Nike Equipment Builder

Crafting an intuitive, personalized experience that empowers athletes to create gear tailored to their unique needs.

Overview.

Nike wanted to create a platform where professional athletes from leagues like NFL, MLB, and NCAA could customize their sports equipment, especially gloves, according to their team colors, personal preferences, and performance needs.

The platform also needed to help Nike’s internal teams manage designs, approvals, players, and teams from a single place.

The goal was to create a seamless experience for both athletes and administrators.

Problem Statement.

The existing customization process was difficult and time-consuming.

Athletes faced challenges such as:

Too many customization options at once
Difficulty visualizing the final product
Confusing navigation and workflows

Nike’s internal teams faced challenges such as:

Tracking design approvals manually
Managing multiple players and teams
Lack of visibility into design status

The challenge was:

How can we simplify equipment customization for athletes while creating an efficient management system for Nike’s internal teams?

My Role.

I led the complete design process for the Nike Equipment Builder app, which included research,UX design, UI design, design system creation, presentations, and handoff, all within a tight 3-month deadline. Throughout the project, I collaborated closely with Nike’s administration team, helping them visualize, refine, and enhance the application’s features.

My Approach.

Here’s the UX process I followed from concept to completion. I actively supported the development team to ensure the final product reflected the original design vision.

Process: Research & Discovery.

The first step was to immerse myself in understanding Nike’s audience and objectives. I began by conducting extensive user research. This involved interviewing potential users, such as high school athletes, college players, and even professional athletes. The goal was to gather insights into how they shop for and customize their gear, their pain points with current platforms, and their expectations from a Nike customization app.

In addition to user interviews, I performed surveys to collect quantitative data on user preferences. I also conducted a competitive analysis of Nike’s key competitors like Under Armour and Adidas, analyzing their online customization tools. This helped identify strengths and weaknesses in the industry and opportunities for Nike to stand out with its web-based app.

Discoveries From Research

Research highlights a market opportunity for Nike to expand its reach.
Below are some key insights:

Few market players offer customization, and options are highly limited.
Customizing gear is often very expensive.
Creating identical designs for team gear is challenging.
Once an order is placed, customization cannot be edited or reviewed.
The design editor is difficult to understand and not user-friendly.
High schools and colleges hosting baseball and football seek easy customization tools.

User Personas & Scenarios.

Understanding users, user behavior and usage patterns is crucial for this project. To achieve this, I created a set of user personas that define key aspects and guide the design process.

Information Architecture.

The next step was to build the app’s information architecture (IA), ensuring users could easily find products, navigate customization options, and submit designs to Nike. I organized the structure logically, categorizing products by sport, type, and customization features for a seamless experience.

Solution.

I designed an end-to-end customization platform that included:

Player Experience

Secure login
League selection
Style selection
Equipment customization
Personalization options
Size and setup configuration
Real-time product preview

Design Management

Save and continue designs
Track design status
View completed and in-progress designs

Admin Dashboard

Manage users, teams, and players
Monitor design activity
Track approval workflows
View analytics and reports

Impact.

For Athletes

Easier and more enjoyable customization experience
Real-time visualization increased confidence in design decisions
Reduced confusion during customization

For Nike Teams

Centralized management of designs and approvals
Improved visibility into workflow status
Reduced manual effort and communication gaps

Business Impact

Scalable solution for multiple sports leagues
Faster design management process
Better collaboration between athletes, designers, and administrators

Overall, the platform transformed a complex customization workflow into a streamlined, user-friendly experience that balanced creativity, efficiency, and operational control.

Wireframing.

After setting the IA, I created low-fidelity wireframes in Figma to visualize the app’s structure. These wireframes covered key screens, focusing on functionality to allow easy product selection, customization, and real-time design previews.

Design System.

As I was building a responsive mobile and web application, I decided to reuse design components by creating a design system containing over 500 components, 10+ text styles, and a comprehensive color stack. I also included support for light and dark modes to enhance user experience.

Typography

After a long research, I decided to use a paid font called “Antenna”. The reason behind using this font is it loads fast on the web and brings a feeling of sportiness

Colors

I decided to use Nikes dark theme for this project too as it is their brand color. along with it I introduced 3 colors as primary

Mobile Screens.

Web Screens.

Admin Console.

The athlete’s experience with the Nike Equipment Builder is fully managed through the admin panel I designed. From glove types and color options to new design releases, admins control what athletes see and how they interact. Once a design is created in the admin panel, it’s sent to the athlete’s view, where players can either approve it or customize it further ensuring the experience remains consistent, flexible, and aligned with the brand.

Collaboration.

Collaboration played a crucial role in the success of the Nike project. Working closely with engineering and product teams, we held three weekly internal syncs and one detailed design discussion with Nike to explore possibilities and refine ideas. Incorporating their valuable insights, I iterated on my designs to ensure stability and usability.

We utilized Google Meet for meetings, Jira for task management, Confluence for documentation, and Miro for brainstorming sessions. This seamless integration of tools and teamwork contributed to the project’s overall success.

Jira

Confluence

Google Meet

Miro

Results.

🎯 Precision: Reduced manufacturing errors by ~30%, improving production accuracy.
🕒 Efficiency: Saved over 100 manual design hours each month through automation.
🙌 User Love: Athletes praised the intuitive, easy-to-use customization experience.
💬 Sharing: Enabled users to export their designs as PDFs, simplifying supplier communication.

Conclusion.

The Nike Equipment Builder has been one of the most rewarding projects I’ve worked on so far. Collaborating with a client as iconic as Nike brought immense motivation and inspiration to every step of my design process. I’m proud to share that the application is now live and being used by countless athletes to customize their gear.