Faith Kipyegon’s Nike legacy

BTS from Breaking4 in Paris.

My heart was in my mouth and I felt quite sick watching Faith Kipyegon whip around the track in Paris on Thursday night. The three-time Olympic gold medallist for Kenya, who is one of the fastest women in the world, ran a mile in less than the time it takes to boil an egg, and less time than it takes to make a drip coffee. Think about that for a second.

The crowd was nervous - women especially - and the atmosphere crackled. A member of the crew got knocked over by one of the moving cameras on the track edge; he bounced straight back up as if the floor was a trampoline. There was no time to waste.

All of us had come all the way to Paris to see her for four short minutes. Breaking4, as Nike had named it, was the first professional athletics race I’d been to, and the first event I’d been invited to specifically for Salty. Quite the debut on both counts. It was a real privilege to be there.

Amid all the doom scroll and brain fog of today, there is nothing like a world record track attempt to snap your mind into the now. It was a sensory overload - blink and you’ll miss it. The dynamic in the stadium was interesting in that it wasn’t a competitive race like in the Olympics. Everyone in there was rooting for one person only, and she was already a winner. It was more like a stadium gig than a regular sports event. One woman against herself, trying to do what no woman has ever done before. To run a mile in under four minutes.

Kipyegon’s time was 4:06:42. A new world record. It wasn’t Breaking4, no. It was more than. Breaking 4 was always more than a time goal.

“I could have aimed for 4:02 or 4:03,” said Faith Kiypegon, over a breakfast debrief in the sunny courtyard garden that Nike had overtaken for a few days and turned into a dedicated showroom replete with a “Faith Cafe” that served (I think) Eliud Kipchoge’s Kenyan coffee brand. “But [the message] was all about “how fast” can I execute; “how fast” can I run; how much energy do I have in my body?”

She continued. “It’s really tough to go out and get after something. You have pressure all over the world. The pressure [is because Breaking4 is] something special. This was not about a world record. It was about inspiring the next generation. Women can push our boundaries; we are limitless. I am proud of myself for having given myself the chance to try, and to show the world what women can do. I dared to dream.”

Most amateur marathoners have more self pity for their own races than Faith had for Breaking4.

The debrief
Right now, I’m in a reflective mood. I just saw a woman make history. She had a brand like Nike go all-in on her dream. Millions of people around the world believed in her. Men probably don’t really get it, but all of the women I spoke to were genuinely moved. A good example of this was on Thursday afternoon, when a select few of us got to see her kit and hold the actual bra she was going to race in. The bra is groundbreaking for many reasons; more on that later. Women cradled her bra like precious cargo. Men held it like the TV remote. LOL.

For now, I want to talk about legacy, why brands need to amplify women and, importantly, how we speak about women in the media.

Not if. When.
This was the message Nike went with on its Instagram. Nike built its brand by encapsulate a feeling in a slogan, and this felt like the most fitting one to distill this moment. “Not if. When” is an apt alternative to “Just Do It.”

Here’s why. Women can, in theory, just do it. But we also can’t. Historically we’ve lacked the means.

Women have been excluded from everything from medical research to the right to vote; first to work and then to get paid equally for it. My boomer parents were teenagers when women were still banned from running races. Women’s feet are genetically different, but around 98% of sports shoes are built for a man’s foot. Professional women’s football teams still play on amateur pitches; many of them have second jobs. Female athletes from every discipline don’t get the beauty advertising campaigns that male athletes do, despite the fact they are the ones that wear make-up and have to use products to tie back their hair. I could go on.

Soar, don’t shrink
Not if. When. It’s aspirational. Achievable. It’s only a matter of time. Etc.

The fact Nike got behind Kipyegon for this is really important. How often has a sports brand — and society at large — ever been all-in on supporting one woman to achieve a singular dream?

Nike turned Kipyegon’s ambition into an entire movement. She didn’t attempt this during the Olympics or the Diamond League (the track equivalent of the Premier League). Nike gave her her own event. A stadium was taken over; the midfield grass was dyed purple, which is her favourite colour. Breaking4 was branded everywhere. Merch was created. An avengers team of supporting athletes was assembled. An aerodynamic speed suit was designed. An insanely innovative sports bra was 3D-printed. A track shoe with an upper that’s lighter than 3 paperclips was custom-made for her feet and effectively rebuilt from the spikes up. A hairband was made to reduce drag around the hairline. Again, I could go on.

Kipyegon’s ambitions pushed Nike to innovate and focus on women in a way that it never has done before. A documentary was also made for Amazon. There have been so many films and documentaries made about, and for, male athletes. Do we realise how historic all of this is?

“This is why Nike exists — to serve athletes like Faith,” said Nike president and CEO Eliott Hill. “History was made today, with Faith shattering her world time.”

Amy Jones Vaterlaus, Nike’s innovation lead, told me it was “the start to something much more. A lot of the time in the innovation department, you don’t have a specific goal.” She was speaking to me in the little Vomero shoe room where prototypes of the Vomero Premium and Vomero Plus, which will be released in coming months, were available for us to try. “Faith has been a catalyst for changing the trajectory of running, and women in sport and how they see themselves. What is that going to do to sport in general? That’s what I’m really excited about.”

