Nike+ Kinect Training

At the Nike campus, athletes like LeBron James use cutting-edge facilities and training techniques to understand their capabilities and push their game higher. Our challenge was to bring this same training innovation to everyone, by putting a Nike certified personal trainer into every home.

Nike believes that if you have a body, you are an athlete. Our objective was to give everyone access to their own personal trainer, creating a new service for Nike and a new relationship between brand and consumer.

Nike+ Kinect Training empowers the ‘everyday athlete’ towards optimal fitness, health and longevity.

We began by merging Nike’s knowledge of training and motivation and Microsoft’s Kinect tracking technology.

Next we conducted global consumer research to better understand the barriers and accelerators to getting fit. Guidance and motivation were identified as the key factors to staying committed.

Accuracy is key to Nike delivering personalized programs and guidance for their athletes. To achieve this in the home, Kinect was customised specifically for Nike+ Kinect Training, refining the technology so movement could be traced to the millimetre. The fitness assessment was built by SPARQ, Nike’s elite training division. This assessment analyses your entire body to create your 4 week program.

Nike+ Kinect Training is the only fitness title to give you a fully personalized program. It continues to adapt intelligently as you progress. The personal trainers are based on actual Nike trainers, Alex and Marie. We recreated their training styles so you’ll get the same techniques they use to train the world’s greatest athletes. They will adapt your sessions based on your previous performances and correct your form with more accuracy than a real personal trainer.

Nike+ Kinect Training was announced at E3, the world’s leading expo of future interactive entertainment, and reached millions more via the live broadcast on Spike TV.

A targeted cinema trailer followed, helping build momentum. Leveraging Xbox Live, we gave consumers their first opportunity to trial the experience. Live demo events in key cities were then hosted by the title’s actual personal trainers, Alex and Marie.

Our integrated marketing campaign showed via TV, retail, social and other digital channels how the product has become the cornerstone of pro athlete’s workouts.

Following two and a half years of design and development, Nike+ Kinect Training became the #1 selling Kinect title of holiday 2012.

On Amazon it maintains a rating of 4½ stars. Consumer reviews included quotes such as “I bought this game and cancelled my gym membership.”

“More immersive than any other fitness game.” ESPN
“Nike+ Kinect Training is as good as a real trainer and costs less than 1hr’s lesson.” Chris Anderson, Former Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine
“Keeping fit has never been this cool or addictive.” Men’s Health
“The best exercise game yet.” Fast Company

The training had to be truly authentic, so we built custom tools in order to create our workout content. To bring premium Nike training facilities to life, we modified the CryENGINE 3 game engine. To enable best-in-class motion sensing, we rebuilt Kinect’s vision libraries to enhance the performance of the camera.

Utilising these enhancements and Nike’s training philosophies, every user receives a unique workout program with real-time corrective feedback, whenever they train.