This is the technical-specification package I authored and maintained for nike.com — the single source of truth that let Nike's global network of creative agencies and development vendors build brand sites on a consistent, stable, secure foundation. It shipped as a branded CD-ROM (pictured), and — as with everything at Nike — the craft went right down to the disc art.
What was in the suite
Overview
- Tech Specs :: Overview — the entry point and guidelines for building on nike.com
Creative standards
- Regional Style Guide
- Locator Bar
- Pop-up Windows
Technical standards
- Brand API
- Database Code Specs
- Programming Standards
- Documentation Index
- Browser Detection
- QA Specs
- rsync (deployment) User Guide
- Bastion Host — secure deployment access
Why it mattered. Dozens of external agencies and internal teams built on nike.com. This suite is how one person kept that ecosystem consistent, on-brand, performant, and secure — the same governance-and-enablement instinct that later scaled to a 375-property university platform and, today, to AI adoption. (A working example of "translate the complex into something everyone can build on.")
Archive page. The original suite was an image-mapped HTML index linking to detailed PDF specifications (overview, style guide, brand API, programming standards, QA, deployment, and more). Full PDFs available on request.