Nike Affiliate Program (How to Apply and Earn More Commission)

Whether you’re a sneakerhead, fitness fanatic, or simply live in athleisure, the Nike affiliate program allows you to earn commission promoting some of the most popular athletic apparel. While they’re quite selective, approved affiliates can earn up to 15% commission on a range of Nike products.

At a high level, here are the important details you should know:

• Commission: Up to 15%*
• Cookie Window: 7 days
• Requirements: Must have an established platform
• Cost to Sign Up: Free
• Payment Frequency: Monthly

How the Nike Affiliate Program Works

Nike’s affiliate program allows people with an online presence to earn commission promoting Nike products. Nike partners with established publishers, including:

• Sports sites
• Fashion, clothing, or shoe sites
• News sites
• Health and fitness sites
• Review sites
• Shopping directories
• Bloggers
• Influencers
• Creators 

It functions like most affiliate programs—you generate referral links and earn a commission when someone makes a qualified purchase via the link.

That said, it’s unclear what Nike considers a qualified purchase. The one requirement they do publish is that sales must come from US customers on Nike’s US website. You won’t earn commission from sales made on non-US Nike websites, including app environments, SNKRS, Nike’s launch site, or “get in line” releases.

Affiliates earn anywhere from 1% to 15% in commission. However, Nike offers commission incentives. The more sales you generate, the higher your commission rates. It’s unclear how high commission rates can climb, or how many sales you need to generate to receive a bump.

🙋‍♀️ Read our review of Adida’s Affiliate Program
🙋‍♂️ Read our review of Lululemon’s Affiliate Program

How to Join the Nike Affiliate Program

Nike manages its affiliate program through CJ Affiliate, the world’s largest and most-established affiliate marketing network. According to their site, they’ve paid publishers over $1.8B per year in commissions.

To join the Nike affiliate program, sign up for CJ Affiliate. You’ll need basic information, like your name, country, and a password.

Once you’re in, complete your profile to activate your account. You’ll need quite a bit of information, including:

• A detailed description of your affiliate promotion methods
• Information on your general business model
• Details regarding how and where you plan to promote the advertisers’ products or services
• Company details, including mailing address, preferred currency, and tax information
• Payment details, like bank account information

Then, complete the application on CJ Affiliate. You can find the application by selecting Partners in the upper navigation, then selecting Find Advertisers. Search for Nike in the left search bar, and their application will appear.

After you’ve submitted the application, it will enter a review period. Nike reviews all applications on an individual basis. While they prioritize quick responses, they receive a large number of submissions, so it may take time to hear back.

If you’re accepted, you’ll gain access to a range of affiliate banners you can use to promote your links. Affiliates also receive exclusive access to Nike’s affiliate newsletter, which provides early notice of offers and new products.

Requirements for Acceptance

Nike judges applications based on:

• Site traffic levels
• Aesthetics
• Content quality
• Audience fit
• Overall alignment with the Nike brand

Unfortunately, they don’t publish specific details regarding what they’re looking for in these categories.

What to Do if You Get Rejected

If your application for the Nike affiliate program gets denied, don’t worry. There are other ways you can earn commission from Nike products.

Other affiliate marketing platforms like ShopMy, LTK, and Amazon Affiliate allow publishers to promote Nike products and earn a commission. On ShopMy, you’ll earn around 10% commission on most Nike products. On Amazon, you’ll earn a flat 4% commission on apparel.

While Nike’s affiliate program itself offers higher commission rates, it’s worthwhile to explore these other avenues if your application gets denied.

How to Make More as a Nike Affiliate

Affiliate marketing is a numbers game—you need pageviews to get conversions, and you need conversions to earn money. The more pageviews you have, the more conversions you’re likely to get.

That said, there are a few strategic methods to garnering more pageviews and strengthening your conversion rate.

Create Buying Guides

Conversions happen when you generate an asset that attracts potential buyers. For example, this asset could be a blog, video, or guide. When it comes to marketing apparel specifically, guides are where it’s at.

Creating a one-stop-shop guide for a specific use case allows buyers to take fewer actions—which they love. The less work someone needs to do to get the result they want, the better.

Here are a few examples of one-stop-shop guides you could create as a Nike affiliate:

1. Sophisticated, Yet Functional Sneakers: A Guide for Men That Want to Level Up Their Style
2. 10 Workout Outfits That’ll Stop Your Gym Crush in Their Tracks
3. The Summer’s Hottest Workout Gear for Women

Within these guides, link to specific Nike products. Show how you’d style the pieces or how you’d put outfits together. For example, if you share the best Nike shoes for men, show what shorts or shirts you’d pair them with. This creates another opportunity to earn commission.

Leverage Social Media

If you aren’t leveraging social media to drive traffic to your site, you’re missing out. According to HubSpot, 16% of website traffic comes from social media.

Plus, with the advent of DM automation software like ManyChat, you can easily automate sending social media traffic directly to your site. For example, let’s say you create a guide around men’s shoes, linking out with your Nike referral links.

Create an Instagram Reel showing two to three of the products and how you’d style them. In the caption, tell viewers to comment “guide” if they’d like free access to your men’s shoe guide. With a ManyChat automation set up in the background, everyone who comments “guide” will receive a direct message with a link to the guide.

From there, they can open the guide, click the affiliate links, and make their purchase. You’ll receive more site traffic, earn commission, and build a community on social media.

While you can’t leverage ManyChat on Pinterest, it’s worth exploring this platform as well. You can create static Pins—ones that don’t require a video, just a flat image. These Pins link directly to the product, or to a guide, making it quick and easy for viewers to find what they’re looking for.

To make sure your posts perform on Pinterest, explore trending keywords on the platform. At the time of writing, here are a few trending keywords you could use:

• Workout outfits
• Gym outfit ideas
• Sneakers mens fashion
• Mens outfits

Stay on Top of Promotions

According to research from Capital One Shopping, 35% of shoppers buy more than they normally would when there’s a discount available, and 64% said discounts make them buy faster.

How does this translate to what you do as an affiliate marketer? Know when sales are coming and strike while the iron is hot. As soon as Nike begins a sale, create content notifying your audience of the promotion.

As a Nike affiliate, you’ll receive their exclusive newsletter, which contains early notice of sales. This gives you time to plan how to promote the discounts before they expire.

Frequently Asked Questions