With this year's pleasant weather increasingly in the rearview, Nike has tapped comic talents Amanda Conner (Power Girl) and Jan Duursema (Star Wars) to illustrate the benefits of its Women's Training Holiday 2011 collection. The overall message of the line's associated "Make Yourself: a superpower" campaign is to empower women to work out in seemingly element-impervious Nike products even when conditions aren't optimal. Conner has illustrated "Everyday Champions" who conquer bad weather in Nike gear, while Duursema's "Force of Nature" approach portrays wearers in a more literally superheroic light. Nike pops its logo into comics from time to time, but commissioning original art from Conner and Duursema seems considerably cooler than rocking traditional product placement. Check out a selection of their artwork after the jump.

From Nike:

To illustrate the charac- teristics of the collection, Nike collaborated with two of the world's most respected female comic artists, Jan Duursema and Amanda Conner. To- gether they captured the epic aspects of the new Nike Women's Training Holiday 2011 collection and the various scenarios where with its help you can overcome almost any obstacle. Nike has a long tradition of working with artists who share the same obsessive dedication to innovation, craftsmanship, and looking to culture as a means to inspire through sport. Jan and Amanda's works, like Nike Women's Training apparel and footwear, have been crafted down to the smallest detail and the finest line. Creating comic art is a long process from pencil to final color, and Jan and Amanda tirelessly labor over every aspect in bringing not just a char- acter but also an entire world to the page.

I'm not a lady, but seeing these ads makes me feel pretty lazy. Maybe it's just because I've trained my brain to pay attention to illustrations, but Conner and Duursema's work feels far more convincing to me than regular photos typically do. If Nike made dog-sized training gear, I'd be taking my pug out for a rainy run right now. As it stands, I confess I'll probably just spend my afternoon "jogging" to the nearest bar with wifi.

Check out Conner and Duursema's work below:

Amanda Conner



Jan Duursema


[Via Nike, Robot6]