Nike finally has its new generation of superstars

In its recent history, Nike has accustomed us to having athletes as reference points in its storytelling. A narrative that was carried out through Hollywood-style commercials, where athletes were portrayed as superheroes. In 2000, in the commercial video The Mission, Edgar Davids, Luís Figo, Francesco Totti, and Hidetoshi Nakata infiltrate the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in Rome, wearing the Nike Total 90 Zoom, with the mission of retrieving the Nike Geo Merlin ball, creating one of the commercials that would change both the way of doing sports advertising and the perception of football fans towards athletes. The 2000s and the years immediately following were the same period in which Nike, using a perfect strategy for that time, managed to excellently shape the idea of the Nike athlete, a concept that has recently gone through a period of complete identity loss. The brand has lost many athletes in recent years, whether they left, preferred to move to another sponsor, or simply reached the end of their journey with the brand, which, with great wisdom and calm, chose to accept a necessary generational change.

Nike's roster expands

According to the brand's latest campaigns, Ethan Nwaneri and Kobbie Mainoo seem to be the next faces the Swoosh will focus on to update its roster, the ones it will try to turn into true superstars on par with Kylian Mbappé, Vinicius Jr., Cole Palmer, and Alejandro Garnacho, all still very young and at the peak of their careers. If the Arsenal winger starred in Nike's campaign for the reissue of the Total 90III, the Manchester United midfielder was captured by Gabriel Moses in the launch campaign for the new colorways of the Nike Dn8. That said, it will also depend on the on-field performances of the two talents, and the results they achieve with their clubs and national teams. Nike's investment in these stars is a true investment in their future, one that is even more ambitious than in the past, as the athletes previously mentioned for The Mission, who were the faces selected by the Swoosh at the time, had signed their contracts with the brand when they were older and already established in the global football scene: Nwaneri is only 17, and Mainoo is 19.

The importance of talent on the pitch for Nike's new profiles

While the young duo from the England national team is extremely appealing from both a technical and other perspectives, history teaches us that you cannot rely on a brand ambassador solely based on their coolness; you cannot separate aesthetics and personality off-the-pitch from that on-the-pitch. This is a significant paradigm shift for Nike, which has a lot to gain – also leveraging the status and future potential of "its" new stars – compared to brands that have been able to use 360-degree communication better, especially in the last two years, and we cannot fail to mention adidas in this case. So it is interesting to observe every facet of Nike’s new strategy, a new starting point to return to being a leader in the football sector. In fact, apart from Jamal Musiala who plays in the Bundesliga, it seems that Nike wants to focus heavily on the Premier League (as shown by Nwaneri and Mainoo) because it is the league where they need to regain the most ground, also considering that from next year, it will be PUMA that will produce the official match balls, after a two-decade exclusive period with Nike.

The difference in Nike's strategy compared to adidas' approach

Nike's new strategy with Vinicius, Palmer, Nwaneri, Garnacho, and Mainoo – purposely leaving Mbappé out of this list for the moment since his ambassador status with the brand is already "advanced" – seems pretty clear: bringing these athletes closer to potential fans by keeping them away from the playing field and involving them as much as possible in off-the-pitch moments. That’s why Nwaneri suddenly appears in the new Total 90III campaign, with no prior warning or teaser, avoiding overloading the communication process of an athlete or product. There’s a reason why this happens in the latest Total 90III campaign before the official release: a shoe that is not only associated with the field but also with everyday and special moments, like summer outings, confirmations, communions, school trips, and family vacations. Nwaneri thus becomes the 17-year-old with whom we can identify, in a completely unexpected yet perfectly effective way. Even Cole Palmer, with no targeted announcement, suddenly finds himself in an Instagram carousel next to Central Cee (both in full Nike Tech looks), a pop icon in the UK right now, incredibly attractive to young music fans, both British and international.

However, to fully understand Nike's communication effort, one must have a clear idea of the modus operandi of its biggest competitor, namely adidas. Let’s carefully visualize the German company’s campaign for the launch of the third kits for the 2024/25 season. The brand brings together legends who wore the brand during their sporting careers: Bastian Schweinsteiger, Zinedine Zidane, Alex Del Piero, Rio Ferdinand, and Patrick Vieira reunite in a trip down memory lane that instantly wins the hearts of nostalgic fans. The tear-jerking effect is immediate, everything extremely calculated in its simplicity, a sure-fire shot. It is also a campaign that perfectly shows the direction in which adidas is heading: trapped in almost pornographic nostalgia, as the only irreplaceable pillar of its communication, the only thing to continue relying on to promote and sell its products. Given the success of low-tops like Gazelle, Samba, and Spezial, the Trefoil logo must truly have incredible appeal. A type of communication that would have a hard time making a turnaround: the focus is entirely on the past, the communication is not organic.

And here comes Nike, proposing a completely counter-trend path: in the days leading up to what will be the most important launch of the year, the Total 90III, Vinicius Jr., one of the most important athletes in its roster, keeps posting an Instagram story with a dozen pairs of shoes seeded by the brand, some in colorways that will be released in the following days. This is Nike's vision, that of a football that paradoxically moves away from the field.