For over six decades, Nike has ascended to the pantheon of performance wear for athletes, both in competition and at rest. Introducing a new uniform for everyday wear, Nike presents the Studio Fleece for women, and its companion, the Solo Fleece for men. Using fleece as the foundation of an athlete’s wardrobe, Nike has reimagined the fabric for a versatile collection that includes crew and quarter-zip sweatshirts, full-zip and pullover hoodies, shorts, and sweatpants.

Studio Fleece was designed based on insights gathered from conversations with more than 300 women worldwide, providing a comprehensive wardrobe solution. The collection features two distinctive fits and three fabric weights, each developed to function seamlessly in every aspect of daily life while encouraging personal style. The heavyweight style is crafted with a brushed, reverse-heather construction, while the lightweight and mediumweight styles feature a five-time sueded face treatment. Its clean silhouette is a result of refined proportions, including a new hood construction, reduced cuffs, and a Lyon Blue label that distinguishes it from other Nike fleece apparel. The line is offered in shades of Birch Heather along with a newly engineered Total Black, which maintains its richness and resists fading through more than 30 washes. Complementing the Studio Fleece, Solo Fleece for men is available as a slightly cropped, mediumweight boxy hoodie.

Nike’s Global Styling Director, Mellány Sánchez, elaborates on the novelty of the sportswear line, which is the direct result of meticulous cultivation to create clothing that goes beyond performance. "Studio Fleece feels like the ultimate fleece that I've wanted as a stylist my whole career," Sánchez tells Flaunt. For her, the collection’s appeal lies in the freedom and personalization it offers: "It's the sizing, it's the weights, it's the individual differences that you make. How you're zipping things up, how you're tucking...there will be opportunities for consumers to modify further with the Nike customization program," she explains. 

This philosophy, in which the collection transcends aesthetics, is reflected in the joint campaign. Bringing together a mélange of athletes— Alysa Liu, Jazzy Davidson, Sha’Carri Richardson, Moses Itauma, Lauren James, and Reece James—along with musical artists Karina and Yeat, the campaign echoes Nike’s ethos: “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” Positioned as an off-duty uniform for transitory moments—creating, traveling, and resting—Nike blends sport and style for everyday life. Studio and Solo Fleece are now available in Nike stores and online. 

Below, Mellány Sánchez shares more about the innovative nature of Nike’s newest collection.

The Studio Fleece collection was designed through conversations with more than 300 women. What did the conversations reveal about how women athletes dress, and how did those insights shape Studio Fleece?

I work with our athletes constantly, and they are giving us insight into how they wear product differently from each other; their approach to on-court, on-pitch, off-pitch, and off-court, whatever that looks like for them. That naturally informed an approach to this product. To meet our athletes where they were at, we needed to approach this from a different proportion, a fit system, and a different weight system. We have the oversized fit, the regular fit, and the light, medium, and heavy weights. Paying attention to ways that our athletes were living, it grew a sweatsuit to be an everyday classic staple of sportswear. To have Nike reclaim that we are the originators of sportswear. In doing so, we have crafted the ultimate uniform for our athletes, and what we have landed on this product that is superior to anything we've ever driven in this category. 

Sportswear has become universal for everyday dressing. How does Studio and Solo Fleece transcend into becoming wardrobe staples? ‍

Sportswear has become universal, but only Nike would assert this much innovation, perfection, and product superiority on a gray fleece sweatsuit. We believe this has life outside of sport moments. This is the uniform for everyday athletes and in all aspects of their lives; this is for all of our consumers. Nike believes if you have a body, you're an athlete, so when we refer to our athlete insights, we're speaking about all different types of people, women in Studio Fleece and men in Solo Fleece. I totally believe that this product can be articulated with a trouser; this is the product that's going to meet you in that sort of elevated proposition.

Nike is positioning Studio Fleece as a foundational garment. How do you hope consumers will style the collection to reflect their personal taste?

The most exciting portion of Studio Fleece for me is how our consumers are going to start to self-identify. This collection builds personal style, personal ways of asserting yourself in the world a certain way. And there's something around knowing that you're a heavyweight person, or you love the lightweight and the way that your muscle shows through that, or the way that it grabs or clings, and how that suits your look. Those differences our consumers will get to learn and love over time, and are going to really build a bond with dressing, wardrobing yourself, and effortlessly living. Moving through your day, this product will meet you there.

The word “uniform” has been used to describe Studio Fleece, but so has “self-expression.” How does Studio Fleece embody both of these ideas?

I love that Studio Fleece is limitless in the ways that it's expressed, and it's uniform because it's not uniform. There's a palette with which you express yourself. That's really the sort of divide between it being a uniform and also an opportunity for self-expression. It's about how you can use that as a palette. There's a uniformity of it because it's so understood and worked. But with that, it's asking you to bring your style to it. We're not dictating the ultimate look of Studio Fleece as one thing.

How would you integrate a piece from the Studio Fleece collection with your vintage wardrobe?

I would say in so many different ways. If I am wearing a head-to-toe Studio Fleece sweatsuit, I love heavyweight oversized. I would do that crisp look with a vintage Air Max 97. I can't go super fresh all over. I need that divide.

The campaign brings together athletes such as Sha’Carri Richardson and Alysa Liu alongside artists Karina and Yeat. When styling individuals with distinctive approaches to style, what did that reveal about the versatility of Studio and Solo Fleece?

We are so inspired by our entertainers and athletes of all different proportions. Alysa Liu and Sha’Carri Richardson are so incredibly different. Sha’Carri will push up her cuffs right away on her sweatpants, and Alysa wants to cut the sweatpants into shorts. Yeat will embrace a sweatsuit head to toe. Other athletes feel a little less comfortable with a head-to-toe sweatsuit because that's something that they find a little too close to a performance look. That has taught us that people are going to drive this work differently and have it live on their bodies differently.

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