Nike Pro Elite
2011

The Year of the Move

The Nike season of 2011 begins with a change of shirt. In February Mo Farah, an adidas athlete until then, announced he was moving to Portland to train under Alberto Salazar at the Nike Oregon Project; his first race in a Nike uniform was the New York City Half Marathon on 20 March. Galen Rupp, the group's American, had been there since turning professional with Nike in 2009. Within four months the move had produced the longest-lived number of this page: on 3 June, at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Farah ran 26:46.57 for 10,000 m — a British and European record then, and still the British record in 2026, fifteen years later.

Monaco and Brussels

The two nights that define the year came in pairs. In Monaco on 22 July, Farah won the 5000 m in 12:53.11, a British record, with Bernard Lagat one stride behind in 12:53.60, an American record: two Nike athletes, 0.49 s apart, both records in the same race. In Brussels on 16 September, Kenenisa Bekele — a Nike athlete for two decades — ran the fastest 10,000 m of the year, 26:43.16, and Rupp finished third in 26:48.00, an American record. Both American marks and the British 5000 m mark have since fallen: Grant Fisher took Rupp's in 2022, Nico Young and George Mills took the two Monaco times within a day of each other in June 2025.

Elsewhere on the circuit Vivian Cheruiyot won the women's 5000 m Diamond Trophy, with wins in Shanghai, Eugene, Stockholm and Zürich; Carmelita Jeter, a Nike sprinter since her Compton days, took the 100 m trophy; and Sanya Richards-Ross ran 49.66 in London on 5 August. Indoors, on 6 February in Tallinn, Ashton Eaton set a world record of 6568 points in the heptathlon. The roads went the other way: Meb Keflezighi, a Nike athlete for twelve years, was not renewed, signed with Skechers in August, and finished sixth in New York in November; the year's marathon records in Boston and Berlin were run in adidas.

The Daegu World Championships in August and September belong to the federations, not to this page: Team USA topped the table in the Nike kit of USATF, Farah won his first global title in the vest of Great Britain, and those medals live in our country histories.

The Kit of the Cycle

The 2011 cycle is the last quiet issue before Volt. The distance singlet we hold is bright red with a black speed-line graphic sweeping the hip and side seam, a white Swoosh on the left chest and a mesh racerback; 100 percent polyester, made in the USA, style 416245-000, a men's small. One season later the same silhouette would come back in black with slate-grey panels and volt flashes for the London Games.

Construction follows the athlete-issue rules our authentication guide covers: competition-weight cloth, race cuts, no retail run. “Pro Elite” is the athlete-channel label collectors use — the programme Nike itself keeps off the shelves. Federation kit is a different contract: what USATF or Athletics Kenya wear at a Worlds lives in our country pages, not here.

From this cycle · in the archiveNike Pro Elite Team 2011 Distance SingletThe red 2011 distance singlet — black speed lines at the hip, a white Swoosh, mesh racerback: the issue of the season Farah changed shirts.120,00 €View piece →

The Full Cycle in the Archive

Every piece we hold from the 2011 cycle, grouped by edition — in-stock first, sold pieces dimmed and documented, refreshed against live stock. The full brand story is in the Nike pillar.

Nike Pro Elite Team 2011 Distance Singlet120,00 €View Piece →