CLICK TO VIEW MADDY'S BLOG!

Nike Features Plus Size Models in New Sports Bra Campaign

Nike
Nike Women on Instagram @nikewomen

With the emergence of plus size athletes and body diversity being shown in more major campaigns, curves are being noticed and celebrated. Nike is the latest major brand to enter this arena by showing plus size women in their latest campaign via their Nike Women Instagram channel.

The Instagram campaign promoting their new Pro-Bra collection went live on Friday, 7/15 with plus model Paloma Elsesser rocking one of their new sports bras and high-waisted leggings.

 

The second post went live on Sunday, 7/17 featuring Claire Fountain, creator of Trill Yoga:

 

Fountain told the NY Daily News:

“I was so excited to do this, because it’s so relatable to lots of women. The feedback has been so great, with women saying, ‘This makes me so happy, this makes me feel better about myself.'”

“When a major brand like Nike takes such a positive step, we can hope it starts a chain reaction that triggers a lot of other manufacturers to really look at female athletes of all sizes. They normalize it so that bodies are bodies.”

As Fountain pointed out, Nike Women’s 4.8 million Instagram followers have responded positively to the addition of these curvy women to the campaign, despite the fact that Nike has not said anything about them being plus size / curvy. No fanfare at all — but it has not gone unnoticed.

The major miss with this move from Nike is that their clothing doesn’t seem to match this empowering body positive campaign, with many Instagram followers commenting that the new bras only go up to an XL (or an E), which translates to a cup size DD.

However, this does open that dialogue between Nike and its customers and fanbase. With the positive feedback on the campaign and more people speaking up to let Nike know that they need to do better (the post featuring model Paloma Elsesser garnered almost 1,400 comments), this is definitely a step in the right direction.

We hope we’ll see more size AND body diversity in Nike campaigns and that other sportwear brands follow suit.

What do you think of Nike’s new campaign? Comment below and let us know!