Nike Reps- Does Nike have a freeze on opening new accounts?

Interesting that Nike is your No. 2. That would be very uncommon in the U.S. They (along with Adidas) are growing fast right now in running specialty, but that's only because both brands really had nowhere to go but up from about 3-5 years ago.

i don't know why there is all this nike hating going on. you could find something about every brand to hate on, in fact it's pretty easy really.

nike has been #1 in our store for probably the last 6 months or so. as someone else said earlier, their production cannot keep up with demand. whenever we get a shipment of structure triax's in they are gone in probably 1-2 weeks. the skylon, vomero, and equalon have also done very well. that's still leaving the frees out of the equation as well. there are tons of people wanting to get a pair of those and there have been several occasions that we don't have it. we haven't been able to get any 3.0's for the last 6 weeks or so.

Which PI shoes do you carry.

Thanks

I think the bump you are speaking of is the met pad Nike has put on the insole on many of its new shoes.

Can't believe Nike is winning back customers, I was always a nike shoe buyer, I never wore anything else but their shoes are getting worse every year, have you seen how heavy and clunky this years pegasus is, it is well n the way to being 50% heavier than the original, the pair I had (US 10.5) were almost 400g! The pegauss used to e marketed as a shoe that you could do everything in, race, train, sessions etc... it is a joke. I now wear the Brooks racer st to train in, even that is about 270g, the number of calf/achilles injuries around now are directly related to the built up crap runners are wearing, which never allow the achilles to extend.

I didn't say the company wasn't doing well, but among running specialty stores their shoes are not anywhere near the top in sales or customer satisfaction. Obviously their sales overall are higher then anyone. That will happen if you move towards big box stores and internet sales. But this thread was about Nike accounts at running stores.

Not my thoughts, those are the facts

CCR wrote:

I didn't say the company wasn't doing well

CCR wrote:

Nike and Adidas wouldn't talk yet, but they're shoes aren't doing well anyway

Yeah, sure...

And I'm a Nike fan. When we fit shoes, we bring out a shoes from each brand we carry. We also don't talk about our own personal favorite brands unless asked.

I agree that stores get 2120/Adrenaline happy, but when you bring out a 2120, Adrenaline, Structure Triax, Saucony Guide, and Mizuno Inspire... Asics & Brooks still win out a lot.

Just the way it's going right now.

Westside wrote:

It is true wrote:

Nike does well with spikes, but that is it. In 1985 Nike was 65% of our business. Today they are 6%. You can certainly survive without Nike. You MUST have Asics and Brooks.

even though they keep stealing market share from asics...i dont know where you own a store, but that is definatly not typical.

Actually, I'm going to back this guy up. Nike is a marginal player and in many stores a non-factor. Nationwide in the running specialty business, Asics hasn't lost any market share within the last couple of years. They are #1 with just under 28% share. Brooks is #2 with about an 18% share, and then New Balance, Nike, Mizuno, and Saucony all hover right around the 10% mark with the order depending on the month. Reebok has an impressive 0.3% share according to recent data which is a 50 percent increase following the "Run Easy" campaign.

Nike is our number 2 behind asics, and has the number 1 shoe (structure) in our store. Asics has destroyed themselves this year with poor cushioning in the 2120 for the introduction color (color ups were a softer solyte) and also with their SAP/Shipping debacle.

Nike has the biggest increase in our store (20%) with the intro of the structure, moto 5, vomero 2, and equalon 2, all flying out the door.

I wouldn’t waist my time trying to open with Nike. They are planning to go direct with there own chain of Specialty Running Stores in the next 5 years anyways. Not to mention all the folks who made the most recent great shoes from them i.e. Vomero and Moto have left for other shoe brands. They have made a major push in the last year as they hired a new sales manager and are trying to get the word out at the Specialty level about the brand and its commitment, but I don’t think it will matter.

To clarify Nike is number one in the BIG Box, Sports Authority, Academy, Dicks etc. of the world but a poor 4-6th in most specialty running stores. This is not surprising as over the last 4 years they have been running test with there Nike Town locations on going direct and eliminating there specialty running channel all together. Between there sole sponsorship events, group runs and direct sales through the web they have already established a channel to reach there customers with out the specialty store owner being involved. They are unable to cut out the Big Box Retailers, but those customers don’t generally shop the specialty running store. Not to mention the customer is much less discriminating so they can put out an inferior product and as long as it has the swoosh and an ad campaign they will sell.

I actually had an internal employee tell me that they "didn’t view themselves as a sporting goods company but rather a marketing company." With an attitude like this it's no wonder the product suffers.

Also backing up what some folks have posted about customer service and rep support Nike only has 12 Sales Reps to cover all of the RSG: Running Specialty Group accounts in the country. Almost all of the other brands that have been tossed around on this post have anywhere from 30 40. To service anywhere from 500 - 700 Specialty Running stores in the US. One rep alone covers, OR, WA, MT, ID, NV, AK & Nor Cal. If you have never been in that part of the country you may not understand how vast it is and how many accounts there are but it's huge.

Oh and to address the issue of diluting the brand... You must be kidding. Is there any place you can’t find Nike now? There about as exclusive as Paris Hiltons love life.

Thanks for all the responses. Nobody has really been able to answer the question as to whether Nike is not opening new running accounts right now. Anyone know?

Nike who,

Yeah, don't "waist" your time with these fools...

Nike is currently opening accounts. As a company you never want to rule that possiblity out. They just opened The Dick Beardsley Running Co in Fargo. Also I have heard of a couple potential new stores that Nike has made some commitments too. It would greatly depend on your location.