I used to work for a running store in Virginia that carried Nike, but our closest competitor didn’t. I always thought that was a weird decision on their part, but the guy who owned it was often to make weird decisions.
I used to work for a running store in Virginia that carried Nike, but our closest competitor didn’t. I always thought that was a weird decision on their part, but the guy who owned it was often to make weird decisions.
The store I work in currently only has deeply discounted Nike shoes. My experience is that most runners don’t seem to miss them. the primary Nike customer was only looking for a lifestyle shoe. the Pegasus had gotten so bad that pretty much all runners had jumped ship. My observation is that Nike doesnt seem to concerned about loosing dedicated runners. Nikes gotten too big to worry much about runners
*stipe wrote:
Nike has always been challenging for small stores to deal with.
But perhaps the biggest factor is that Nike terminated hundreds of independent retailers a few years ago so they could focus on larger accounts and direct to consumer$.
^ This. Common industry knowledge.
That seems to be a trend in various industries. It costs to ship and it costs to display in a store. Why not deal direct with a customer on a website? From a financial aspect, it makes sense to me. It takes more than walking around in a shoe store, with a particular shoe, to know if you bought the right thing. If they don't work out, you send them back.
I had a friend start a running shoe store about 15 years ago. At the time, he couldn't carry Nikes until he was in business for a year.
Maybe they want everyone to shop at their high end (and high prices) Nike Town stores? Either that or order online straight from the company.
people are still putting down nike running shoes, are you serious? you all know that nike makes the best running shoes, right? They are so good in fact, that there are several threads on this site that compare the advantage from them to taking PEDs. shoes and spikes.
high school xc coach wrote:
people are still putting down nike running shoes, are you serious? you all know that nike makes the best running shoes, right? They are so good in fact, that there are several threads on this site that compare the advantage from them to taking PEDs. shoes and spikes.
Nike makes the best distance racing shoes. Its trainers are a weird, opaque mix of questionably updated classics and new brands no one can figure out. I liked the pair of Pegasus 35s (pre-ZoomX) that I tried a few years ago, but they only lasted 250 miles and I've avoided Nike for daily trainers ever since.
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sunflower wrote:
It's not that the stores are protesting. Nike either won't work with them or they make the terms so unfavorable that it's not worth the effort. I've heard this before (going way back beyond 5 years).
My friends own a store. Nike gave them a hard time with clearly defective shoes- they made them wait over a month to get credit.
There were other issues. It seems that Nike doesn't want mom and pop stores to carry their shoes.
The problem is- I rely on these experts who know what shoes work(ed) for me when new shoes come out.
Dick's Sporting Goods doesn't have the experts to give advice. It's time consuming there just to get someone to get the size you want.
For that reason I stopped wearing Nike- I want to support my friends but more important- I want to see and try on new shoes before buying them.
Anti Nike Sentiment wrote:
The running store in my town, which like many also doubles as the home of the running club and the main organizer of events for the area, stocks all brands of shoes. I'm on vacation this week and went to the local running store which appears to also be the aforementioned things for the local running community, and was told by the manager the store doesn't carry Nikes. No shoes, no shirts, no nothing with a swoosh. It occurs to me I've been told this before while travelling. I think this is the third store over the past five years I've found that doesn't stock any Nike products at all. Before the last five years I feel like this would be unimaginable.
So, people in the running store biz -- what's up with this? A political protest? Has Nike jacked up their prices on the wholesale end? Or what?
Good for them! Who would still support them?