Poor Nike. After hitching its wagon to 1998 Tour of Luxembourg winner Lance Armstrong at the turn of the century, the sports titan was burnt badly enough that it largely stepped away from the sport of cycling altogether. Sure, there were a few personal sponsorships (we’re looking at you, Sir Mark Cavendish) but even those record-breaking shoes were probably just rebranded DMTs. Road cycling was, in the eye of Nike’s multi-billion-dollar calculations, a lost cause – which probably says as much for the relative size of the sport (small) and the potential for collateral reputational damage (big) as it does for Nike’s own interest in bikes themselves.
So, when the biggest* sportswear brand in the world (*its global sales in 2023 were more than double that of second-placed Adidas, totalling more than US$51 billion) decides to dip its toe back in cycling’s waters, that’s a big deal – not just for the team and athletes that will be wearing its products, but for the broader health of the sport: where Nike goes, others follow.
The announcement, coming through overnight, is that the women’s WorldTour team FDJ-Suez will be sponsored by Nike as the team’s “official lifestyle apparel supplier” from the 2025 season onward. That means tracksuits, t-shirts, sneakers – pretty much everything off the bike.
The nucleus of it all is, almost certainly, Demi Vollering. The Dutch star signed a personal sponsorship deal with Nike in April 2024, making her one of the few cyclists to have an individual connection with the brand. And with FDJ-Suez now following suit, the French team she now rides for is the only pro cycling team – in either the men’s or women’s pelotons – with a direct link to Nike.
Vollering’s marketability and popularity with fans have proven to be a huge asset to FDJ-Suez since her signing was announced: the team will be riding Specialized bikes and equipment for 2025, as it looks to take a further step up after its successful 2024 season, in which it picked up 13 victories (six of those by the now-retired Australian Grace Brown). And although Brown and the charismatic Dane Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig have left FDJ-Suez for 2025, the team has been on an aggressive recruitment drive, bringing in French champ Juliette Labous, Elise Chabbey, and Ally Wollaston, in addition to the team’s new crown jewel, Vollering.
The Dutchwoman’s 2024 season might be best remembered for her gutsy four-second loss at the Tour de France Femmes, but that does a disservice: between April and June, she won four consecutive stage races: the Vuelta a Espana, Itzulia, Vuelta a Burgos, and Tour de Suisse (and eight stages across them).
For Nike and FDJ-Suez’s 2025 partnership, there are few concrete details other than a social media post and a press release, but there are at least some fun vibes between the two. “Tomorrow Is Decided Today,” reads a team Instagram post, in which riders cheerfully pose with their new shoes and tracksuit jackets and those aggressively ugly 1990s-inspired sneakers that everyone’s so into at the moment.
As for words from the team, Stephen Delcourt – FDJ-Suez’s general manager – says that “collaborating with such an iconic brand will strengthen our identity while bringing a fresh dimension to our project,” and that the team looks forward to “enhancing our … image both on and off the competition stage.”
All of that is great for FDJ-Suez, of course: more money into the sport, supporting one of its more aggressive and entertaining teams. But there’s a tantalising bigger picture – a giant of the sports marketing world returning to cycling after an extended hiatus, and a recognition of the booming appeal of women’s cycling, spearheaded by one of its most appealing athletes.
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