For the First Time Ever, Nike Put Its Name on Food. The Company It Chose Has Fueled 106 Olympic Medals.

On September 15, 2026, Science in Sport was named the Official Performance Fuel and Hydration Partner of the Nike After Dark Tour.

It is the first time in the sportswear giant's history that Nike has ever created a co-branded nutrition range with a performance nutrition partner.

Over 55,000 runners across seven night-running events worldwide will use it this year.

Every participant receives a race-specific SiS x Nike Race Pack covering hydration, energy, and recovery.

A limited version of the range went on public sale in the UK, US, and Australia on September 4.

What the Nike After Dark Tour Actually Is

The Nike After Dark Tour is a series of seven night-time running experiences held in some of the biggest cities in the world.

The 2026 calendar has already run through Shanghai (April 25) and is now heading into its dense autumn stretch.

The Full 2026 Schedule

Sydney Half Marathon, September 27, 2026

Mexico City Half Marathon, October 3, 2026

London 10K, October 17, 2026

Los Angeles Half Marathon, October 24, 2026

Manila 10K, November 21, 2026

Mumbai 10K, December 12, 2026

Six major cities across three continents in eleven weeks. That is Nike scale.

Why This Is Actually a Big Deal

Nike has partnered with plenty of brands over the decades, including Apple, Off-White, and Louis Vuitton.

But the company has never put its name on a nutrition product before, and it has certainly never co-branded one with a third-party partner.

This is the first.

Which raises the question: why Science in Sport?

The Credential Layer Behind SiS

Science in Sport is not a household name outside the endurance world. Inside it, the company is unavoidable.

Founded in 1992, SiS created the world's first isotonic energy gel, which is now the standard fueling category for endurance athletes globally.

The company currently fuels more than 350 professional teams and organizations, including the entire English Premier League, most Major League Soccer teams, and a number of NFL and NBA franchises.

At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, SiS-fueled athletes won 106 medals.

If SiS were a country, it would have finished second on the medal table.

The Range Itself

Every runner at every event in the tour receives a co-branded Race Pack.

The pack covers the full prepare, perform, recover cycle with products calibrated for the specific race distance.

The centerpiece is a pair of new recovery formulations.

Run Recovery Clear and Run Recovery Endurance

The clear version contains 25 g of carbohydrate, 20 g of clear whey protein, and 5 g of collagen.

The endurance version steps that up to 40 g of dual-source carbohydrate, 20 g of clear whey protein, and 5 g of collagen.

Both formulations include vitamin C, sodium, zinc, vitamins D3 and K2, calcium, folate, iodine, curcumin, pomegranate extract, and a B-vitamin complex.

This is closer to what elite endurance athletes actually use than what most recreational recovery drinks deliver.

It is a step change for the recovery drink category most runners are familiar with.

Media from Science in Sport - SiS

The Female Nutrition Piece Nobody Should Skip Past

Buried in the press release is a detail that runners have been asking for openly for years.

The range includes bespoke recovery products developed with female nutrition in mind.

This is not marketing gloss.

SiS's product design draws on a 2022 study by Langan-Evans et al. that documented how sport nutrition science has systematically under-served female athletes for decades.

The research aligns with the direction figures like Dr. Stacy Sims have been advocating for years.

A co-branded Nike product acknowledging that female runners have different nutrition needs is a small commercial event with a larger cultural signal.

The Quote That Explains the Real Strategy

Dan Lampard, Chief Commercial and Operating Officer at Science in Sport, framed the deal in a specific way.

"What makes this partnership different is that we've started with the runner, not the product," Lampard said.

"Together with Nike, we've created a complete fuelling system around what runners need to prepare, perform and recover at their best."

The wording is deliberate.

Most co-branded product ranges start with a product line and market it to whoever will buy. This one built the fueling system first, then wrapped a Nike-branded event experience around it.

What Runners Actually Get on Race Day

The Race Pack model changes the participant experience in a specific way.

Instead of runners assembling their own hydration, carb, and electrolyte strategy from scattered products, they arrive with a pre-built system matched to their event distance.

For a first-time 10K or half marathon runner, that alone removes a significant source of race-day anxiety.

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What This Means for the Wider Running Market

Nike does not do these deals casually.

Co-branding is an admission that a partner brings something the company itself cannot supply in-house.

For Nike to acknowledge that SiS has fueling and hydration credibility Nike does not have is a genuine market moment.

The signal to other performance brands is clear.

The recreational endurance market is now large enough, and demanding enough, that credible science-led nutrition is a competitive edge worth paying for.

Expect Copycat Deals Within Twelve Months

Other major run brands will notice.

Adidas, ASICS, Hoka, and On all run event series with mass participation. All of them have hydration and gel provision that is functional but not particularly differentiated.

Expect at least one of them to announce a similar performance nutrition partnership before this time next year.

The Nike-SiS deal has set the template.

Where to See It in Action First

The next event on the tour is the Sydney Half Marathon on September 27, 2026.

Runners registered for it will be among the first to receive a co-branded Race Pack in the wild.

Full details of the range and the tour are on the official Science in Sport x Nike microsite, and the original press release ran on PR Newswire.

For everyone else, the limited public range is already in shops in the UK, US, and Australia.

If it works, this will not be the last time Nike partners with a performance nutrition brand.

For now, this is the one to watch.