- Nike and Paris-based designer Courtney MC, the former Givenchy Design Director for Print turned independent artist, engineered a custom sci-fi goddess look exclusively for Aya Nakamura as part of her ongoing 2026 tour.
- The collaboration builds on Nike's broader Aya Nakamura activation around her sold-out three-night Stade de France run (May 29–31), which also included official backstage outfits co-designed with Nakamura's own label, Nakamura Industrie, and Parisian creative studio Baara.
- This marks Nike's first known direct custom artist look project with Aya Nakamura, deepening what is becoming a substantial partnership between the French-Malian superstar and the Swoosh.
Nike has teamed up with independent designer and former Givenchy creative Courtney MC to build a fully custom tour look for Aya Nakamura, framing the French-Malian superstar as a sci-fi goddess for her 2026 run.
The activation is tied to Nakamura’s landmark Stade de France residency, where Nike partnered with the artist’s own label, Nakamura Industrie, and Parisian creative collective Baara to design official backstage outfits for the three-date run.
The Courtney MC custom look goes a step further, a bespoke piece built around Nakamura as the visual centerpiece, not just the event’s technical crew.
Courtney MC, whose full name is Courtney McWilliams, spent a decade at Givenchy under Riccardo Tisci and Clare Waight Keller as Design Director for Print before departing in 2019 to pursue independent creative work.
She has since built a reputation for sculptural, high-craft garments, with previous work touching artists including Travis Scott, who wore a reconstructed Motocore jacket designed by Courtney MC in a music video alongside Playboi Carti.
Nakamura’s stylist Ayoub Agourram took cues from “futuristic universes, the aesthetic of science-fiction heroines and sculptural silhouettes of the 2000s” for the star’s 2026 stage looks, a vision the Nike x Courtney MC collaboration clearly aligns with.
For Nakamura, this adds another brand layer to an already active partnership year with Nike. It also extends her endorsement activity beyond beauty, where she has been a Lancôme global ambassador since 2023, most recently fronting Lancôme’s Juicy Tubes revival campaign for the brand.
Nakamura released her fifth studio album, Destinée, in November 2025 via Warner Music France, and her Stade de France concerts represent her biggest headline run in France to date.
Nike, whose roster of entertainment and fashion collaborators has included Travis Scott whose Cactus Jack “Pink Pack” drop with Nike sold out almost instantly in May 2026, has been expanding its music and culture play aggressively.
The brand has also recently partnered with Jacquemus for the 2026 FIFA World Cup France collection, and Virgil van Dijk, Sam Kerr, and Hwang Hee-chan have fronted a Nike Vision Football campaign as the brand intensifies its cultural push in 2026.
Takeaways
Nike pairing with Courtney MC, not an in-house design team, to create a custom look for Aya Nakamura says something deliberate. It is Nike signaling that its relationship with Nakamura is not just a merch activation, but a genuine creative partnership worth elevating with independent artistic talent.
Courtney MC’s background in luxury fashion and her credibility in the Paris art and music scene makes her a savvy, culturally specific choice. This is exactly the kind of subtle storytelling that turns a sponsorship into a statement.
What’s interesting here is that Nakamura didn’t arrive at Nike through sports. She arrived through culture, and Nike has clearly leaned into that, building from backstage outfits to bespoke stage looks in a matter of weeks. That’s a fast creative escalation, and it suggests a longer-term ambition on both sides.
Does the Courtney MC collaboration hint that Nike is building toward a full Aya Nakamura signature line, not just event-specific activations? Could this be the beginning of Nike’s serious push into Francophone African pop culture, using Nakamura as its entry point?
