At Nike, Extending the Track to the Runway

Fashion, Nike is coming for you. The company has quietly, but systematically, been courting the fashion world since 2014, and fashion has been in something of a collective swoon in return. That was when the model Karlie Kloss fronted one of the Nike women’s campaigns, and it held a fashion show in New York where models such as Ms. Kloss and Joan Smalls walked alongside athletes like the tennis player Li Na and the marathoner Paula Radcliffe. Fashion editors from Europe and Asia flew in and sat in the front row, many with their Nikes on. Last summer, Nike opened an invitation-only training facility on Grand Street in Lower Manhattan where glossy-magazine-ites do yoga and work out with assorted models and other influencers. A few seasons ago, for fashion week, the company created a “concierge” program to keep editors fit as they went to London, Milan and Paris (a time when exercise and healthy habits notoriously go by the wayside). Among its devotees are Cindi Leive, the editor of Glamour; Stefano Tonchi, the editor of W; Michael Carl, fashion market director of Vanity Fair; and Ariel Foxman, editorial director of In Style. “There’s no sense of a quid pro quo,” Ms. Leive said. “It never feels grasping.” It is presented, rather, as an experience Nike can finesse for its fashion community, just as in the larger world it has created Nike Training Club and Nike Run Club, free apps that suggest tailored training programs for members. However, as a result of using the Nike program during shows, Ms. Leive acknowledged she was more likely to post pictures of herself on Instagram “in head-to-toe Nike gear” provided by Nike, running in the Paris half-marathon, which she has done twice during fashion week, among other activities. Though she said she did not consider Nike a fashion brand, the visual of a major fashion editor implicitly endorsing Nike by wearing it sends a powerful message to her 17,700 followers, as she admitted. Both Mr. Tonchi and Mr. Carl acknowledged that they, too, wear more Nike now than they used to. une paire de nike The effect of all this is simple: While Nike may not overtly identify itself as a fashion brand, and while traditional runway names may not see it as a competitor, to consumers considering what piece of clothing to buy, it increasingly seems like one and the same.