AMNA Al Haddad, an Olympic female athlete in the UAE, was a bit inconvenient to participate in the competition. As a Muslim, she must wear a headscarf, but she only needs a headscarf suitable for exercise, so she can only wash it by herself after the game every day, and can continue to wear the next day.
When Haddad visited the sports laboratory in Oregon, Nike, a visiting sports brand, told Nike’s distress.
“Our athletes told us their needs, and we were going to launch the corresponding product. This is how Nike’s professional headscarf was produced.” Nike’s spokesman Megan Saalfeld said in an interview with Arabic satellite TV recently.
By cooperating with Haddad and other Muslim athletes such as ice skating athlete Zahra Lari and local community organizations, Nike designed a professional sports turban “Pro Hijab” that both sporty functionality and Arab world culture.
In the past, many Muslim female athletes could only wear headscarves made of traditional materials to participate in the competition. But the materials of these headscarves are not suitable for sports.
Nike’s professional sports headscarf is made of light -quality polyester material. There are tens of millions of small holes on the eye layer, which greatly improves the breathability of the headscarf during the exercise. This headscarf is also elastic and elastic design. Ice -skitrs such as Zahra Lari can tie the headscarf tighter during the game and ensure that they will not loosen when rotating such as rotation. The rear design of the headscarf is long to ensure that the headscarf will not scatter the clothes in the sports. The color of the headscarf is mainly black, gray and obsidian. Nike will officially sell this headscarf in 2018.
The launch of sports headscarves has dual functions for the Nike brand.
On the one hand, it makes Nike the biggest company in the sports turban market. This new market that has only emerged in recent years. Previously, the main producers were some small and independent brands. Athlete’s headscarf.
Nike has been seeking some breakthroughs in the Middle East market in recent years: more new stores have been opened in Arab countries and promoted NTC fitness applications. It is estimated that the total sports market in Islamic countries may exceed $ 5 trillion in 2020.
Female athletes in the Middle East are a group of young but rapidly growing groups. At the 2012 London Olympic Games, people saw female athletes from Brunei, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. This is also the first time in the history of Olympic Games to send female athletes to participate. In the same year, Egyptian delegations appeared in 37 female athletes. This was the most female athlete sent in the Olympic Games since the country participated in the Olympic Games since 1912.
There are more and more female athletes wearing headscarves on the sports field. For example, Jordan’s boxer Arifa Bseiso, American fencing athlete IBTIHAJ MUHAMMAD (the 2016 Rio Olympic Games became the first American to wear a headscarf for the Olympic Games)) And the three athletes Najla Al Jeraiwi. However, FIFA FIFA was not canceled until 2014. The International Basketball Federation FIBA’s ban has been continued for a long time, and the voting voting of this issue has been postponed to May this year.
On the other hand, the launch of this product also consolidates Nike’s values. Since US President Trump came to power, Nike has been emphasizing the tolerance of the brand in marketing in marketing.
In February, Nike newly launched a video advertisement, the theme of “Equality”, through black athletes and stars, including LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Syrina Williams and singers Ai Ai The interpretation of Lisia Case has soared to such a concept: if people can ignore the appearance or belief of a athlete on the field, and judge them fairly through the competition results, then people should insist on outside the field.
Shortly after that, Nike released an advertising video about the women’s movement of the Arab country. The video showed women in Arab countries and regions to participate in fencing, boxing and skating, which was intended to break the stereotypes of women in these countries and regions.
The launch of the new sports headscarf is also intended to convey the same concept. “Nike’s professional headscarf was completed by one year,” Nike said in his official statement. “But its origin can go back to the task of Nike when it was founded, that is, to serve the athletes, just like the classic slogan of the slogan : As long as you have a body, you are a athlete.
Nevertheless, some of Nike’s cultural inclusive methods will be considered “late” by the outside world. Nike has just released a series of large -size women’s sportswear. However, in Nike’s largest US market, female consumers’ figures have already shown a large size status -American women’s clothing size is more concentrated on the 16th instead of No. 2. Moreover, the sports headscarfs now are not responded quickly. Muslim athletes have been demanding about sports -capable headscarves for a long time (despite this, many big brands have not produced such products).
Nike said the company hopes to inspire more female athletes and ordinary women to participate in sports through this move. Indeed, in some countries and regions, the proportion of women’s participation in Muslim ethnic groups is very small. A large part of the reason is that they do not have the right sportswear.