Nike President Amy Montagne kept a page of quotes from leading women athletes close by in the lead-up to NikeSKIMS’ launch on September 22. Zooming from her office the week before, a miniature of the famed Hellenistic statue depicting Nike, Goddess of Victory, just behind her, Montagne picks one to read to me. “Dina Asher-Smith said, ‘Every day I'm forced to choose between being feminine or feeling strong, but I want both without compromise,’” she recites.
That line might be the NikeSKIMS thesis statement. “It's a reminder as we're going into the launch how excited we are to keep them”—meaning, athletes like Asher-Smith, as well as Sha’Carri Richardson, Jordan Chiles, and Serena Williams, who tested NikeSKIMS in its first campaign—“at the center.”
