Stars Align

Humor Me

Dani~

"Welcome to the Nike headquarters! We're so excited to have you here. How was your flight?

"Pretty long but good," I laugh as we walk through the lobby of this unbelievably cool building.

"Well, today won't be very long. We just want to get your thoughts on what you want to do and then present you with other stuff along the way."

I follow her into a conference room with a huge table in the middle as well as a projector that faces a blank wall. This is some serious stuff. "Everyone should be in here soon."

"Okay." I pull out my MacBook to get everything I need to show them ready.

Many people file in and greet me before we get started. "Dani, it's great to have you. We're so excited to have you here at our headquarters. So we're going to have you tell us what you would like to see on a possible collaboration with us. We're going to hit on potential contract conversations. Then if we sign you to a contract, we'll explain our expectations for you as a signed athlete and some of our expectations for us. So what are things that you would like to see from our brand? It could be new apparel, new designs for any of our current apparel, and possibly even creating a personalized line to your name."

"I have a few ideas. Is there a way I can show you what I would like to do instead of me trying to explain it?"

"Yes, of course."

One of them hands me an adapter and I'm able to Bluetooth my laptop to the projector. "So I've been thinking about this for the past few weeks and my main focus would be shoes. I have a couple of designs that I think would be cool, mostly focusing around Team USA. The next would be kneepads. I use your kneepads religiously and I think they're great but I have to end up buying at least five pairs for each season. Lastly, I have some ideas about clothing too."

"Can we see the shoes?"

"Yeah, of course," I find the first design I came up with, "I like it when my court shoes have a bit of a higher ankle. It's so nice for support and I'm all for preventing injuries. Between my personal history of season-ending injuries and I have a degree in physical therapy. I try my hardest to prevent injuries from happening to myself and my teammates. I don't necessarily care about colors but just the initial design of support and then maybe having a few different color options."

"So everything that you're talking about is more than possible."

"Oh, that's amazing."

"So support is the most important thing for you?"

"Support and comfort."

"What about the kneepads?"

"Yeah, like I said, I use your kneepads religiously. I've tried different brands but I love yours the most. The only thing about them is that they don't last as long as I would like them to. I know it's a good thing for you guys if more people are good-quality kneepads aren't cheap. I had torn my ACL during my freshman year because I landed too hard and hyperextended my knee. I tore it not only because of the amount of force put on my knee but also because the padding in the kneepad had separated, leaving me with no support. I've been using your products for years on end and have no intention on stopping. Coming from someone who goes through many pairs of kneepads each year, I have to let you know that they aren't performing as well as you think they may be."

"Okay, so would you like to do a new kneepad design?"

"Not necessarily. But I think a thicker material and different sizes would help tremendously. I know it would be hard to stray away from the original design. Even small changes like sewing the padding into the fabric because I've had a lot of padding either separate or fold and it's very hard to get them back to the original form. I think it would benefit both professional, collegiate, and high school players."