Dicks Sporting Goods – Athlete Stories

ADWEEK:

Mollie Cahillane

Sports have a lifelong impact—and Nike and Dick’s Sporting Goods know it.

The brands have now teamed up for the second phase of Dick’s “Sports Change Lives” campaign, with Nike partnering on the project for the first time.

Regarding the scope, Nike and Dick’s have never collaborated on an ad campaign of this scale, and the groups added 10 Nike and Jordan Brand athletes to highlight the ways sports have impacted life stories.

Sabrina Ionescu, Carmelo Anthony and Mike Trout headline three new 30-second spots, running across linear, digital and social this week. Additional spots, featuring A’ja Wilson, Alex Morgan, Athing Mu, Davante Adams, DJ Wagner, Najee Harris and Tatyana McFadden, will be released in the coming weeks.

The campaign was done in partnership with agency Arts & Letters. The first phase launched in March, focusing broadly on the availability of sports to bring communities together.

Now, the second phase highlights individual athletic stories. For instance, Ionescu, a star of the WNBA, tells the story of how her middle school told her to “go play with dolls” instead of playing basketball.

“I hope this campaign reminds viewers that young women shouldn’t be put into a box,” Ionescu said.

In another spot, MLB’s Trout talks about how he learned to handle failure.

The spots continue the largest campaign in Dick’s Sporting Goods’ history, which is centered around the company’s 75th anniversary.

“This series takes an authentic, personal look at how sports have changed the lives of some of the world’s top athletes, from cultivating community to unlocking confidence” Emily Silver, CMO of Dick’s Sporting Goods, said in a statement.