I went to a Ross store earlier today and I saw a bunch of Nike apparel including NBA merch especially in the activewear section where there was more Nike then any other brand. Needless to say but if lots of product is being sent to discounters that's bad news for a "luxury brand" like Nike and is indicative of troubles ahead including layoffs.
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I’m really interested as to why you think this.
Having worked at both adi and Nike over the past few years, I would tend to disagree.
Nike has its flaws, but it is still largely dominant and has an ability to build connection with consumers through product in a way adidas just doesn’t know how to do.
adidas is quite fractured at the moment and has pretty much no direction - I really don’t know where the next thing is coming from for them.
Incidentally, if I was to choose to go back to either it would be the swoosh. I moved from Nike to adi and the jealousy and pettiness I got was embarrassing.
I really don’t mean this an attack or a dig, just genuinely curious.
Nike will be a thing of the past. Adidas will take over as the world’s most valuable and most profitable sports brand. Do yourself a huge favor and get the f— out of Nike. Now!
My crystal ball says
Nike's 40 key accounts will be reduced to 15 and 15 remaining is not doing well either
Nike's direct to customers sees stagnant growth and Nike realizes that one flavor to everyone
strategy does not work
Nike's China business is in shambles as China's economy collapses as decoupling with United
States speeds up and EU joins to support US. And Chinese people turn against American brands
like Nike, Levi's and apple. And prefer more neutral Germany's adidas and Puma or their brands like Li-Ning.
JD finds that he has absolutely no talent in shoe design like Parker. And his A–Hole management style brings morale to the ground and Nike loses its mojo.
Nike will get kicked out of Dow 30 and finds that it is blessing in disguise
Nike's retreat from the top will be worst than Napoleon's retreat from Russia
Nike will be once again caught abusing its far east staff and it will not register since they have too
many repeat offenses.
Colleges will drop Nike from their chest after Nike's repeated human right abuses in their factory
A brand that started from a garage last year will be new Nike and will get young people's imagination and will come out with new motto "Just do it baby"
Don't forget about the "sneakerheads" who pay top dollar for artificially scarce Nike's that they'll never even wear. But yeah, when my kids were playing basketball I made the mistake of buying my oldest a pair of big kid's size LeBrons and the velcro straps constantly came undone when he was playing/practicing.
Same thing happened to another kid on his team who got the same shoes. I think his parents were too proud to return them because he wore them all season and we had to put with him stopping every five minutes to fix the straps during the games (of course preceded by his parents yelling, "Fix your shoes!" from the bleachers).
I only bought my kid the LeBrons because I got the employee store discount. I can't imagine spending full price only to have them constantly fail.
as NIke Team dealer, I go to high school often(before Covid 19) and as shoe junkie, I do look at the feet of the pupils.
In Los Angeles area, it is very hard for me to find anyone with $200 to 300 shoes in high school campus. Kids just don't get it.
As of last February, it was more like 70 percent Vans, 15 percents Converse, and maybe 10 percent Nike but not high end shoes. And the rest.
Those high end NIkes are for boutique people who are at least 25 years on the average and spend disportionate percentage of their income on shoes.
$2000.00 shoes? $3000.00 Lebrons? I smell Tullip market crash. They will eventually find that there is no market and price will crash.
With economic slowdown that might come with Covid-19, I think that boutique market has limited standing power.
Nike makes absolute s***... not surprising
The "brand" is going downhill and quickly the moment Nike started to stand for political issues instead of sports. Yeah, F— THE BRAND AND F— NIKE
I doubt it's good optics for the brand even if the "primo" stuff isn't in any discount store.
nike makes most of its money so far from the outlets and clearance stores. not the flagships or high street. at least in the US.
Nike has become a political company and consumers are taking notice. In addition to everything else that is going on in the world today, Nike is alienating consumers with their support of controversial topics. I hear this from my family and friends all the time - they prefer not to purchase products that are deemed to make a political statement regardless if they agree or not. At this point I would not be surprised if Nike annouced their position on gun control or abortion, and then marketed shoes for those who agree to show support for that position.
Retailers are breaking contract orders in huge container numbers. They'd rather pay off the breach of contract fees that deal with a bunch of unsold shoes in this pandemic. The overstock ends up with places like Big Lots, Ross, TJ Maxx, flea markets, and online wholesalers.
Well, the stuff you see at Ross probably came from a store like Kohls, and isn't the primo stuff. I worked at Nike for a few years and regularly shopped at Ross to get Nike gear to wear to work because a) I was an ETW and only had one shot a month at the employee store, and b) thought that if I looked like a walking Nike billboard that would improve my odds of getting converted. Not sure if there's been an uptick of the nicer Nike stuff showing up at Ross, but there's always been a ton of the more pedestrian gear there for as long as I can remember.
I do wonder how Nike will fare as a "premium" brand going forward as a big part of the $200 shoe experience was being able to go to a real Nike store and see them in person and walk out with a fancy bag. It's great that they're finally figuring out the online/direct thing, but they are eons behind a companies like Zappos and Amazon, and still need to figure out how to do a premium experience while making online customers feel like they're still getting a bargain.
Yep, I think even the $100 shoe will be out of reach for many. Let's face it, we have not necessarily been tailoring our product offering and pricing model for that; have we! I am thankful that I take my skill sets into any type of industry - not stuck at Nike. Time to trim the executive fat, folks though I am not holding my breath.
Nike has had a crazy long run ..even beating several recessions as a luxury brand. Its possible there just is no more growth in this sector. The average American worker's wages havent kept up with inflation and now the service industry has been destroyed by the pandemic. I see hard times ahead for 200-300$ tennis shoes.