NBA players often credit their time on public courts for giving them their start in the game. But those are often high-pressure spaces dominated by male players, reserved for their team play. DICK’S Sporting Goods and Nike decided to reimagine community courts as a shared, safe space for young female hoopers—giving girls THEIR shot to gain skills as players and confidence as young women.
They embraced a cause: creating space for girls to make bold plays on the courts of basketball and life.
The result was the original, LA-based It’s Her Shot: a Venice street-court takeover designed for girls who love to ball. We empowered girls authentically with shooting contests, open court play, giveaways, grants to community groups, chances to create content with fellow hoopers, plus meet-and-greets with WNBA greats Lisa Leslie and Seimone Augusts. We spread awareness of girls’ need for safe spaces to play while establishing a lasting presence in local communities to ensure they get it.
The original It’s Her Shot saw wild success, but DICK’S Sporting Goods and Nike weren’t sitting on any laurels. Their passion for their cause only expanded, and so did our aspirations in 2022:
Build wider hype for girls’ basketball
Travel to new destinations to reach more girls
Create more opportunities for girls to play their way
Connect with them more deeply by engaging them across the social platforms they love
Keep more girls from dropping out of sports programs
It’s Her Shot was created for girls ages 8-18 who love basketball and are excited to expand their skills and share their passion for the game. Our #1 priority: to inspire every girl to take her shot and make the experience her own.
It’s Her Shot evolved into a traveling series that took over basketball courts across six cities (LA, New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Washington, DC, and Dallas), ensuring girls across the country had a chance to show off their love of the game. Awareness-building started on TikTok and other social platforms, where we met girls in their favorite online spaces. Female basketball influencers like Brittney Elena, Briana Green and Malika Andrews announced unique TikTok challenges, urging girls to start taking shots:
- Dribble Challenge: Girls learned a series of moves choreographed by the Harlem Globetrotters to perform, honing ball-handling skills (The custom music featured the song “The Assignment” (a basketball anthem) and integrated game sounds like squeaking sneakers, game whistles and countdown clocks).
- “I Play For...”: Girls wrote down why they ball, then crumpled the paper and made a shot
- Trick Shot Challenge: Girls demonstrated their most impressive custom shots
Hype grew everywhere. We provided promo messages/tools to local youth teams and rec centers and boosted our reach online through the registration website and in stores.
Every detail of It’s Her Shot was about authentic empowerment—making girls feel celebrated and included through basketball. Girls arrived at the event to find nine WNBA athletes, local coaches led by the great San Dixon, fellow players waiting to run drills and play pickup games and DJ Aye Jaye spinning (then only 11 years old). These role models helped every girl see: “This is your court, too.” They made the experience their own at a hair-braiding bar, photo and video booths and Instagram-ready installations.
At a customization station, girls created personal t-shirts featuring their names and their city’s custom colors. We amplified our full-court takeovers with inspirational murals, chalk art statements by local female artists, and on-court plus-ups like center-court graphics and field boards to make everyone feel like an all-star. Even parents had fun hanging out in a Membership Lounge where they could claim exclusive DICK’S Sporting Goods/Nike rewards by connecting their ScoreCard accounts.
We partnered with Hoopbus—a custom 40’ yellow school bus that builds community through basketball. Hoopbus became the perfect photo-op and inclusive gathering place for players, coaches and families, with activities designed to build a community specifically for girls.
Booths captured confidence-building moments in each market:
- LA/Chicago: Dunk video booth so girls could dunk boldly
- Minnesota: Photo booth generated custom player cards
- NYC: Platform with spinning camera created a 360-degree video, perfect for showing off skills
- DC/Dallas: Special backdrop and basketball props created custom, empowering GIFs
The girls received advice and inspiration, and yes, some awesome Nike swag as well. They took their shots—and walked away with utterly shareable images, moments and experiences.
Every undeniably fun, memorable, shareable experience from these events spread authentic empowerment and real-world impacts far beyond the court. Every girl who attended claimed her space, played her way and left feeling celebrated. Earned media and social amplification meant tons more people felt her joy—clearly sending the message DICK’S Sporting Goods and Nike wanted to send: It’s Her Shot.
LIVE STATS:
The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation donated $120,000 in community grants through their Sports Matter program to youth sports organizations for girls’ basketball programs.
1,768 girls participated, including 176 walk-ups who felt safe enough to step up and participate.
45 community organizations joined the cause (and spread the impact).
15 onsite talents and influencers kept the experience both aspirational and relatable.
9 WNBA athletes inspired every girl.
SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT:
- 14 MILLION earned media impressions
- 8 MILLION organic impressions using the #ItsHerShot hashtag
- 1.4 MILLION social views
ACTIVATION METRICS:
- 1,413 custom T-shirts distributed
- 988 photos taken
- 515 connected engagements in the parents’ Membership Lounge
- 283 braid bar sessions
- 75 footwear trials of the all-new Air DelDon
SENTIMENT:
It’s Her Shot touched and motivated attendees deeply—just like DICK’S Sporting Goods, and Nike intended—as our (wow-inducing) post-event survey results show:
- 99% of girls surveyed said they would attend It’s Her Shot again
- 98% said the experience inspired them to keep playing basketball
Two words: slam dunk.
