with Roblox and creating its virtual world. The idea of creating a virtual space was obviously not new in the fashion field, which due to the spread of Covid-19 has found in these spaces a possible alternative to the crowded catwalks and fashion design events [ 20 ].

In Sect. 3.1 were mentioned the advantages that the brand has gained thanks to the creation of this experience. The brand has gained in terms of visibility around the world for the free access and novelty of the branded game – securing ads from the video game community on various platforms such as Twitch and Youtube – but also in terms of image communicating its values through the game itself. The possibility to socialize and play with others allowed the brand to implement a marketing strategy that reaches players in a less “aggressive” way. Within the game it’s possible to make a more consumer-friendly marketing strategy: the consumer is not interrupted during the game by advertising, since this becomes an integral part of the gaming experience. The promoted object can be proposed in three-dimensional form and can be an actual object of the game, such as an item of clothing or a piece of furniture of the avatar’s house. Above all, this project has shown how the use of these tools can bring brands and fashion to younger generations that identify the most with technology [ 21 ] and use these platforms on a daily basis – we have reason to believe that their usage will not decrease with the arrival of the official Metaverse of Meta. Gamification is used to provide brand co-creation and participation; consumers might feel they are part of the brand itself [ 22 ] and feel a sense of proximity with it [ 23 ].

The conversation between the brand and the consumer has been enriched thanks to technology and interactivity [ 24 ] and having the data on the preferences and needs of the users is a real game changer in fashion advertisement because it allows orienting not only sales and advertising but especially the production of the favorite products of the public.

We have briefly seen how the digital transformation is changing the way and the speed with which fashion is produced and consumed and how being digital can be beneficial to a fashion brand in general. It is no longer possible to conceive fashion adv only in a traditional way – with magazines, film, television and outdoor media [ 23 ]. It is mandatory to conceive consumers as an integral part of product creation and promotion. Digital strategies are numerous and often very lucrative on several fronts and not only from the simple consumer’s purchase. However, it will be necessary to ethically question the type of relationship that is being created between brands and costumers and how this can be exploited by the brands themselves. In order to be ethically correct, brands should be transparent about the use of personal data and users’ creations, essential for building trust and maintaining a positive reputation. Being transparent about how they use user data is not only an ethical obligation for brands but also helps users make educated decisions about their engagement with the brand itself. When brands take responsibility and consider the ethical implications of their actions, they foster responsible behavior, benefiting the user as well as the brand itself. Ultimately, transparency is the cornerstone of building a mutually beneficial and trustworthy relationship between brands and their users, making it essential for creating an ethical and sustainable business model.

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Temperino, E. (2023). The Perks of Being Digital. Nikeland : A Case Study. In: Sabatini, N., Sádaba, T., Tosi, A., Neri, V., Cantoni, L. (eds) Fashion Communication in the Digital Age. FACTUM 2023. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38541-4_9

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