Nike, the world’s most popular shoe company and a company synonomous with peak athleticism, has officially joined the gym equipment world with Nike Strength.
Despite being in the fitness industry for decades through clothing and shoes – notably the Nike Metcon and Romaleos Olympic weightlifting shoe, this is Nike’s first foray into the hard goods side of fitness. Nike’s first line of gym equipment included staples like a barbell and plates, dumbbells, kettlebells, squat racks, and a weight bench.
The Nike Strength website has a lot of star power behind it due to Nike’s endorsement of high-profile athletes. Lebron, Russell Wilson, Christine Sinclair and Janine Beckie are some of the highlighted “Championship Athletes” that are lending their name to supporting the new line.
Time will tell us how good the Nike Strength equipment actually is, but the product descriptions and images are promising. Not that we would expect anything less from Nike.
The bottom line is that Nike is clearly making a big push into the home gym and CrossFit world with their new Nike Strength line, and I’m stoked to see how the project unfolds over the coming years.
Nike Strength Equipment
Nike Barbell
The Nike Premium Barbell comes in 20kg and 15kg options, along with black, red or orange colourways. The knurling is described as medium, and the 8 needle bearings in the sleeve suggest that this bar could be a solid multi-purpose and weightlifting/CrossFit bar. This is likely a competitor to the Rogue Ohio Bar.
Nike Bumper Plates
Nike has a grey speckled and black bumper plates available, but only in 10-45 lbs options. (It’s odd that the bar is listed in kg, but the plates are in pounds. Some weird math is going to be happening). With a claimed precision to +/- 1%, these could be solid training bumpers.
Nike Squat Racks
The Nike squat and power racks look legit. They’re made from 11-gauge, 3” x 3” uprights with 5/8” hole sizing. This puts in on par with Rogue’s Monster Lite rack series – which is a great line up for home gyms. The price range (power rack/squat cage: $950 USD; squat rack: $750 USD) is also very comparable to the Rogue Monster Lite series.
The racks have all of the weight capacity that you could ever need. All racks come with basic looking J-cups and the squat stands have built in plate storage.
Read More: Squat rack steel gauge explained + safety considerations
Dumbbells and Kettlebells
The Nike dumbbells range from 5-100 lbs, with 2.5 lb increments up to 25 lbs, and then 5 lbs after that. A neat feature is that there’s an “ergonomic handle” on the dumbbell shaft up to 65 lbs, and then it moves to a straight handle afterwards. They look like solid dumbbells, with the patented swoosh logo on one of the hex faces. Nike also has a rack available for purchase.
The kettlebells are powder-coated cast iron and have painted rings on the kettlebell horn to differentiate weight. The kettlebells come in weights ranging from 9-88 lbs and are sold individually.
Weight Benches
The Nike Rolling, and Flat Weight Benches are fairly light weight (56 lbs) but have huge weight capacities.
The images (see below) suggest the pad isn’t super high quality – more of a mid-range thickness, but probably sufficient for most in the home gym space.
The rolling bench is unique in its single column foot, while the non-rolling version has the standard feet set up you would find on most weight benches.
Final Thoughts on the Nike Strength Announcement
At the end of the day, more competition in the gym equipment space is good for everyone. Nike’s deep pockets should lead to great research and innovation as they release more equipment. This could lead to more affordable equipment down the line, and hopefully will push other manufacturers to up their game.
Hopefully, this leads to better equipment for us – the consumers and home gym users.