AI Search Audit Sportswear / Retail
nike.com/gb

Nike makes the shoes.
Runner's World decides which one AI recommends.

Mid-band Cited (6/18). Branded queries surface 4 to 5 nike.com URLs in the top 10 across Google and Brave. Category queries route to specialised editorial reviewers (Runner's World, RunRepeat, Marathon Handbook, CNN Underscored, RTINGS) where Nike is named in expert recommendations (Vaporfly 4 for racing, Vomero Plus for daily, Pegasus for everyday) but never as the cited authority. The lift is structured Product + Review JSON-LD on category pages so AI can extract Nike's own product data alongside the editorial-reviewer surface. Fix 2 audit-time note: CDN edge-block prevented direct robots.txt verification; out-of-band check recommended.

83
Composite Score
Strong
82Search
78Design
91Brand
80Compete
85Growth
AI Visibility Maturity Curve · F&T /18 methodology
Cited
AI Share of Voice · Google 2/6 · Bing 2/6 · Brave 2/6 · Composite 6/18 (bottom edge of the Cited band)
Under F&T's /18 methodology (6 queries × 3 engines, β-strict math, Fix 2 degraded-mode), Nike lands at the bottom edge of Cited. Branded queries (Q1, Q2) surface 4 to 5 nike.com URLs in the top 10 across Google + Brave; Bing's Q1 is more retailer-heavy. Category queries (Q3 best running shoes, Q4 best athletic brand, Q5 best marathon trainers) route to specialised editorial reviewers (Runner's World, RunRepeat, Marathon Handbook, CNN Underscored, RTINGS) and ranking sites (Newsweek, InStyle, Vogue). Nike is named in expert recommendations but no nike.com URL surfaces in top 10 on category queries. The lift is structured Product + Review JSON-LD on category pages.
Blocked
Invisible
Emerging
Cited
Audit-time note · Fix 2 degraded mode
Direct fetch of nike.com returned HTTP 403 across multiple paths (CDN-level bot management, standard enterprise D2C pattern). Robots.txt rules could not be verified server-side. The 18-cell SoV grid was measured via Google + Bing + Brave search-engine indexes; 5-factor scoring inferred from search-result snippets for factors 1 to 4 (factor 5 scored normally). Out-of-band browser-based robots.txt verification is the first recommended follow-up.
Full audit available
The 18-cell grid (snippet-inferred under Fix 2), the brand-reputation finding on Q2, the Citation Host Map for athletic apparel, the Vendor Bake-Off readiness verdict (Unverifiable under 403), and the named Top Action live in the full report.
Read the full AI Search Report →
Cohort callout · May 2026

Of 5 globally-famous brands tested under F&T's AI Search methodology in May 2026, 0 reached Recommended · 4 Cited · 0 Emerging · 0 Invisible · 1 Blocked.

The pattern across the Cited cohort: AI knows these brands by name, not by category. Branded queries surface the brand's own URLs; category queries route to editorial reviewers, comparison sites, or Reddit. The 1 Blocked brand is structurally different: robots.txt closure, not content gap.