Nike has officially announced a groundbreaking partnership with Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS to introduce NikeSKIMS, a new brand dedicated to female athletes. This collaboration is a major move for Nike, blending sport performance technology with SKIMS’ reputation for fit, function, and body inclusivity—all while tapping into a massive audience that the antique sportswear brand hasn’t been able to touch until now.

It’s no coincidence that Nike is making this pivot now. If you didn’t catch the Super Bowl ad, the brand is putting its full weight behind women’s sports—and they’re doing it in a big way.

Nike's Growing Marketing Investment in Female Athletes

If you didn't notice from the Super Bowl commercials, Nike is honing in on rebranding for female athletes. Basketball star Caitlin Clark just signed an eight-year, $28 million deal with Nike, with her own logo and sneaker already in the works. Clark isn’t just a rising star, and Nike knows it. She’s breaking viewership records, gaining an icon-level following, and proving that women’s basketball is no longer a niche market—it’s a major revenue driver.

Nike CEO and President Elliot Hill summed up the company’s new focus during an talk with Fortune:

“When we were just running ‘Basketball,’ we never fully tapped into the women’s opportunity. But by having a team specifically focused on ‘Women’s Basketball,’ we unlocked, we believe, opportunities for the game of basketball and in product. It becomes an opportunity to grow the overall marketplace by inviting more girls into the world of sport.”

Cut to, Super Bowl weekend, where Hill put his money where his marketing team was. Nike spent their $8 million 30-second Super Bowl commercial slot–the first the brand has claimed in 30 years–on a brand-new ad campaign entirely focused on female athletes. “You can’t win. So, Win,” Nike tells us, still sporting their signature high-contrast commercial aesthetic and roundup of top athletes.

Why the Nike Brand Needs SKIMS

Nike’s pivot to female sportswear branding isn’t just about empowerment—it’s also a prime marketing strategy. The brand has faced declining sales in recent quarters, with competition from Lululemon, Alo Yoga, and Gymshark cutting into their once-unshakable market share. Why? Simple—Nike hasn’t been able to meaningfully connect with a female audience.

Enter SKIMS. (And Clark, but we’ll get back to that later.)

Kim Kardashian’s brand has mastered the art of fit, comfort, and viral marketing. Since launching in 2019, SKIMS has built a reputation for body-inclusive, second-skin fabric technology that appeals to women of all shapes and sizes. Nike, on the other hand, has historically struggled with inclusivity in women’s sizing. By teaming up, NikeSKIMS can fill a gap in the market—offering performance wear that’s functional, flattering, and designed specifically for female athletes.

Nike isn’t just slapping the SKIMS logo on a few leggings and calling it a day. The partnership reportedly includes:

• Compression and sculpting activewear that balances performance with body contouring

• Sneakers and training gear designed with women’s biomechanics in mind

• Expanding Nike’s female-focused product line beyond traditional sports apparel

The first NikeSKIMS collection will launch in Spring 2025 in the U.S., with a global expansion planned for 2026.

Women’s Sports is Booming—And Nike Wants In

This isn’t just a Nike play—women’s sports are finally getting the attention (and investment) they deserve.

Viewership numbers tell the story:

• The 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship drew 9.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever

• The 2023 Women’s World Cup final brought in over 2 billion global viewers

• The WNBA’s 2024 season opener shattered previous ratings, up 50% from 2023

Brands are taking note. Nike isn’t the only company pivoting to women-first marketing strategies:

• Adidas launched a women’s sports campaign in 2023, signing stars like Naomi Osaka and Alessia Russo

• Under Armour introduced a women’s-specific performance shoe line last year

• Lululemon continues to dominate the athleisure and fitness space, outperforming Nike in women’s leggings and yoga apparel

Nike’s gamble is whether NikeSKIMS can stand out in a market where Lululemon has already established a chokehold on the “strong and sexy” aesthetic.

Why It’s Smart Marketing

Nike’s decision to “run a gender offense”, as Hill put it, shows how seriously they’re betting on women’s sports. Perhaps fearing their new direction wouldn’t be quite enough to dig Nike out of its recent hole, Hill turned to Kim Kardashian’s brand SKIMS for the extra push.

Despite the positive upwards trend, sports and broader athletic marketing has catered to men, plain and simple. In the United States, nearly 40% of athletes are female, yet women's sports receive only about 4% of sports media coverage. The disparity extends to advertising, where male athletes tend to secure the most lucrative endorsement deals. For instance, Cristiano Ronaldo topped the 2024 list of highest-paid athletes with $411 million in earnings, while the highest-earning female athlete, Coco Gauff, earned $47 million, falling short of the top 100.

The fact is, where the money goes, attention follows, and women’s sports are no exception. But breaking into the mainstream requires a wider audience than the current sports media provides—especially when the traditional target audience for athletic branding has been men.

For decades, male consumers have been conditioned to buy into the culture of sports marketing—literally. The Air Jordan became a cultural phenomenon the second it hit shelves in 1985, and Nike has spent nearly 40 years keeping that momentum alive. But here’s the thing: men aren’t watching basketball like they used to. Women are watching more, and men are watching more women’s basketball than ever before.

Meanwhile, men haven’t been trending quite as positively. Over the past decade, the NBA has experienced a notable decline in television viewership. Between 2012 and 2019, the league saw a reduction of approximately 40% to 45% in its audience. This trend continued into the 2024–2025 season, with games averaging 1.4 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, and TNT—a 19% decrease from the previous year. Several factors contribute to this decline, including the league's increasing reliance on three-point shooting, which some fans find less engaging, and the scheduling of games that prioritize television ratings over player health, leading to criticism from coaches and players alike. Even beyond basketball, the All-Star events (for men) have faced backlash due to perceived lack of competitiveness and entertainment value, prompting discussions about the overall appeal of the leagues’ offerings.

So Nike went looking for their next Jordan—and they found her in Caitlin Clark.

Nike’s Branding Strategy: Will it Work?

With record-breaking viewership, an eight-year, $28 million Nike deal, and a signature shoe already in the works, Clark isn’t just the face of women’s basketball—she’s the key to Nike’s next big play. Now, all that’s left to see is whether her sneakers become as iconic as the Jordans she grew up wearing.

Nike's collaboration with SKIMS is a strategic move that aligns perfectly with the upcoming launch of Caitlin Clark's signature shoe. Clark has become a sensation, drawing both male and female audiences to women's basketball. Her games have shattered viewership records, with the WNBA draft attracting a record 2.4 million viewers and ESPN averaging 1.2 million viewers for its games, up from 440,000 the previous year.

However, Nike recognizes that promoting Clark's line requires more than traditional sports marketing. Enter SKIMS, a brand with a massive and engaged customer base. SKIMS boasts approximately 9.7 million monthly website visits, with 74.78% of its audience being female 25-34-year-olds. So, this partnership allows Nike to tap into SKIMS' extensive reach, introducing Clark and other female athletes to a broader audience. Think of it like an Instagram post that goes viral—it does so because it reaches far beyond it’s current audience.

This collaboration is not just about apparel; it's about creating a cultural movement that celebrates and empowers women in sports. By leveraging SKIMS' platform, Nike aims to elevate female athletes to the same iconic status achieved by Michael Jordan—at least, that’s the theory. This will either result in a cultural movement playing out under our noses, as dreamlike in societal history as the meteoric rise of the number 23—or, perhaps, we consumers are no longer capable of such sustained brand loyalty, and cannot be induced to outgrow our nostalgia. Stay tuned.