A little background to let you know that I am a little biased. I have some very good friends who work for Nike and have had several opportunities to be on the Nike campus in Oregon. I also know folks who work for Brooks, adidas and Asics. I have worked in the running specialty business and I have been coaching at a high level for 10+ years. I have run in Nikes off and on going on 26 years.
Nike spends, hands-down, more money on research and development of running shoes than all of the other companies COMBINED! Many of the running shoe development people at the other companies started at Nike. Nike makes some very good running shoes. Does Nike make and heavily market "gimmick" shoes? Yes. Nike is a corporation. Their number-one goal is to make money and keep their shareholders happy. Because Nike started off as a running/track brand that area holds a special place within the company.
Running specialty owners and, especially, employess remind me a lot of guys who work at hip, locally owned music stores. They want to look cool and hip and it is cool and hip to rip on things that are popular or big corporate labels. It's much cooler to be the guy who knows about the latest underground band that's on an indie label. They love niche brands like Asics and Brooks because those companies are all about running and will go out of their way to kiss the running specialty guys asses. Nike is the evil corporation. This continues to be passed down through the little running specailty geek world. It's their version of reverse marketing. Nike simply can't be any good because they make football and basketball shoes and Shox and Max 360, etc...
So, it's cool to rip on Nike. But just remember that the guy developing your Brooks shoes probabaly was developing your Nikes a couple years ago!
If you get put in the proper shoe for you you would have just as much luck, if not more, with Nike as any other brand. I have run thousands of miles in variations of the Pegasus, Structure, Span, etc... without problems. I was training in Asics and Brooks and had stress fractures with each. Did I say Asics and Brooks shoes suck? No. Part of it was my own over ambition and part of it was guys put me in the wrong shoe.
Lots of people ask me, "Which brand of shoes is the best?" I tell them that there isn't a best brand. Every brand with a good line probably makes a shoe that will work for you. If you have a GOOD running specialty store near you go in and try out some and let them help you pick out the right one. Of course, I already know that the local geek will probably be pushing them towards Asics or Brooks.
Finally, another funny running specialty BS story. One of the Puma spikes (can't remember which one right now?) is a combo of the old Nike Jasari upper with the old Nike Eldoret spike plate. Why? Because when Puma signed away a bunch of the Kenyan distance runners from Nike that's what they told them they wanted to race in. So, I am in a running specialty shop a year-or-so back and I hear one of the guys working there pushing this Puma spike. He is telling a kid about how Puma spent so much money and time and effort on developing this shoe and it is just a work of art, blah, blah, blah... I guess he was kind of right. They spent a lot of money signing the Kenyans and then they asked them waht they wanted to run in and then they made the shoes! Research and development!