The Devil may wear Prada but the Pope wears Nike.
Nike’s most unexpected brand ambassador wears a cassock
A trailer released by Vatican News for Leone a Roma — a documentary marking the first anniversary of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate — has gone viral for a reason its makers almost certainly didn’t anticipate.
In a brief clip from the two-minute video, the Pope is seen wearing a pair of box-fresh white Nike sneakers, the black Swoosh clearly visible beneath his official vestments.
The shoe has since been identified by sneaker enthusiasts online as the Nike Franchise Low — a tennis-derived model first released in the 1970s — distinguishable by its distinctive split cupsole on the inner arch.
Leo, born Robert Prevost in Chicago, has form as a sports fan: he’s a documented White Sox supporter and a city native who came of age during the Jordan-era Bulls.
The Nike loyalty, in that context, feels less surprising than it perhaps should.
The documentary itself retraces the nearly two decades Leo spent in Rome before his election, and is the third Vatican Media film dedicated to the Pope, following León de Perú and Leo from Chicago.
Nike has long understood the power of grabbing attention.
This time, it didn’t have to do a thing.
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