拜访耐克（Nike）总部的人中，很少有人去过杰里•莱丝大厦（the Jerry Rice Building）的三楼。占地192英亩的耐克总部位于俄勒冈州比弗顿市，而这栋楼位于总部园区的北端。就算是耐克公司自己的员工，大多数人对这栋楼里的工作人员到底在做什么也知之甚少。楼的大门上有块牌子，上面写着“禁区：我们听到您在敲门，但我们不能让您进来”，这句话并不完全是玩笑。楼里，员工们五六成群，聚在各个会议室中，会议室的白板上写满了各种方程式。他们之中高人辈出，既有工程师，也有科学家，他们或来自麻省理工学院（MIT），或来自苹果公司（Apple）。楼里戒备森严，严禁泄密：如果某位访客获准进入，而他在参观时盯着电脑屏幕的时间稍长，马上就会有位公关专员跳出来挡住他的视线。

    如此严格的保密方案和特别通道安全监察一度只是尖端跑鞋技术才能享有的待遇：比如说发现了一种新型的泡沫吹制聚氨酯，或是在缓冲垫技术上取得了其他突破。但是，我们说的这个实验室里的员工并不是在制造鞋子、衣服。他们正不动声色地发动一场营销革命。

    这栋楼是“耐克数码运动”（Nike Digital Sport）所在地。它是耐克公司于2010年新设立的部门。在某个层面上，该部门的目标是研发各种设备和技术，帮助用户在参加体育运动的时候监测个人相关的统计数据。该部门最广为人知的产品是Nike+跑步传感器。这款与苹果公司联合研发的产品可以监测慢跑者在运动中的表现，甫一面市就受到热捧。现在，共有500万人借助这个工具查看自己的运动状态。上个月，“数码运动”部推出了首款重量级后续产品——监测能量输出“燃料腕带”（FuelBand）。

    但是，数码运动部的工作绝不仅限于研发热门运动小装备。这个部门聚集着当今世界最出类拔萃的营销人员，他们一手掌握着耐克消费者的各项数据，占据得天独厚的优势，有望利用这些数据追踪消费者，创建在线社区，从而与消费者建立前所未有的牢固关系。耐克制定了庞大的计划，准备将其大部分营销活动转向数字领域，而这就是其中的一部分。自从“just do it”这句广告语诞生、甚至是那位波特兰州立大学（Portland State University）的平面设计系学生在纸面上画出耐克的对勾标识Swoosh（意为“嗖的一声”——译注）以来，耐克总部迎来了最重大的转变。

    Few outsiders have visited the third floor of the Jerry Rice Building at Nike's headquarters. Even most Nike employees know little about just what the staffers working here, on the north side of the company's 192-acre campus in Beaverton, Ore., actually do. A sign on the main entrance reads RESTRICTED AREA: WE HEAR YOU KNOCKING, WE CAN'T LET YOU IN, and it's only partly in jest. Inside, clusters of five or six employees huddle in side conference rooms where equations cover whiteboard walls. There are engineers and scientists with pedigrees from MIT and Apple. Leaks are tightly controlled; a public relations man jumps in front of a visitor who gazes at the computer screens for a little too long.

    Once upon a time, the hush-hush plans and special-access security clearance would have been about some cutting-edge sneaker technology: the discovery of a new kind of foam-blown polyurethane, say, or some other breakthrough in cushioning science. But the employees in this lab aren't making shoes or clothes. They're quietly engineering a revolution in marketing.

    This hive is the home of Nike Digital Sport, a new division the company launched in 2010. On one level, it aims to develop devices and technologies that allow users to track their personal statistics in any sport in which they participate. Its best-known product is the Nike+ running sensor, the blockbuster performance-tracking tool developed with Apple (AAPL). Some 5 million runners now log on to Nike (NKE) to check their performance. Last month Digital Sport released its first major follow-up product, a wristband that tracks energy output called the FuelBand.

    But Digital Sport is not just about creating must-have sports gadgets. Getting so close to its consumers' data holds exceptional promise for one of the world's greatest marketers: It means it can follow them, build an online community for them, and forge a tighter relationship with them than ever before. It's part of a bigger, broader effort to shift the bulk of Nike's marketing efforts into the digital realm -- and it marks the biggest change in Beaverton since the creation of just do it, or even since a graphic design student at Portland State University put pen to paper and created the Swoosh.