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As the Lead Product Designer for the Nike Strike brand, I worked on the 'Breakthrough' Strike training collection, a design-focused endeavor to revolutionize the new fast-paced football experience at the mid-level. Our primary objective was to imbue the visual aesthetics with a performance-driven attitude to convey a sense of superior athleticism. Despite being situated in the 'better' tier, we endeavored to match Nike's tough performance fabric available in the 'Best' tier. The result was a premium, durable, high-performing product designed for the better athlete. To create an authentic take-down model of the premium Nike Strike Elite product, I leveraged fabric innovation at the strike level, thus giving birth to the 'Breakthrough' collection.
Designing a product that would help athletes elevate their game to the next level was a challenging and rewarding process that I thoroughly enjoyed. Previously known as 'Squad,' the prior Strike collections struggled with the visual payoff of Nike football's most premium on-pitch product, limiting its growth potential. To overcome this, we employed a product segmentation strategy, dividing the training product into three tiers, enabling Nike and customers to understand the product offerings better. This segmentation also made the pitch to retail visuals more apparent.As a designer, witnessing the global success of the Strike collection, available at Nike retail outlets and scaled up across all Nike's federations, clubs, and team catalogs, making it accessible to hundreds of teams worldwide, is incredibly fulfilling. Seeing athletes perform better with the help of my designs is what drives me every day. Moreover, we understand the importance of nurturing young and aspiring footballers, so we also offer the Strike collection as a premium youth football training product catering to the needs of future football stars. Being part of a team that helps aspiring athletes unleash their potential and achieve their dreams is a humbling experience. A key lesson we learned was the importance of visual language in product segmentation, which can greatly impact a company's growth potential. Nike's "Good, Better, Best" model was a prime example.
My Responsibilities:
Designing the collection
Product sample fittings
Presentation design reviews
Contributing to early conceptual work
Collaborating with tech designers
Ensuring production quality with design development
Innovating product fabrication
Envisioning seasonal color standards
Addressing sizing issues
Providing visuals for Nike futbol
Collaborating with cross-functional teams
Reporting to the design director bi-weekly
