Nike Pro Hijab Celebrates Diversity in Sports
Nike has recently announced that it will be releasing the Pro Hijab, a single-layer, pull-on hijab with breathable fabric and opaque colors in the Spring of 2018. This was announced weeks after the company released an ad in Nike Middle East that features five prominent Muslim females pursuing their athletic dreams. In the background, a voice asks “What will they say about you?” a rhetorical question that many young Arab women face when they step out of cultural norms.
The Pro Hijab will serve as a beacon of hope to young Muslim girls who are struggling to get into sports because of the traditional restrictions they face. This product release, with the help of the ad campaign, will promote a promising, inspiring message to young Muslim girls, showing that it is okay for them to break out into sports.
Female athletes in the Middle East are a small, young group, but it is growing every day. Muslim female athletes have been struggling in the past to find headgear that is light and won’t slow or distract their performance. The Nike Pro Hijab provides an affordable, lightweight hijab that still respects their religion and traditions while making participation in sports easier for the athletes.
The Pro Hijab is easier to access than other small brands that are making sport hijabs. Nike’s global reach comes to play in this aspect because it is known worldwide as the best or most popular sportswear brand. Its popularity helps spread this new product to athletes around the world.
Nike’s Pro Hijab is a positive move in the right direction for Muslim female athletes. The influence Nike has, and the publicity of this product, has brought positive attention to the issues Muslim women face in athletics. The campaign helps to bring support in allowing religious headgear in sports all over the world, bringing a positive change to athletics.
Nike’s global reach as a brand is also influential in this product release because it helps promote diversity in sports. The promotion comes at a time where being a female athlete still has its difficulties, and being Muslim even more difficult. With a brand as large as Nike, this can help to change Western views of Arab women and bring a positive message to people everywhere. Sports have been known to bring people together and be diverse, and the Nike Pro Hijab will help to aid this diversity.
This Nike campaign intends to break gender roles by using sports to positively change society and its negative views. The Pro Hijab allows Muslim women and girls everywhere to participate in sports and gives young girls women to look up to. As Nike says, “If you have a body, you’re an athlete.” Hijab wearing athletes everywhere will be rejoicing when the Nike Pro Hijab comes to stores in 2018.
