How much of Hoka's profits eat directly into the consumer base that used to faithfully buy Nike Pegasus...? How much did Nike over-invest in 'drops' and Travis Scott stunts on StockX?
You see tons of young people wearing incredibly uncomfortable, unbreathableA.F. AF1s and Jordans which were never meant to last more than a single basketball game...
Is becoming an adult the moment you buy your first pair of Hokas? Nurses and flight attendants are choosing them even over the infamous Danskos...
Buying your first pair of Hoka shoes is not about becoming an adult, it is about understanding there are options. You don’t have to continue using the same pair of sneakers and wonder why your knee injury won’t go away. You can simply try another brand that is progressive in its technology and understands an athletes needs. Once the other companies catch up you can go back, but it will most likely be too late.
Hoka and On are thriving because they understand who their customer is. They don't try to act like they know better or are far cooler than their core consumer. Nike forgot that (as did Adidas when they went all in on Kanye-oops!). The Swoosh stopped innovating in favor of drops and retro styles. They forgot about athletes in favor of rappers, celebs, and influencers. It's all so sad! The company is a shell of its former self. It's run by technocrats and consultants without soul. Most of the knowledge base and the passion has left due to retirements and layoffs.
Hokas is immaterial. Nike's running shoes business isn't that big. Their business simply has peaked. There are only so many people who will buy junks on whims of their marketing prowess. Some quarters they will sell well followed by others that won't.
Hoka and On are thriving because they understand who their customer is. They don't try to act like they know better or are far cooler than their core consumer. Nike forgot that (as did Adidas when they went all in on Kanye-oops!). The Swoosh stopped innovating in favor of drops and retro styles. They forgot about athletes in favor of rappers, celebs, and influencers. It's all so sad! The company is a shell of its former self. It's run by technocrats and consultants without soul. Most of the knowledge base and the passion has left due to retirements and layoffs.
Nike used to blow everyone away with a wildly different product line, new technology, a new foam, and new manufacturing processes annually. Now it's all about peddling 80s basketball tech in fresh colors or tweaking the 4% or the AlphaFly a little bit. It's not like a 6% hit the market, a sub 6 oz. Vaporfly was born, or they dropped a more stable wide base Vaporfly 4% variant that all but assures a BQ for the average hobby jogger.
In reality, racing and track shoes don't even make the needle twitch when it comes to sales and revenues. Nike really needs to understand why people that buy running shoes prefer the Clifton or the Ghost over the Pegasus. They are not making much effort to do so.
They are also thriving because you are lucky if a pair of Hokas last more than 200 miles.
I regularly put in a thousand miles on a pair of Hoka Bondis(my go to shoe for easy road miles) before I buy a new pair. And for trail running in my opinion nothing beats Hoka selection of trail shoes.
Hoka and On are thriving because they understand who their customer is. They don't try to act like they know better or are far cooler than their core consumer. Nike forgot that (as did Adidas when they went all in on Kanye-oops!). The Swoosh stopped innovating in favor of drops and retro styles. They forgot about athletes in favor of rappers, celebs, and influencers. It's all so sad! The company is a shell of its former self. It's run by technocrats and consultants without soul. Most of the knowledge base and the passion has left due to retirements and layoffs.
You know what also directly coincided with this? Mark Parker stepping down as CEO. As a lot of people know, Mark was not just a shoe designer but also a runner - and even at the the CEO level he was still interested and had opinions on product which is so rare these days.
What is Donahoe? A numbers guy. "DTC will blah blah blah blah blah" - just pure nonsense. You're a product company - make desirable product that solve problems for your consumers - simple. Nike decided to invest in the "problems" (made up in the minds of Donahoe and others) of supply chain and sales strategies - guess what, the people that open a wallet for you don't really care where and how the f--- they get what they want, as long as it's what they want. Nike aren't making what people want right now.
This post was edited 39 seconds after it was posted.
They are also thriving because you are lucky if a pair of Hokas last more than 200 miles.
I regularly put in a thousand miles on a pair of Hoka Bondis(my go to shoe for easy road miles) before I buy a new pair. And for trail running in my opinion nothing beats Hoka selection of trail shoes.
Yes. I used to wear the Clifton's and would put about 8 or 900 miles before I got another pair. Never really cared for the marshmallow feel but they allowed my neuroma to heal. I run in normal shoes again. BTW, the Pegasus just plain sucks. Ride is harsh. I'd run in the Clifton's again before I got another pair of Pegs.
