
...That includes hiring a tatoo artist. No joke!
Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that while it’s best known for mega-endorsers like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, Nike CEO Mark Parker also sees a role for Mr. Cartoon, a Los Angeles tattoo artist whose ink-on-flesh flourishes are popular with rappers like Eminem and 50 Cent.
Mr. Cartoon–who Parker calls an “aesthetic influence and a friend”– has designed six lines of limited-edition shoes for Nike (including the one shown here), ranging in price from $70 to $130. They include a version of the company’s classic Air Force One basketball shoe that nods to what Mr. Cartoon calls the “old icons of the gangsters”: skulls and roses, dark tenements and “sexy, female clowns.”

The drive to recruit under-the-radar influencers (the true Netfluencer) is a key part
of Nike’s strategy, including the sharing the stealth sneaker culture in an episode of HBO's Entourage, one of my personal favorite shows. Following his own instincts, Parker has moved to
aggressively link Nike with those who can help maintain the company’s standing
among what he calls the “influencers of influencers.” Plumbing a global network
of friends, he has fostered Nike collaborations with a New York graffiti artist
named Lenny Futura and industrial designer Marc Newson.

Spent a few minutes talking with Becky Ebenkamp from BrandWeek on the solid performance of 



