Here run the girls

Music puts the female boot in

What?: Sportswear marketing gets girl powered as fashion, music and fitness get on track:

Reebok’s new Freestyle World Tour Collection is quoted as “celebrating fun, ambitious women from around the world”. The collection includes shoes and apparel from Tokyo, Paris, New Delhi, Madrid, London and NYC, each city represented by a rising female star. Music inspiration comes from upcoming French Technotik singer Yelle and London’s DJ Nikki Beatnik.

Nike+ Coaching Mixes – which feature voiceover instruction from Nike coaches and fitness trainers – will see Serena Williams paired up with a number of Interscope Records artists. The workout contains a 30-minute ‘interval run’ and ‘Spontaneous Speed Workout’ set to a series of tracks by Timbaland, Nicole Scherzinger and Fergie amongst others.

Converse is embarking on a new global advertising campaign, entitled ‘Connectivity’, to commemorate its 100th anniversary. It will connect icons such as Sid Vicious and Ian Curtis with influencers of today. MIA, Joan Jett and Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are among a long list of musicians who will appear in the global campaign from the Nike-owned brand.

So what?: Nike embraced a new wave of marketing, music and fitness to women back in 2006 with its ‘Take sport. Add music’ adverts, featuring Sofia Boutella dancing to a pulsating speaker.

The UK spent £4.5B on shoes in 2007, with a third going to the major sports brands; at the same time, UK PM Gordon Brown outlined a “critical under-representation” of women in sport. This highlights how sportswear is a fashion statement first for women and a sporting activity second. It explains why Puma snapped up fashion designer Hussein Chalayan recently as well as Stella McCartney’s long-term relationship with Adidas. Whereas role models would have previously been strong sports women, style icons such as Yelle – part of the underground French music scene – target a casual trainer consumer who probably ranks dancing, as in the 2006 Nike ads, as the prevalent sport of choice.

“Really, Reebok and Converse are approaching this like fashion brands. Nothing wrong with that. What I love about the Nike campaign, though, is that it steadfastly refuses to stop talking about sport and manages to integrate music pretty seamlessly into the experience of the brand. Flipping good.”
Anthony Swede, Creative Mngr, FRUKT

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