I didn't know Parker was a runner, although I guess that quality & his protection/lack of AlSal oversight/Old Boys Club led in part to his early demise.........
Honestly, I think Nike is making some strides in right direction, but that they're behind the first movers in the Ultra/Trail Running lifestyle brands. The new trail shoes coming out are essentially Luxury goods. People are shelling out $250 for shoes, $300 for UTMB races and $$$$more for travel/hotels.
I think that's where the Donahoe/consultant bros came in: transforming Nike into a global, cheaply made luxury brand, just as Armani Exchange/Louis Vuitton become more cheaply made luxury brands for Europeans and Asians who walk more than they run -- and fashionably.
I could even mention the global expansion of UTMB offerings here as a instagram/influencer-fueled imitation game targetted at $-rich consumers.
Just as one segment of Nike's product landscape, they're like middle schoolers flexing drops on Snapchat, instead as GenX midlife crisis types flexin' their trail running resumé on their every Instagram post.
Despite these ameliorating steps, I think it's pretty clear nike is playing catch up and leveraging its fashion over its quality. Some interesting Hoka copies make their way through like the Invincible, but the ZoomX is not the same, and imo overpriced. Hokas are on the feet of every octogenarian with feet issues.
I think everyone marathoning in Vaporflies and Alphaflies needs to go to Iten, Kenya to spend some quality time with moneyless runners on the dirt roads, with their only calories coming from the milk in their tea and the starch carbohydrates in their ugali.
Hoka and On are thriving because they understand who their customer is. They don't try to act like they know better or are far cooler than their core consumer. Nike forgot that (as did Adidas when they went all in on Kanye-oops!). The Swoosh stopped innovating in favor of drops and retro styles. They forgot about athletes in favor of rappers, celebs, and influencers. It's all so sad! The company is a shell of its former self. It's run by technocrats and consultants without soul. Most of the knowledge base and the passion has left due to retirements and layoffs.
The company that introduced super shoes and revolutionized the entire sport stopped innovating?!?! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!
How much of Hoka's profits eat directly into the consumer base that used to faithfully buy Nike Pegasus...? How much did Nike over-invest in 'drops' and Travis Scott stunts on StockX?
You see tons of young people wearing incredibly uncomfortable, unbreathableA.F. AF1s and Jordans which were never meant to last more than a single basketball game...
Is becoming an adult the moment you buy your first pair of Hokas? Nurses and flight attendants are choosing them even over the infamous Danskos...
Nike's biggest problem is it does nothing to inspire brand loyalty. It drops products all the time. Jasaris, eldos, kennedys, streaks (dropped twice!), streak lts. If its not the pegasus, stock up when your shoes are on sale.
This attitude that running is disposable goes to athletes too. Nike's performanace clauses means nike athletes get screwed when they have a bad year or are on the tail end of their careers.
Nike isn't going anywhere though. They still have the definitive racing shoe and spike (adidas new shoe isn't proven and they're rarely a big player in the distance spike game).
What does this cost saving plan of nike's mean? A lot of sub elite athletes will get cut. They will prioritize their biggest money makers. Nike sponsored events could be lower key affair events. Nike products will get more expensive, but be made with lower quality. If I were a guy in charge of a competing company's running division the time to get up and coming athletes in my shoes would be now. I guess that's already been done with the nil deals - but I'd be trying for marathoners - I'd want as many pairs of my shoes in the top 10 at us marathon trials, the 2025 mass start european marathon championships, and at the 2025 world road running champs in the US as I could get. The company I see making big strides here is on - but their shoes are so goofy. No one is racing in their shoes unless they're sponsored by on - now would be the time to develop a normal style racer and get it on the feet of athletes ahead of these events.
Nike will be just fine though. They likely view the running division as small potatoes and will try to draw sales from younger generations by putting their products on influencers. A lot easier to give a few bucks to an influencer than to pay a contract to someone who needs to live mostly on just that money.
Nike made the mistake to limit sales to local running shops and this destroyed them in the running category. Runners want to touch and feel their shoes even if they buy online. I am not sure if Nike could get back in these stores at this point.
Honestly, I hate the products NIKE puts out outside of the carbon plated racing shoes and their XC & track spikes.
I've run with Pegasus for years but it just got progressively worse every year and then they took away the wide width options. That was the last straw and I switched to New Balance.
