Nike and Apple are collaborating to feed consumers the Nike+iPod Sport kit, a wireless system that connects Apple’s iPod Nano music player to a special new line of Nike+ footwear that can be fitted with a special micro-chip on demand. The kit will be available in the USA and the UK in July, followed by Canada in August before hitting Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Japan in September. Considering that 75 percent of the runners around the world listen to music while they jog, Nike officials hope to sell 4 million pairs of Nike+ shoes before the end of this year, with or without connection chips, and 10 million in 2007.
The kit includes a sensor and receiver in the shoe that sends signals to the iPod, providing information on time, distance and calories burned, while giving audible feedback through the earphones. Assistance with the product is available at a new nikeplus.com website, and a special “Nike Sport Music” section has been added to Apple’s iTunes music store. Apple and the Swoosh announced the new partnership at a special ceremony in New York that featured Steve Jobs, the Apple chief, along with Lance Armstrong, the 7-time Tour de France winner, and Paula Radcliffe, a world-record marathon runner.
It’s not the first time Nike has been involved with MP3 technology. As recently as last month the company co-branded a line of MP3 players with Philips called the PSA 610, made with a 4-gigabyte hard drive and a built-in GPS sensor. The fitness sector is new for Apple, but it has already been tread by other technology companies. Polar has long provided runners and cyclists with a line of heart rate monitors with the ability to upload results from a training program on to a computer. A U.S. company that specializes in GPS technology, Garmin, recently began offering a line of GPS-enabled devices for runners and cyclists that provide heart rate, time, distance, and other information like changes in altitude and weather patterns.
Like Adidas, Oakley and other sports brands, Nike is evidently banking on the growing trend toward wearable technology, a theme that will be prominently featured at the next ISPO show in Munich. Here Nike is benefiting from the strength of the Apple brand and from the popularity of its iPod products, which are hotter than Tom Yum soup right now.
