Coaching HER

Nike’s mission to keep girls in sports.

Earlier this week was National Girls and Women in Sports Day and I wrote about women’s basketball. It is important to recognize the importance of youth girl sports and how to keep them playing. Researchers discovered that girls drop out of sports when they hit puberty at an alarming rate. Nike CEO, John Donahoe along with others believe that the solution to stop girls from dropping out of sports is to have more female coaches.

In March, Nike launched a campaign Nike launched Coaching HER in partnership with Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. The Coaching HER campaign was created to educate coaches on gender bias and improve their understanding of discrimination in sport. Program launched in the summer of 2023. 

Nike recognizes the importance of making an impact on girls youth sports and how it ties to the brand’s core values. One of the most important factors on whether or not a girl continues to keep playing sports is dependent on how they feel about their coach. Nike’s vision is to help more girls get and stay in sport through critical drop out ages. 

“Coaches are powerful role models who can impact a girl’s self-confidence. Yet they often lack the education and training needed to address gender identities, stereotypes and bias.”  via Coaching HER. 

Nike has a goal to achieve 50% girl participation in the sport-based community programs it supports by 2025. Donahoe said, “We’re trying to train 20,000 female coaches, moms and other former athletes to be coaches to promote youth.” 

Three values integral to Nike’s brand: 

1. Racial and social justice
2. Sustainability 
3. Youth involvement in sports

Nike has been involved in many campaigns that are in line with their values. Nike prioritizing girls in sports is part of their values of youth involvement in sports. In order to focus on this social issue, Nike made a goal to coach 20,000 female coaches. Donahoe stated that one of the biggest reasons girls drop out during their teens is because they don’t have female coaches once they hit puberty. Nike has found innovative ways to connect their values to their corporate social responisbility (CSR) campaigns. In fact, Nike has become a leader in CSR. Nike having a CEO that is not afraid to speak up about social issues and calling other companies to action is another reason why the brand has great CSR campaigns. Coaching HER is just another resource that expands Nike’s Made to Play mission to reach 50% girl participation in sports by 2025.

Coaching HER offers a free online program that can be completed anywhere so anyone that coaches girls and women in sports at any level can benefit from this program. For more information, click here.