Nike is donating sneakers and other items to healthcare workers

Our frontline healthcare workers are tirelessly returning to hospitals every day to save lives, and people have been saying thank you in all kinds of ways, from beautiful personal gestures to free cups of coffee.

Now, Nike has announced how they’re thanking these hard-working professionals. The company is donating 32,500 pairs of shoes they designed just for healthcare workers, along with approximately 95,000 pairs of compression socks, to hospitals.

Nike will team up with nonprofit group Good360 for the initiative, which will deliver the gear to hospitals in the U.S. and several countries in western Europe.

The Air Zoom Pulse shoes Nike is donating are no-slip sneakers that were designed specifically for medical workers last year. Why would an athletic company make a healthcare shoe? Nike considers healthcare providers athletes, too. They cite a nurse’s typical busy shift — typically a 12-hour day of walking 4 to 5 miles with less than an hour of sitting — as the rationale for the special design.

We have to agree, that sounds like a workout!

In addition to the socks and shoes, Nike has already donated thousands of other items to hospitals and shelters, including 1,100 sportswear kits that contained water bottles and hats or headbands, as well as their Dri-Fit tees and other quick-drying clothing.

So far, Nike has committed more than $25 million in funds and equipment towards its COVID-19 response initiative. The company is also developing prototype face shields for doctors and nurses.

“Companies like Nike need to do our part,” Nike CEO John Donahoe told investors in a quarterly earnings call. “Based on needs identified by the teams and health professionals at Oregon Health & Science University, our teammates are working right now about how to best help, including prototyping face shields of OHSU and others.”

Kudos to Nike and other companies for stepping up to help in any way they can!