Nike Olympic Media Summit : Day1

Ehh...I know it's been over a week...too bad

I got a call late Wednesday the 3rd from my Nike guy, asking if I was free the following Monday/Tuesday to attend a Nike Olympic showcase.

"Sure -- I'm down."

The only problem was Thursday morning I planned on driving down to Sacramento to visit family while my brother was home for Spring Break. Instead of staying for a week or so...I had to drive back up on Sunday to make the event Monday morning. 9 awwwwful hours both ways. Oh well.

So Monday rolls around and the festivities start at 7:45 w/ breakfast.

I make it to campus around 8:35 and chomp on some hashbrows & bacon and make my way to the presentation room in the Tiger Woods Building.

I got settled in a little early and they had a nice display of previous Olympic runners...these of course being the grand gem.













There's over 160 media members...and they're all staying in some sweet hotel downtown w/ complimentary shuttle. Instead of my usual 15 minute drive to campus...maybe I shoulda had Nike put me up -- just because.

The presentation begins with Kris Aman detailing Flywire and Lunar Foam as their main breakthroughs for the Olympics and then a few presenters also discussed a few of the apparel that we'll be seeing.













This thing? Other than looking like something Cam considers fashionable...is apparently a "Pre-Cool Vest" that has ice in triangles to keep the athlete's body temperature from peaking before competition.

Outlandish? Yes.

But I'm told it looks even better on....and that they shaped it to fit better than the 04 Vest.

This is also what Male Pattern Baldness looks like.















I GUESS.

From there we ate a solid lunch and then things got delayed a bit (thanks Kobe) and I got to enjoy a 45 minute tour of campus.

I've been there roughly 173 times.

And yet EVERY time I've ever been in the MJ building I think I've taken this EXACT picture. It's like a natural reaction or something. Check the toe blow-out. Money went HARD.














The Mike Johnson track statue is pretty sweet too.













Around 2 we then headed back to the Tiger Woods conference for the Hyperdunk showing.

Bean was present:













Some highlights from the open forum of questions:

* "I have two questions -- one not serious and one serious. First not serious, how many carats in your ring?"
* "Kobe -- Can you say hello to Peru?"
* "Kobe -- I come from Greece to ask you question....."

Session went well considering...

Around 3 a few of us w/ red stickers on our badges headed over to the Bo for some hoops.













Awaiting each of us was a gym bag filled w/ gear as well as white Kobe Olympic Hyperdunks in our size. NikePro compression shorts are the TRUTH. I'm gonna get like 10 of these and wear them at all times...under jeans and everything.

Goodbye mid-90's Champion NBA Replica Shorts.

Hello NikePro compression shorts.














We hit the courts...and being that all I do is write features but also play ball and review shoes -- the fact that this was the first time any of the Nike Hoops people saw me play made me a little nervous.

I was late getting changed so I didn't get on for the first game, but on the 2nd court some Euro cat grabbed his ass cheek in pain and was hurt, so I was able to jump on (as Rich would call it...the "micky mouse court"...haha) I beasted on these dudes...grabbin boards/driving for layups/assists/etc...

After getting a solid warm up in I was able to move over to the main court w/ Christian from DIME and a few other dudes and we won 4 straight...11-3, 11-4, 11-3, 11-5...it was nasty.

Luckily for whatever reason (was it the Hyperdunk.....?) I had a career day and we were runnin on folks. Five or so main Nike Hoops dudes were all watching the whole time and afterwards seemed impressed. Kobe even stood on the sideline for two games and watched us. A dude I'm used to DVR'ing or paying to see in person was just chillin on the sideline watching...pretty cool feeling.

The shoe felt amazing...but in total tease fashion we couldn't take them home just yet...I guess they're gonna mail em out in a few weeks or something.

After ball we hit the showers (pause) and watched Memphis entirely choke in the Finals. The complimentary ribs/tamales/beer made up for the dissapointment.

- Nick