How CONKA Ended Up Inside Nike Mind at Oxford Circus

Moses Itauma mentioned CONKA in his training camp. Not to us. Not in a press release. He just talked about it, on camera, in the way athletes do when something is actually working. You can watch it at 8:26 here. Nike heard about it because Moses is one of theirs. And that, as far as anyone can tell, is how we ended up being invited to Nike HQ in Kings Cross to talk about brain health.

Nobody planned any of this. That is probably why it worked.

What Actually Happened, in the Right Order

Nike were launching the Nike Mind shoe, a shoe designed to stimulate your brain through sensory input from the ground up. When their team looked at what CONKA was doing with professional athletes, the connection was obvious enough that Lucy Marriott, who was leading the Nike Mind project at the time, invited us in to meet the operators at their Kings Cross headquarters.

We did what we always do with professional sports teams. We offered to run a proper trial and measure the change in brain function before and after. They said yes.

Then came the honest part. After taste testing the shots, CONKA Clear was not quite where it needed to be for guaranteed uptake in a public-facing trial. Recruitment only works if people actually want to take the thing. So we made a decision: speed run the flavour adjustment and use the Nike team as a focus group for the new formulations.

That is not the kind of thing you usually admit in an announcement. But it is exactly how it went, and it is worth saying plainly.

Moses Itauma, and Why It Matters That He Uses CONKA

Moses Itauma is not just any Nike athlete. He is one of the most talked-about young heavyweights in world boxing, with a record built on knockouts and a schedule that puts serious physical and cognitive demand on his preparation. The training camp demands on a professional boxer's cognitive load are genuinely significant. Reaction time, decision-making under pressure, sustained attention across weeks of hard sparring. These are not soft metrics.

When an athlete at that level uses a brain health supplement voluntarily, in camp, and then mentions it publicly, that tells you something no marketing campaign can buy.

The Trial Data We Brought to Nike

When we walked into Kings Cross, we were not walking in with a pitch deck and a hope. We brought data from six years of clinical trials conducted with Durham University and Cambridge University, 914 cognitive tests conducted, and a patent on our formulation: GB2620279.

The clearest example of what that data looks like in practice comes from our trial with Chris Billam-Smith. Over the trial period his memory scores moved from a baseline of 80 to 88.33, a 10.42% improvement. Focus went from 60 to 84, a 40% improvement. His eye tracking attention improved by 20.55%, with accuracy up 7.5%. Overall, his average score across all cognitive tests improved by 14%.

Critically, when we isolated the weight cut period, which is one of the most cognitively disruptive phases a boxer goes through, his ICA scores held steady and his speed scores continued to climb, reaching 97 on fight day against a baseline of 93.

That is what Alpha-glycerylphosphorylcholine (Alpha GPC), Ginkgo Biloba, Ashwagandha and the rest of the CONKA Clear formula are being asked to do in context. Alpha GPC has been studied extensively for its effects on memory and cognitive function -- see the full research summary on Examine.com. Ginkgo Biloba has been studied extensively for its effects on attention and cognitive performance -- see the full research summary on Examine.com. Not to make a healthy person feel slightly sharper. To maintain and improve cognitive function under conditions that would pull most people apart.[1][2]

Our trials have shown an 18.1% performance advantage over caffeine alone. CONKA is also Informed Sport certified, meaning every batch is independently tested and safe for professional athletes at the highest level.

Why a Shoe Company Cares About a Brain Shot

The Nike Mind shoe is genuinely interesting from a neuroscience standpoint. The premise is that proprioceptive feedback, what your feet feel through the ground, has a measurable effect on cognitive state. That is not marketing. There is a growing body of research on embodied cognition that supports the general direction.

What Nike recognised, and what Lucy Marriott articulated clearly when we met, is that if you are building a product designed to sharpen the brain through physical sensation, it sits naturally alongside a brain health supplement designed to support the same outcome from the inside.

