They say it takes a lifetime to become an overnight success.

What It Took is an original series we created for the Nike App where athletes share the stories behind their success.

The series was created in the heat of quarantine. Everything was remotely captured. To pull it off, we leaned into the self-capture reality of our world—making our athletes “directors” of their own episode.

As a bonus, we also surprise FaceTimed high schoolers who are following in their footsteps.

Check out a few of our favorite episodes. (And see how the series evolved from the early days of quarantine.)

Featuring: Shaquem Griffin, Mal Pugh, Andrew McCutchen, Bianca Andreescu, Diamond DeShields, Arike Ogunbowale & Darius Garland.


Directed by: Chas Todd