“Can You Check Me?” — Nike Got this
A challenge # “Can you check me” went viral on TikTok last year. The challenge started with a girl asking both her female and male friends to check on her and record their reactions. In most videos, the boy seemed lost in the conversation, and the girls immediately got the intention. The term is a code when a girl asks another girl to subtly look at the back of her pants to make sure she isn’t bleeding through during the period.
Have you ever worried about being embarrassed by your blood leaks while menstruating? My answer is Yes. Wearing white jeans on my period and leaving blood stains on my trousers in the shape of an African map will always be at the top of the table for one of my most embarrassing moments. And I believe that, as a female, everyone will have the same answer.
You don’t need to worry about that embarrassment any more. Nike got you.
Nike launched its first-ever period leak protection innovation, which comes in the form of an ultra-thin absorbent liner between fabrics to help hold blood. The product aims to break the barrier to sports for girls and women — physically, mentally and emotionally. The new product launch and partnership with Dove is Nike’s long-term campaign to champion women.
New research from Nike and Dove shows that the most significant reason girls drop out of sports is the impact of the sports environment on their body confidence and self-esteem. However, every girl experiences unique and substantial changes to their body, such as periods that make them vulnerable to judgment. This significantly applied to the sports field. To address this problem, Nike and Dove launched a campaign aimed at building a free, open-source website with world-renowned experts- including the Centre for Appearance Research and the Tucker Center For Research on Girls & Women in Sport to help women improve self-esteem and body confidence through clinical and professional coaching tutorials.
“By shifting the conversation from what their bodies look like to what their bodies can do, we inspire more girls to stay in sport and benefit from it,”
Vanessa Garcia-Brito, VP, NIKE, Inc. Chief Social & Community Impact Officer.
This is the most meaningful campaign for me as a female. The partnership of Nike and Dove is the most potent joint that leverages each brand’s strengths. Nike is at the top of the sports league, which can develop meaningful and functional products like period leak production, and Dove is known for its self-esteem education through its brand history.
The campaign quickly received a response from Women’s World Cup players. Once the product was launched, it was provided as part of the American national team’s uniforms. Female players at Wimbledon broke the rule of wearing an all-white dress code by switching to blue shorts after years of concerns about periods. Many players even take period delay pills in advance to stagger their periods with gaming season.
I’m curious to know how other women reacted to this campaign. But I am on my way to purchasing the period leak protection shorts and dreaming about slaying in the gym during my next period. This is how Nike wished people to react. More women fans of the brand and more sales these women could bring to the brand. However, even though their objective for the campaign is obvious, I am still willing to pay. Not only the functional product but also their commitment to help build female body confidence and make them feel like sport is a place where they belong.
Please check Nike and Dove’s open-source Body Confident Sport tool, at bodyconfidentsport.com.