Big dreams have big impact
Platforming women’s ambition is necessary to change culture. Women are so used to seeking permission to take up space.

An easy example. I’ve lost count of the number of adult men who have shoved me out of the way or cut across me during a marathon. The faster pens in particular are very male-heavy, and many will (it seems) do anything to lock-into their marathon pace. It’s intimidating. The gym is also a place I’ve found myself feeling self-conscious. Weight areas are often tight on space. Guys are bigger and their weights are bigger. The busier it gets, the more I wind up feeling like there’s no space left for me. So I move, mid-workout. No guy has ever implied I should. But the instinct is inherent. Women are used to shrinking.

Nike getting behind Faith’s ambition is huge. It’s set an example that hopefully other brands will follow. To focus on women — not just athletes, but every woman. It’s about enabling. Moving forwards, it spotlights that brands need to build “enabling” into everyday kit offerings. How? Give us multiple pockets on literally everything, for a start.

Nike had a lot of women athletes wear-test the bra, which is so lightweight but supportive, it supposedly feels invisible. “Someone fed back to me — is this what guys feel like when they run??” said Jones Vaterlaus, the innovation lead.

Women literally cannot run without a bra, but it hinders us because a bra is always a barrier. Women don’t get to feel the benefit of the DryFit technology because the bra is against our skin. Guys, are you getting it now?

Men, inc.
In all this talk of female empowerment, it would be remiss to not mention the reaction from men. Guys are very metrics-driven, so their brains are wired to process numbers vs feelings. I saw commentary online, and spoke to guys in the fitness space, whose immediate reflection was disappointment for Faith.

Do you know what was disappointing? The news headlines and social media coverage. The BBC said she “failed”. The Guardian’s headline wrote “Faith not enough”. France24 reported she “fell well short.” The Times (UK) said she “fails in bid to become female Roger Bannister.” I appreciate these headlines are written by sub-editors on news desks in the office and not by the male journalists who were on the ground writing these stories. But politely, please fuck off.

“Eliud Kipchoge goes close to sub-2 hour marathon at Nike event” — wrote the BBC, following his first attempt in 2017. Goes close?

In the press conference, lots of the questions from men focused on this perceived “failure”. Women in the room affirmed her.

The media has a role to play. It needs to do better in acknowledging, and then changing, the language bias they use around women versus men. Headlines influence the way people think they’re supposed to interpret events. Why did Kipchoge “come close” to his goal but Kipyegon “failed” hers? Sexism and bias.

We really won’t ever reach equality unless we all start nurturing and encouraging a woman’s ambition and speaking about them in the same way. That’s why Breaking4 was so important.

Legacy and things
Nike surprised Kipyegon at breakfast the day after with news that it was building a maternity unit, called the Dare to Dream ward, in her hometown. The nearest hospital was previously around 35km away, and women and children were dying as a result. This is such a powerful use of Nike’s $50bn a year revenues and an example for all big brands to follow. Sure, it’s positive marketing and maybe (and I’m speculating) there’s a charitable tax offset. But neither discounts how incredible this actually is. It’s nothing to do with product sales; it’s not a percentage dependent on customer spend. It’s an unconditional commitment. Nike is building a hospital to enable women and children. How many lives will that change?

Nike is not in the business of building hospitals. It’s building a hospital because of Kipyegon. As far as PBs go, it’s really quite profound.

Deeper reflections
Sports is a real connector, and there was (I think) a missed opportunity to get this on the radars of men and women who aren’t already familiar with track running or Kipyegon. Celebrities help. Dua Lipa went to a Lioness football match against Real Madrid, and media outlets that would not typically report on football reported on it. Virgil Abloh attended Kipchoge’s sub-2 marathon attempt, which was raced on a Formula 1 track. Both added a bit of sex appeal that cut through culturally.

It could have been via having someone perform. Shakira’s Try Anything is Kipyegon’s warm-up song. I don’t know what the going rate is for a Shakira gig -probably a lot- but imagine if she’d come to sing it before the race?

Easier to pull off would have been a Nike Skims inclusion. Considering Nike created a sub-brand with Skims to problem-solve for women, it would have been nice to see this materialise here. Get the Kardashians on-site. (Headlines.) There was- or still is! -an opportunity for a Skims x Nike x Kipyegon tie-in, if even from a product perspective. Because a) the custom Nike speed suit was form-fitting and more like Skims/shapewear than typical race kits. And b) the Nike Skims launch has been delayed because of production issues. Perhaps one for Breaking4, 2.0.

I’d also love to see her race in bright purple and the pacers wear all-black.

I hope we see Kipyegon (and other women athletes) on the covers of, or profiled in, magazines like Vogue and Elle. Many male athletes have had covers. It would be amazing to see her celebrity rise from here.

Breaking4 could be catalyst for that. But also, a catalyst for magazine/newspaper editors in profiling more sportswomen AND a continued catalyst for the way Nike shows up for its female athletes, and the everyday woman.

Where Nike goes, others follow.

LEGACY. ✔️

What do you think? Let me know in the comments, or email me on saltysubstack@gmail.com. You can also follow me on Instagram here.