Nike’s Huge Super Bowl: From Jalen Hurts to Kendrick and Serena

Super Bowl 59 will pay dividends for Nike—beyond the splashy 90-second ad it ran featuring female superstars.

Nike ran its first Super Bowl commercial since 1998. The “So Win” ad spot featuring Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, Jordan Chiles, Sha’Carri Richardson, and other top women athletes, was a marketing triumph. 

But the sportswear brand, which has been struggling for more than a year to retain its dominant position as challengers like On and Hoka take marketplace share, came out a winner in other, more subtle ways from Sunday’s game.

Before the game kicked off, during halftime, and on social media after the Eagles won, signs of Nike’s cultural cachet were in abundance. 

In Nike’s latest earnings conference call in December, new CEO Elliott Hill told analysts that the company had “lost its obsession with sport.” To that end, Hill said a key part of its turnaround strategy is making sport and the athlete its “North Star” again. 

Consider Nike’s Super Bowl ad showcasing superstar women its opening salvo in the retailer’s urgent bid to get back on top.

Jalen Hurts in Jordan Brand

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is one of Nike-owned Jordan Brand’s newer faces. He took the field for the pregame warmup in “Bred” Air Jordan One High ‘85 cleats. The custom-made shoes had the swoosh logo crossed out and the word “unbannable” written across both heels. It was a nod to the iconic moment 40 years ago when Nike paid Michael Jordan’s fine for not wearing a specific white or black colorway the NBA enforced at the time. 

Hurts already has some history with being fined for his footwear. In December, the NFL fined Hurts $5,628 for wearing mismatched cleats that were not “constitutional team colors.” Jordan Brand said it would cover the fine. 

Hurts changed out of the custom cleats after pregame warmups for a traditional white and black pair. (Travis Kelce had a deal with Nike that ended after the 2024 season and usually wears Air Jordan cleats. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has a deal with Adidas.)

Hurts threw for 221 yards and completed 17-of-22 passes in the decisive 40-22 victory over the Chiefs, earning himself the Super Bowl MVP trophy. Following the Eagles win, Nike was ready with a celebratory Eagles ad featuring a Kermit- sounding voice singing “It’s Good to Be Green,” showing Eagles players in their signature green uniforms first fumbling and missing catches, then scoring and celebrating their wins. 

Immediately after the game, Jordan brand aired a sharply-edited video taking a swipe at Hurts haters who doubted he could lead his team to best the Chiefs after losing to Kansas City in the 2023 Super Bowl. 

“Hate that you said he wasn’t a top 10 quarterback? Hate that you said he couldn’t throw the ball?” the voiceover asked. “Hate that in your all-knowing, arm chair wisdom, you were sure he’d come up short… hate that you got it wrong?” 

The 30-second commercial, dubbed “Love, Hurts,” was an immediate hit on social media.

Kendrick Lamar in Nikes

The hype swirling around Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show was all focused on whether he’d perform “Not Like Us,” the rapper’s controversial Grammy-winning Drake diss track. Yes, Lamar did sing it, but what did he wear? The 22-time Grammy winner donned Nike Air DT Max ’96 sneakers, released at the end of last year, in the black and white “Colorado Away” colorway made famous by Deion Sanders. 

After previously collaborating with Reebok, Lamar partnered with Nike in 2017 and released the first Kendrick Lamar x Nike Cortez shoe in 2018. While he has worked on several collaborations with Nike, he’s not an only-Nike guy: At his press conference to promote the halftime show on Feb. 6 Lamar wore Unaffected x Asics Gel-Kayano 20s, a $290 running shoe.

Coming out of last night’s Big Game, the Nike Air DT Max ’96s Lamar wore have jumped on StockX with a 413% day-over-day increase. It marks the second highest trade day for the product on StockX’s platform with 41 total trades last night. 

Serena Williams in Converse Chucks

In a surprise halftime show appearance, viewers caught tennis mega-star Serena Williams dancing to “Not Like Us.” Along with her crip walking, viewers probably noticed Williams’s blue Converse Chuck 70s, which matched her blue tennis skirt and cropped jacket. 

Converse, famous for its old-school basketball aesthetic, was acquired by Nike in 2003 for $315 million, two years after it filed for bankruptcy. (Both Lamar and Williams are from Compton, Calif., and Williams reportedly dated Drake at around 2011.)

To cap off her monochromatic outfit, Lamar’s halftime show guest performer SZA also wore red Converse Chuck 70 sneakers.

“It was definitely a big night for Nike from a marketing standpoint,” says Mike Sykes, author of the sneaker blog The Kicks You Wear. “I think this is the sort of vibe we should be getting used to from Nike. A big thing [CEO] Elliott Hill has talked about is moving back into sports. This is what I think that looks like on a humongous scale.”