Sportswear giant Nike is seeking a golden moment at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The Nike ACG logo, short for All Conditions Gear, is on the chests of Team USA athletes at the Winter Games. Nike is using the stage to relaunch its 37-year-old outdoor performance gear brand.
The effort is gaining traction online as Team USA racks up medals.
Nike unveiled the Team USA collection on January 28, and it’s been having a moment on social media as athletes don the gear at the games. Between January 30 and the February 6 opening ceremony in Milan, conversations on X mentioning ACG and the Olympics increased by 273%, data analytics firm PeakMetrics told Business Insider.
Google searches for “Nike ACG” also spiked during the first week of February, then hit a new peak this week with the Olympic Games underway, according to Google Trends.
ACG debuted in 1989 as a brand designed for trail running and hiking. Unlike brands like Air Jordan, it remained a niche collection that generated little revenue for Nike. As streetwear styles like gorpcore have taken off in the 2020s, the timing of a revival lines up with mainstream fashion. On the performance side, Nike defines itself as a brand for all outdoor athletes.
The Olympics sponsorship goes beyond Team USA, with Nike tapping Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner to star in an ACG campaign. The Instagram post featuring Skinner in a custom look garnered nearly 200,000 likes, and ACG’s following on the app has grown to more than 48,000 since launching on February 2.
The collection includes outerwear, base layers, and shoes designed for trail racing and hiking — all of which can be spotted on Team USA throughout the Olympics.
Nike’s push to outfit Olympic athletes should look familiar to anyone paying attention to CEO Elliott Hill’s vision for the company. The Nike boss has put sports performance gear at the center of the brand’s mission — a pivot from the lifestyle path Nike was on before Hill took the helm in October 2024.
In a testament to that strategy, women athletes were the stars of Nike’s big return to the Super Bowl last year with its first ad in the game in 27 years. The company has also restructured internally and reformatted its stores to focus on sports.
The plan is coming into shape in the outdoor space. Nike has plans to open the first stand-alone ACG store in Beijing in February.
“ACG has the foundation to shape the future of outdoor performance while pushing into spaces that feel fresh and unexpected,” Scott LeClair, vice president and general manager of ACG, said in a January press release.”It is going to be a fun ride.”
Read the full article here
