Nike Bauer
Building hockey’s inside voice for the only brand Nike ever co-branded.
While otherwise oozing with hockey heritage and credibilty, Bauer found itself in a desperate state as it continued to fail to breathe any new innovation into its products - something they absolutely needed to do to have any chance of hanging with Reebok and their new friend, Sydney Crosby.
The situation.
Enter Nike, chock full of innovation and unparalleled marketing trickery, unwittingly boasting arguably the second weakest understanding of hockey and hockey culture on the planet.
Thus, Nike Bauer was thrust upon the world; the only time Nike has ever co-branded anything.
While it’s easy to pick on Nike, the trophy for the weakest understanding of hockey and hockey culture goes to yours truly, who found himself appointed as Global Creative Director on the freshly minted Nike Bauer brand a few weeks after joining OLSON.
I learned quickly, let’s say immediately, that there is only one thing you need to know about Hockey: You either speak hockey or you don’t.
The idea.
Our strategy was simple: Be the inside authentic voice of Hockey.
The result.
It took Nike a few years to realize that Hockey was an entirely different animal than Golf and recognize that the only people they could sell Hockey gear to were people that actually played Hockey.
There is no such thing as a fair weather Hockey player – anyone who buys an expensive stick, pair of skates, or goal pads has every intent of getting out on the ice and using their gear at the earliest opportunity – and for as long as possible.
So Nike did the only thing they could, they sold Bauer – to a Canadian.