Nike Now Making Period-Proof Workout Clothes
Nike Leak Protection marks a major company's first foray into period-proof clothing and is designed specifically with female athletes in mind.
Period-proof clothing has been on the scene for a while now, with specialty companies coming out with everything from period underwear to shorts designed especially for periods. It’s an era of transparency for women who, for years, have suffered period pain and discomfort in silence, with few products designed with periods in mind. These new garments are designed to increase the comfort and ease for the wearer, as well as to provide an eco-friendly alternative to pads or tampons, much like the popular diva cup. Nike will now be the first big, worldwide company to start selling period-proof clothing, making a big splash in a relatively small sector.
According to Business Insider, Nike’s new product line, announced on Thursday, is called Nike Leak Protection: Period and, with almost $50 billion to their name, Nike definitely has the money to make period-proof clothing more accessible and popular than it’s ever been. The new product, a small absorbent liner designed to absorb period leaks, is the first move a major company has made to design functional clothing around periods. For female athletes, menstruation can cause not only pain but also anxiety over potential leaks and bleed-throughs, which can affect their performance when engaging in sports or physical activity.
The new product is set to debut in April, in the silhouette of the Nike One Short with a built-in brief. Athletes are also planning on wearing the product, as needed, on soccer fields during the Women’s World Cup, a huge, worldwide stage for Nike to broadcast the effectiveness—and necessity—of its newest product. The Leak Protection product will be part of the Nike Pro Short for the players at the Women’s World Cup, a layer frequently worn under uniforms on Nike-sponsored teams. Many athletes are thrilled that there is finally a product designed to stop leakage during athletic activities and events, when typical sanitary products, like pads and tampons, may not provide adequate coverage.
Though some other popular companies, like Thinx, have jumped on the bandwagon of period-proof products in recent years, Nike’s global ubiquity and the fact that it has funds to perform expensive testing may push Nike into the top spot when it comes to period-proof clothing. Unlike some other period-proof products, though, Nikes Leak Protect isn’t meant to replace other methods of period protection, but rather to ensure that they work. Wearers will still need to use pads, cups, or tampons, but will be able to rest easy knowing that Nike Leak Protection will make sure no accidents occur.
Nike’s two-layer, laminated material, which absorbs and even wicks blood, is intended to prevent leaks, not to replace sanitary products as a whole. This is no small concern, though, for most female athletes, especially teenagers, who often have a lot of anxiety over the risk of bleed-throughs and leaks. Nike has attempted to grow its women’s clothing brand for years, but it’s progress has often lagged behind the company’s overall growth; Nike is hoping to remedy that with products like Leak Protection: Period, designed specifically to meet the needs of women.
