Nike × FFF
The first direct B2B digital platform between Nike and amateur football clubs in France.
01 · Situation
Nike wanted to become the primary partner of amateur clubs in France.
Nike approached the project with a clear ambition : become the go-to partner for amateur football clubs across France — simplifying their lives, not just selling them kits. The assumption was that a digital platform would make that relationship possible.
The reality clubs were living was different. They were managing player lists, sizes, flocking details and sponsor logos through paper forms and unmanageable Excel files. The barrier was not digital adoption. It was the absence of a process designed for them.
01
Paper & Excel
Clubs managed player lists, sizes and orders through paper forms and unmanageable spreadsheets
02
Complex needs
Kits, flocking, logos, sponsors — clubs needed a guided process, not just a product page
03
Trust gap
Clubs did not yet see Nike as a long-term partner built around their operational reality
04
15-day supply
Delivery timelines were opaque and too long for clubs planning their seasons
The real brief
The configurator was not the problem. The process was.
02 · Approach
Reframe the brief. Then build the platform.
The project started with a refusal — not of the work, but of the assumption. Before designing anything, the brief was rebuilt around what clubs actually needed to commit to Nike as their official partner.
Take away
Reframing the brief was the design work. Everything else followed.
03 · Outcomes
What the reframe produced.
The platform delivered because the brief was right. Not because the configurator was clever.
+40%
vs previous indirect channel
12 000
first direct B2B digital relationship
15 days
reduced and made visible to clubs
1
holding strategy, UX and delivery end to end
04 · Takeaways
Three things this confirmed.
Accepting the brief as written is a design failure. The most valuable contribution on Nike x FFF was not a screen or a flow. It was the decision to stop and ask whether the brief was solving the right problem.
B2B design fails when it ignores the human on the other side. Club managers are not procurement officers. Designing for their actual context — seasonal planning, volunteer constraints, trust-building — changed every decision downstream.
A single designer holding strategy and execution is not a limitation. It is a governance advantage. No translation loss between insight and interface. Every decision traceable to a real user need.
Closing
The platform was not the deliverable. The relationship was.
Nike x FFF demonstrated that the most impactful design work happens before the first wireframe. Reframing what needed to be built — and for whom — produced a platform that 12 000 clubs adopted because it was designed around their reality, not Nike's catalogue.
