Nike x School: an innovative running program that grew 20x in a year
A running program built inside Milan's schools, scaled 20x in a year.
Nike · Running Brand Manager, EMEA South · 2018–2020 · Led
The brief
Between 2018 and 2020, kids in Italy were quitting sport at record rates. Participation drops by 72% after age 17, and girls quit at twice the rate of boys. Reversing that needed more than another after-school club. It needed to change how sport made kids feel: joy instead of exhaustion and boredom, something they'd choose again on their own.
What I did
The leak wasn't after school. It was during it. Across Italy it was normal to skip the mandatory weekly PE hour and study for the next class instead. Plenty of teachers allowed it, and the kids had no idea what they were missing. So we built the first Nike x School running program in Milan around school hours themselves, not extra-curriculars. We brought city hall, public schools, local sport organisations, parents and students to the same table, and designed something that didn't replace PE teachers but made their classes worth showing up for. Using Nike's network and coaching expertise, we trained teachers and coaches to run better sessions and keep kids in sport through the years they usually quit. Along the way the students met the best of Nike, from elite athletes to run crews and city partners. The first year ended with the kids running the Milan Marathon as a relay, 17-year-olds covering 8 to 10k for the first time in their lives. Every relay place supported art4sport, the NGO founded by Paralympic champion Bebe Vio, which gave the effort a meaning beyond the run. That first year was an event machine: 200 kids, eight runs across the school year. The next year we operationalised it into something self-serve, which is what let it scale. When Covid closed schools, we filmed high-quality classes kids could follow at home during remote PE, and the program kept running.
The result
It started with 200 students in 4 schools. Within a year it reached 4,000 in 20 schools, a twentyfold jump. The behaviour changed, not just the headcount. For 95% of the kids it was their first ever run. 75% said it shifted how they saw running, and 30% kept running in everyday life afterwards. The experience scored 4.2 out of 5. To reach students beyond the program itself, we partnered with Scuolazoo, the Gen Z media channel that drives over 6 million student engagements a week.
Why I'm proud of it
A kid who used to dread PE asking to go for another puke-inducing run is a return you can't put in a deck. I call it Return on Impact. Nobody counted how many shoes a program like this sold, that was never the point, and yet it changed how thousands of kids felt about moving their bodies. That's the kind of work I love doing.
- Community
- Brand
- Sport
In their words
“I never thought running could be a social activity!!”
“Bebe was such an incredible inspiration. Meeting her made me think how stupid all the excuses we tell ourselves are, all the times we are lazy and decide not to move and do sport.”
“I can say I raced against Filippo Tortu, the fastest Italian sprinter of all times. How many other non-professional athletes can say the same?”
“Running the Milano City Marathon relay was one of a kind experience. I had never joined a race before, but the energy, the laughs, all those people towards one goal made me appreciate myself being there, sharing that same experience with thousands of other people.”
“I always thought of running as a lonely and boring experience. After this year, I completely changed my mind. Now I go out for a run with my friends every now and then!”
“We have difficult classes that don't engage easily. One of them surprised us last Thursday: their teacher said he had never seen them work like that. These are exactly the kids you need to reach through sport, to pass on fair play, teamwork, and the determination to chase a goal.”