As reported yesterday, Nike+iPod products are being rolled out today at Apple and Nike stores across the U.S. iLounge Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Horwitz is on hand at a Nike retail store in Newport Beach, California, and filed the below report and photos from the opening.
The most amazing thing is the extent to which Nike+ products have come to dominate the front of the store here. Not only are the products in each of the store’s three display windows—one with a huge banner, one with compatible clothes and shoes, and one just with shoes and a photo of a woman with white earbuds—but they’re prominent inside as well. Nike stores are now carrying iPod nanos. The store we visited only had 1GB nanos for sale. There’s a display with a packaged Sport Kit and boxed iPod nano, articles of clothing with white earbuds, and more. For Apple, this isn’t just a couple of Nike stores with celebrities on hand for photos: this is a full-chain push of this product.
Update 1: Check out iLounge’s First Look at the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, as well as initial photos of Nike+ shoes and apparel.
Update 2: Surprisingly, Nike has begun a retail push for the Sport Kit and Nike+ items outside of its own and Apple’s stores today. Chains such as Chick’s Sporting Goods have unveiled large kiosks, multi-page promotional literature, gobs of Sport Kits, and a wider-than-expected array of clothes and shoes. Besides the Moire and Zoom Plus sneakers, the company has released certain women’s pairs of Shox sneakers, as well as men’s and women’s shirts, jackets, shorts, and pants with iPod nano-sized pockets in their sleeves or fronts. iLounge’s editors have found that most of the Nike items make it virtually impossible to see the nano’s screen while inside, rendering the Sport Kit’s audio feedback feature especially useful.
