Post Nike’s reveal of their “What Will They Say About You Campaign” and Nike+ Training Club App in Arabic, Nike has revealed it’s plans to make global sports more exclusive for women and their different cultures with the introduction of the Nike Pro Hijab.
What a great time for this product announcement, huh?
America’s 45th president has already begun making EXTREME executive orders left and right, like his travel ban which blocks muslim countries from entering the United States, causing muslims to feel alienated in our country. So, by Nike, an American company, showing support and respect of Muslim culture, it means a lot that they are recreating the binaries of athletic wear. Over 90 American companies (including Apple, Facebook, Nike and others) are uniting against Donald Trump’s travel ban and showing the muslim community that they do in fact stand with them.
The Hijab is often mistaken as an object directly related to terrorism due to the false perception America has about Muslim culture and the ways in which negative correlations have been applied. The true purpose behind the hijab is not acknowledged or researched. It is said that the hijab is worn by muslim woman because “a woman is to cover herself so that a man should know her for her mind, not her body.” Hijabi women have fought the clothing restrictions enforced by international sports federations and succeeded in pressuring several federations to alter their dress code so they can even wear the hijabs.
As for Nike’s Pro Hijab it is supposed to make working out easier for Muslim women athletes. Nike states:
“the Nike Pro Hijab may have been more than a year in the making, but its impetus can be traced much further back, to an ongoing cultural shift that has seen more women than ever embracing sport.”
Olympic weightlifter Amna Al Haddad can also be credited for the push of the product because when she visited Nike’s Beaverton, Oregon headquarters she complained about the difficulties of performing in her hijab.
Megan Saalfeld, Nike’s global spokesperson, told Al Arabiya English that Nike designed the hijab “as a direct result of our athletes telling us they needed this product to perform better, we worked with Amna and a variety of other athletes to see what they needed and wanted in a performance hijab.”
“What we heard was that were looking for a lightweight and breathable solution that would stay in place without concern of shifting.”
After the product was created, it had to be tested on some of the star muslim Nike athletes, such as Emirati figure skater Zahra Lari and Nike+ Run Club Coach Manal Rostom.
The creation of the hijab was an emotional moment for the Emirati athletes, Coach Rostom shares that:
“This is the perfect gift, and it goes beyond being a new product that Nike is selling — it’s going to empower all women to embrace hijab and embrace who they are,”
The Nike Pro Hijab is set to hit the stores in Spring 2018. Stay tuned for updates!
