Nike’s Mission Statement is “To bring innovation and inspiration to every athlete in the world“.

I have always liked this statement (for completeness, the statement goes on saying “if you have a body, you are an athlete”) and I like that Nike actually does it.

They bring inspiration by sponsoring amazing athletes in every sport and funding sporting activities throughout the world. They bring innovation with their products. And make billions while doing so.

Nike has been playing in the digital world for a while

Innovation is not only about the products, but increasingly about the digital and social aspects of sports. First through Nike+ then with the Fuelband (passing by several partnerships with Apple and Microsoft’s Xbox), Nike is really trying to create a community that interacts in the digital world through the physical activities they do in the real world.

In a similar way to Microsoft accelerating promising Start-Ups using the Kinect technology in unsual, innovative ways, Nike in collaboration with Techstars has selected 10 Start-Ups which “drive digital sport innovation“.

Those ten Start-Ups have just been selected and announced. The Nike+ Accelerator companies begin a three-month immersive journey today in Portland, Ore., and will spend their time in the program developing and evolving products and services that leverage the Nike+ platform and NikeFuel to inspire everyday athletes. The ideas span a broad range of activity and health sectors including training, coaching, gaming, sport, wellness and rewards.

Hundreds of companies applied for this Accelerator program, most of which wanted to build on the Nike+ platform.

The selected companies

The 10 companies selected to participate in the Nike+ Accelerator program are:

• FitDeck: Digital decks of exercise playing cards that deliver ever-changing workouts for fitness and sports.
• GoRecess: Helps users find, book and review fitness activities.
• Chroma.io: An indie game studio that creates virtual worlds tied to real-world activity.
• CoachBase: Provides a digital sports coaching platform.
• GoFitCause: Leverages fitness data as a means of raising money for charities.
• HighFive: Ad network for health and fitness apps that helps people achieve their goals by rewarding them along their journey.
• Sprout At Work: Provider of corporate wellness solutions leveraging social and gamification tools to inspire employees and empower employers.
• GeoPalz: An interactive gaming and rewards platform for kids and families.
• Incomparable Things: Creates activity-driven fantasy sports leagues.
• RecBob: Offers a platform that makes recreational sports easy by organizing play.

Mentoring and Funding

As part of the Nike+ Accelerator experience, each company will receive $20,000 in funding, plus connections and mentorship by leaders across Nike and the tech industry including:

• Stefan Olander, Nike’s Vice President of Digital Sport;
• David Cohen, founder and CEO of TechStars;
• Naveen Selvadurai, co-founder of Foursquare;
• Katia Beauchamp, co-founder of Birchbox;
• Tim Chang, Managing Director of Mayfield Fund;
• and quantified-self guru Tim Ferriss.

Nike+ Accelerator mentors are listed at the Nike+ Accelerator website.

The three months will culminate in mid-June with the opportunity to pitch angel investors, venture capitalists, influential industry leaders and Nike executives during Investor Demo Days, including a day at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., and a day in California’s Silicon Valley.