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?
It's just business sense. Maybe the margins are low but probably they can't price them low enough to be competitive with online, outlet mall and Nike's online store.
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).
I may be way off base, but I think it is the other side of the coin from why many of the running specialty shops push crappy/poorly reviewed "On" shoes -- On offers more favorable financial incentives.
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$$$.
And, if Nike did, they have pretty strong minimums that many small stores cannot meet.
Like, what kind of minimum sales does Nike demand before they'll provide shoes? And what is Nike's play here? They don't even want to be seen in anything but the big box stores and... I dunno... "elite" running stores? (If such a thing exists?) I'm honestly confused.
'Certain stores — or sections of stores designated for Nike products — might have Nike-dedicated employees. CEO John Donahue said that is part of “premium experience” the company wants to offer customers by taking more of a direct-to-consumer business approach.'
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?
It’s not the stores, it’s Nike. I had a conversation with someone at Nike and their strategy is to go to more direct to consumer marketing (app and website) and their own stores. They will continue to sell through some of the larger chains but they are going to push for their own branded sections within those stores with their own sales people etc. They are going to cut off the mom and pop stores completely at some point.
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?
If I may hijack....in my town not one run ing store has adidas? All have nike. I mean these are big running shoe stores.
It's a business decision. Their thinking is, why pay a middle man to sell our product, when we can sell it directly ourselves?
If they have the infrastructure to sell direct, via online sales, app sales and factory direct outlets, it's a no brainer, for them. Add to that low cost (or free) shipping and returns and you've effectively crushed any competition from the little guy.
PS: Telsla, has smartly done the same thing, with direct to consumer sales, cutting out dealerships altogether. It saves costs for them and eliminates the absolute misery of the notoriously painful car-buying process. It's brilliant.
PS: Telsla, has smartly done the same thing, with direct to consumer sales, cutting out dealerships altogether. It saves costs for them and eliminates the absolute misery of the notoriously painful car-buying process. It's brilliant.
I guess I never found shoe buying quite so painful as car buying. I know you weren't implying it was, but still. As to the infrastructure, I definitely just tried to order shoes from the Nike website and got a spinning wheel of death on screen saying "it's taking longer than usual to process your purchase..." that's been going for a couple of hours now :D I guess I kinda liked the idea of being able to get my shoes immediately from a human being who handed them to me instead of paying extra to ship them to me a week later, assuming that the technology to set up said sale did not malfunction, but then I'm a little old fashioned.
Nike sales have plummeted in the specialty running market. They were 60% of sales at one time. They fell to 9% in this channel. Without spikes and racing flats the numbers would be significantly worse.
Nike as a brand was not willing to look in the mirror and make the necessary changes in product. So they blamed the retailers and pulled their product from many locations.
This has not made a difference to most retailers as most Nike consumers (minus spikes and racing flats) are logo buyers and don’t really care about fit or function. This makes buying on line easier and Nike can act like they made the decision.
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?
Nike has been trying to get out of the ma and pa stores or the last decade or so. They used Covid to pull the trigger.
bro you were there and didn't ask? You need to get to work. This has been discussed a few times here and many other places. The fact that you were talking to "the guy" and didn't ask makes me not want to help you.
Nike sales have plummeted in the specialty running market. They were 60% of sales at one time. They fell to 9% in this channel. Without spikes and racing flats the numbers would be significantly worse.
Nike as a brand was not willing to look in the mirror and make the necessary changes in product. So they blamed the retailers and pulled their product from many locations.
This has not made a difference to most retailers as most Nike consumers (minus spikes and racing flats) are logo buyers and don’t really care about fit or function. This makes buying on line easier and Nike can act like they made the decision.
It's hard not to see this as short-sighted, especially with regard to running shoes. I have run in a particular Nike shoe model since the 1990s, because I went to the store I mentioned in my original post as a high school runner and a clerk there had me do the usual gait analysis tests to see what shoe would work best. It happened to be that particular Nike shoe, and over the years the model has continued to work for me so I've kept with it. If my gait were different or if Nikes weren't available there, it could have been an Adidas shoe or some other brand that I was offered that day and then wore for 20+ years and counting. Point being that Nike gained a lifelong customer based on my gait style and the availability of their shoe on that day, not because I just demanded the prestige of the swoosh. Unless their website keeps crashing, I suppose they'll keep me as a customer, but they will from now on miss out on all the new runners who go into local stores and have gait analysis done. Their gait could suggest a certain Nike shoe would be best, but if the store can't offer that shoe, they'll be offered the equivalent or close equivalent from another brand, and go with that, and if that shoe keeps working, they won't switch to Nikes, just as I've never switched to Adidas or Asics or whatever. They'll miss out on these new-customer opportunities every time if they aren't playing that game. I know they're worth billions and this loss may be a drop in the bucket, but give it a generation and you'll rarely see serious runners running in Nikes, because serious runners get gait analysis done to pick their shoes, they don't just wear Nikes for the "prestige." Nike's choice, I guess.
bro you were there and didn't ask? You need to get to work. This has been discussed a few times here and many other places. The fact that you were talking to "the guy" and didn't ask makes me not want to help you.
Thankfully, your help is not required, it seems people have got the answers in this thread. So even if you wanted to contribute, you wouldn't be able to, so your "choice" not to contribute isn't really a choice to begin with. Have a nice day.
