Coming to Amazon: A 3D-Printed Nike Sports Bra?
The allure of 3D printing has long tantalized apparel makers like Nike, which hopes an eye-catching race helps it finally capitalize on the technology.
More than 1,700 men have broken the 4-minute mile, but no woman has ever done so. The fastest any female runner has ever covered the distance is 4 minutes and 7.64 seconds, the current world record set by Faith Kipyegon in 2023. Which is to say: not even close.
Nevertheless, Nike is staging a race in Paris next Thursday where Kipyegon will attempt the historic feat. The event will certainly test the three-time Olympic 1500-meter champion, but it will also test Nike’s ability to automate production of sports gear, which the company is planning to demo on Kipyegon.
The Arena is a new franchise within Weekend that covers the business and future of sports. Read more of its coverage from The Information’s Sara Germano.
Nike is in the midst of a vast turnaround effort after a misguided strategy to dump retail partners and go direct to consumers. Leading the comeback is new CEO Elliott Hill, who has prioritized wooing back retailers like Amazon, as The Information first reported last month. What’s more, he wants to push Nike away from its recent focus on lifestyle products, like the Air Force 1 sneakers, which often experience ebbs and flows in popularity. In his first public remarks since getting the top job in October, Hill made it clear that he wants Nike to return to sophisticated, high-performance product development after declaring the company had “lost our obsession with sport.”
Enter the Breaking 4 race. In her effort to beat the clock, Kipyegon will wear a first-of-its-kind sports bra made of woven thermoplastic polyurethane, and a unitard adorned with strategically placed plastic nodules to improve aerodynamics—all produced via 3D printing, according to Nike.