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Nike’s latest product push marries sport with neuroscience in a way that even its fiercest competitors have not fully attempted. Nike Mind is a new platform centred on neuroscience-based footwear designed to support mental presence as much as physical readiness. It marks a clear attempt by the brand to broaden its definition of performance beyond muscle and motion to include mentality and focus.
Nike Mind comprises two silhouettes, the Mind 001 mule and the Mind 002 sneaker, both built to stimulate sensory receptors underfoot and activate key areas of the brain connected to focus and awareness. The footwear, arriving in stores and on nike.com from January 2026, features 22 anatomically mapped foam nodes that interact with mechanoreceptors on the sole of the foot. According to Nike, this interaction enhances underfoot sensation, helping wearers to feel more grounded and cognitively present before competition or during recovery.
Nike first announced its neuroscience-based footwear line, Nike Mind, with initial product details and availability in late October 2025, followed by the official launch and release of the first models on January 8, 2026.
The science behind the range comes from Nike’s Mind Science Department, a specialised unit within the Nike Sport Research Lab. Over several years, the team has studied nervous system responses, brain activity and cognition during athletic motion, using mobile brain and body imaging laboratories.
Insights from this research have been channelled into product design, with Nike positioning Mind as a tool that supports focus and mental clarity rather than a radical departure from conventional performance footwear.
To translate this relatively abstract idea into mainstream appeal, Nike has turned to a carefully selected roster of athletes. Shubman Gill fronts the global campaign for Nike Mind, a choice that reflects the brand’s emphasis on composure, precision and mental discipline.
Gill is joined by other high-profile athletes across sports, including footballer Erling Haaland, and runner and trainer Claire Prince. Together, they form a cast that spans disciplines and geographies, reinforcing Nike’s claim that mental readiness is a universal performance concern rather than one confined to a single sport or training style.
The advertising itself is notably restrained by Nike’s historical standards. Campaign films focus on moments before action rather than the action itself. Athletes are shown preparing, breathing and centring themselves, with the product framed as a quiet enabler rather than a hero object. The visual language leans towards stillness and introspection, a tonal shift for a brand that has long relied on spectacle and bravado.
Of course, the brand is probably working on some creatives to create some buzz around the product. But no high-octane Nike-esque ad films for now, it seems.
This isn't the first rodeo from the brand where it has leaned into science for its products. In 2006, Nike put a sensor in its shoes as part of the Nike+ system, launched in collaboration with Apple. This system was designed to track running data, and users could access it via an iPod.
The launch of Nike Mind comes at a critical juncture for the company. Over the past few years, Nike has faced slowing growth, margin pressure and intensifying competition from newer performance and lifestyle brands. In fiscal 2025, the company reported a decline in revenues of around 10 per cent, alongside a sharper fall in profitability. Weakness in key markets, particularly Greater China, combined with higher costs and inventory challenges, has weighed on overall performance.
Leadership changes have followed. In October 2024, Elliott Hill took over as chief executive officer from John Donahoe, helming the top role after a long career at the company. Since then, Nike has restructured its senior leadership team, retiring certain roles and consolidating others in an effort to sharpen focus and execution.
Nike Mind can be seen within this broader context as part of an attempt to reassert the brand’s innovation credentials. Rather than competing solely on materials, silhouettes or price, Nike is leaning into a more holistic performance narrative that places the brain alongside the body. It is a familiar Nike move in form, if not in focus, taking a complex idea and packaging it through athletes, storytelling and product design.
Whether this neuroscience-led approach will materially change how performance is sold remains an open question. For now, Nike Mind stands as a signal of where the brand believes the next performance conversation lies.
