What it is
Born Mercurial let the consumer pick a year from the history of Nike's Mercurial football boot and build a shoe around it. The years were 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. The story ran on three models: the Mercurial Superfly 6 Elite, the Mercurial Vapor 12 Elite and the Air Max 270, a lifestyle shoe. The consumer chose a year, then added text on the tongue. The heel carried the heritage year.
It was timed to the run-up to the 2018 World Cup. The season's concept map marks the Champions League final on May 26 and the start of the World Cup on June 14.
Leadership review decks from June and July 2017 carry the concept under the name Mercurial Heritage, as part of a "road to World Cup" story. Khounlavong started in July 2017. He was part of the team that developed it from there, and he ran the merchandising and the launch.
What Khounlavong did
- Placed the story in the seasonal premium tier of the summer 2018 line, across two boots and one lifestyle model.
- Programmed it in the summer 2018 concept map, the one-page calendar his team built to show every story by tier, category and date. The map of April 3, 2018 ran Born Mercurial from April 16 to May 25.
- Moved the launch to April 19 in the April 17, 2018 version of the map, and recorded the change in the map's version notes.
- Sequenced the football flow around it in a plan dated January 23, 2018. The boot opened on February 26 with a black upper only. Born Mercurial followed on April 17 with five upper colors. A World Cup story for Nigeria and a flag version of the boot followed from May 25.
- Broadcast the story to the four geographies in the summer 2018 global broadcast decks of March 12 and April 3, 2018, with the models, the build steps and a product readiness date of April 1.
- Listed Born Mercurial in the December 2017 draft of the summer member shop menu, at $290 for the boot and $180 for the Air Max 270.
- Proposed a Mercurial pack again for fall 2019. His line plan framework of April 2018 recommended it in place of an American football story with limited reach, and added both boots to the seasonal premium tier.
Results
- $1.7M in total demand in fiscal 2018, recorded in his official Nike year-end review. It was the highest figure among the must-win projects listed there.
At a glance
| Project type | Seasonal product story and launch |
|---|---|
| Industry | Athletic footwear, digital customization |
| Seat | Senior Merchandising Director, Nike By You (Global) |
| Ran through | Nike |
| Dates | Planned from July 2017. In market April to May 2018 |
| Scope | Global, four geographies |
| Related pages | Jimmy Khounlavong, Nike By You: a rebrand executed mid-flight, Fall 2019 line plan framework |
| Principal | Jimmy Khounlavong |