‘The Devil may wear Prada but the Pope wears Nike’

No, that’s not a slogan for Nike.  Not yet, anyway.  Rather, it’s the headline for a report on a website that tracks brands and campaigns, and which took note of the Pope’s sneakers, as seen in the trailer of a forthcoming documentary.

To quote from the report:

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.

As for what may have led to the Pope’s choice, the report had this to say:

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.