CONKA Flow contains Lemon Balm, Turmeric, Black Pepper, Rhodiola Rosea, Bilberry, and Ashwagandha. Lemon Balm has been studied extensively for its effects on relaxation and cognitive performance -- see the full research summary on Examine.com. Turmeric has been studied extensively for its anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects -- see the full research summary on Examine.com. Ashwagandha modulates the HPA axis, the system that governs your cortisol response, meaning it works on the stress architecture that underpins all cognitive performance. Ashwagandha has been studied extensively for its effects on stress and cognitive resilience -- see the full research summary on Examine.com.[3][4] Rhodiola Rosea, when combined with other compounds, has been shown to meaningfully improve physical and cognitive performance under load. Rhodiola Rosea has been studied extensively for its effects on fatigue and mental performance -- see the full research summary on Examine.com.[5] CONKA Clear contains Alpha GPC, Ginkgo Biloba, Vitamin C, Glutathione, NAC, ALCAR, Alpha Lipoic Acid, and Vitamin B12. The full ingredient breakdown is on the ingredients page.

Flow first. Clear before it counts. That is the system. Flow is the daily foundation, taken shot before screen at the start of the working day. Clear is the on-demand tool, taken in the five minutes before anything that matters.

What Ended Up Happening at Oxford Circus

After the Kings Cross meeting, after the taste testing, after the flavour iteration, CONKA Clear ended up being given to Nike Mind customers at the Oxford Circus store. Not as a gimmick. As a genuine test of whether brain supplementation and sensory shoe design do something useful together.

Fifty-plus elite sports clubs, including NFL teams, England Rugby, and Premier League clubs, have been using CONKA for a reason. The Nike partnership is the same reason, just in a different building.

Harry Glover and I started this because a concussion sent us properly into the neuroscience rabbit hole. Six years later, there is a UK patent, two university trial partnerships, and CONKA shots in Nike's Oxford Circus store.

That is a sentence nobody could have predicted writing. But then, neither could Moses.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the Nike Mind shoe?

A: The Nike Mind shoe is designed to stimulate brain function through sensory feedback from the ground, drawing on research into embodied cognition. Nike launched it alongside events at their Oxford Circus store, where they partnered with CONKA to test whether brain supplementation and sensory footwear support each other in practice.

Q: What are the best brain supplements in the UK right now?

A: The best brain supplements UK performers are using tend to combine adaptogens like Ashwagandha and Rhodiola Rosea with cognitive compounds like Alpha GPC and Ginkgo Biloba. CONKA holds a UK patent on its formulation, is Informed Sport certified, and has run clinical trials with Durham and Cambridge universities across 914 cognitive tests.

Q: Are nootropics UK brands actually tested on athletes?

A: Most are not. CONKA is one of the few nootropics UK brands with Informed Sport certification, meaning every batch is independently tested and safe for professional athletes. It is used by 50-plus elite sports clubs including Premier League, NFL and England Rugby, and has six years of clinical trial data behind it.

Q: How does Moses Itauma use CONKA in training?

A: Moses Itauma, the unbeaten heavyweight prospect and Nike athlete, has spoken openly about using CONKA during his training camp. At 8:26 in his video feature he describes how it fits into his preparation. Cognitive performance under the sustained load of a professional training camp is one of the clearest use cases for a daily brain health supplement.

Q: What did the Chris Billam-Smith CONKA trial show?

A: Over the trial period, Chris Billam-Smith's focus scores improved by 40%, memory by 10.42%, and eye tracking attention by 20.55%. His overall average cognitive score improved by 14%. Notably, his speed scores continued improving through the weight cut period, reaching their highest point on fight day itself.

References

1. Kerksick. "Acute Alpha-Glycerylphosphorylcholine Supplementation Enhances Cognitive Performance in Healthy Men." Nutrients. 2024. (source)
2. Xing et al. "Effects of Acute Ashwagandha Ingestion on Cognitive Function." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022. (source)
3. Verma et al. "Effects of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) standardized root extract on physical endurance and VO2max in healthy adults performing resistance training: An eight-week, prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study." F1000Research. 2024. (source)
4. Roy. "Ashwagandha in Sports: Investigating Its Impact on Physical Performance and Athletic Enhancement." JSU Student Synopsium. 2024. (source)
5. Liu et al. "Synergistic Effect of Rhodiola rosea and Caffeine Supplementation on the Improvement of Muscle Strength and Muscular Endurance: A Pilot Study for Rats, Resistance Exercise-Untrained and -Trained Volunteers." Nutrients. 2023. (source)