Why this year's World Cup is happening at the perfect time for struggling Nike

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Why this year's World Cup is happening at the perfect time for struggling Nike Published Thu, Jun 18 20262:06 PM EDTUpdated 34 Min Ago Natasha Abellard Nike 's recovering business needs a spark. This year's World Cup — hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico — could be the match. "Football [soccer] allows us to invite more people in places of the world where we probably cannot reach with other sports," Camilo Andrade, head of football at Nike, told CNBC in an interview. Remember, soccer is called football in most countries outside of America. "That's why football is an accelerator of Nike sport-led offense. It's an accelerator also of who we are," Andrade added. Oregon-based Nike made its first major push onto the global soccer scene during the 1994 men's World Cup, the last time it was held in the United States. Every tournament, including the women's World Cup, is a chance for Nike to showcase its latest innovations, athlete partnerships, and product launches. The 2026 men's World Cup kicked off on June 11. Team USA's first game the next day was a 4-1 win over Paraguay. Game 2 is on Friday against Australia. The next women's World Cup is next year in Brazil. The international reach of the men's and women's World Cup matches is massive. The 2022 men's tournament in Qatar reached roughly 5 billion fans globally across all media platforms, according to FIFA, the world's governing body of soccer. The 2023 women's World Cup, held in Australia and New Zealand, drew 2 billion in total engagement. In the midst of a difficult turnaround, which is taking longer than we expected and has led to frustration with the stock, this year's World Cup could not have come at a better time for Nike. To raise awareness, Nike released a short film, "Rip the Script," calling on soccer lovers to "embrace attacking, creative, instinctive and joyful" play. The energetic film features star players, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé, and Erling Haaland, fighting for the ball, with famous outlookers, including Kim Kardashian and Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso, trying to make sense of the chaos. For fans , Nike created interactive pop-up retail and community experiences across the country — from the House of Merc in New York City, featuring rare Nike archive products and exclusive collections, to Estadio Niky's in Los Angeles, a store takeover of soccer destination Niky's Sports with a custom-built field. To inspire the next generation of stars, Nike launched Toma el Juego (Spanish for "Take the Game"), a community-led youth soccer platform designed to bring together the best street ballers for games around the nation. "We want to ignite a new generation of footballers, and we're really excited about that, "Andrade told CNBC. The TOMA national finals will be held next week in Bryant Park in New York City. On the field at this year's World Cup, Nike makes the uniforms, known as kits in soccer, for Team USA and roughly a dozen other nations, including France, Brazil, and England. The kits feature Nike's most advanced cooling system. "We're introducing Aero-FIT through football to the world. So football has been the first sport that, in this offense, introduces a new innovation that is twice as breathable as our previous legacy textiles," Andrade said. He added that Nike plans to expand its latest creation. "This will scale across all sports. So, this summer you'll start to see Aero-FIT across tennis and different sports." Nike soccer cleats, or boots, are being worn by Team USA and many others. Cleats are on an athlete-by-athlete basis. Pink is all the rage at this World Cup — not only from Nike but from Adidas and Puma, too. Of course, all the kits, home and away, and boots are sold at retail. According to Andrade, consistency will ensure that Nike's World Cup momentum extends beyond this summer, especially in the U.S., where soccer competes for attention against the big three American sports — football, basketball, and baseball. The sportswear giant has been in rebuilding mode under CEO Elliott Hill for more than a year, prioritizing a shift to recenter the company around sport. "I'm optimistic that this is going to help them jumpstart the company," Oppenheimer analyst Brian Nagel told CNBC. Nagel, who maintains a buy rating on the stock, cited Nike's rollout of World Cup-related merchandise like its X2 football-inspired lifestyle collection, plus its role as a major kit supplier for national teams. There's some history that offers support for this view. In its 2023 fiscal third-quarter earnings report, following the 2022 men's World Cup, Nike said that soccer revenue for its Asia Pacific and Latin America (APLA) region grew by double digits. The tournament that year was moved from its normal June to July run to November through December