Day Fifteen – Nike and Samba Show

Raul from Be a Local met us in the hotel lobby to lead us to the Nike store.  Today, we would experience the Metro!  It ended up working better than I expected, we even just “missed” the timeslot of the all-women’s train (6-9a) by getting on the train at 9:03a.  It’s clear that the Metro isn’t as built up in Rio as it is in like, Boston, as we had a long walk from where we disembarked to the Nike Store. 

We started at the Nike store that mainly focused on runners.  We were led up to the third floor conference room where we received a presentation showing us the past FY and the 3-year (through FY 2018) plan for Nike in Rio.  The idea of Glo-cal, which Nike is using to combine Global and Local together seems to really be working for the thirty year old brand.  After the presentation, we were taxied over to the main Football store for Nike, in Ipanema.  There we were able to try on soccer boots and test them out on the third floor turf and see how Nike ID works.  Our Nike ambassador, Hector, spoke perfect English, and we learned that he was an exchange student in Maine at Oswego Lake a few years ago!  Fortunately, when we were done at the Nike store, we learned that we were just 5 blocks from our hotel, so we were able to walk back to the hotel.

 

While the rest of the crew spent their afternoon on the beach, I laid low in the hotel room with some stomach distress.  It was the first time my stomach was upset over the trip, so I consider that a success!  That evening, though, I was prepared and ready for our 7pm pickup for the Samba show.  We were taken to a venue where we were served dinner on the first floor and then went up to the second floor for the show, at 10p.  The show was less Samba and more Brazilian dance-esque.  The boys were in their element with all of the thongs being shown by the women!  It was fun, though, and they did a great job with all of the costume changes.

 

We got home relatively late, so we called it a night and went straight to bed.