How Nike Lost Its Way

I think you have missed the mark on Nikes competition encroaching on them. It’s not because they are innovating. It’s simply because they make a better quality product.

Just bought a pair of Brooks Glycerines for running 10ks and Nike wasn't even on the shelves at the running store I went to. Saucony, New Balance, Hoka, yes.

Nike being not a shoemaker is the bigggest mindblow in Sport history.

As someone who worked for Nike during pandemic years (and was a lifelong fan due to their presence in soccer), I could literally see this happening after JD came. We discussed it internally a lot, especially when we started finding out that Nike is taking its products away from mom and pop stores, amazon and then the nail in the coffin, footlocker. JD was like we don't need them anymore, people are coming to us directly now. But if he knew anything, he would know Nike's most loyal customer base is the one who buys from mom and pop shops. Also, they pulled away from Soccer, which in the 2000s was huge and was a major reason for its global recognition. EH seems to be bringing some of the old soul back. Good luck to him.

Good documentary. Missed one of the scandals that literary keeps me from buying Nike today - Sweatshops! When the scandal first came out with the low wages, harsh conditions, etc. in ASIAN factories, Nike first ignored it, then denied it, then went with the "we'll do better, but other companies are doing it too" approach. Making it worse, the Christmas Air Jordan release schedule and manufactured scarcity for some of the same sweatshop shoes. Jordan lost some points of influence with me because he knew MOSTLY urban kids were trying to get these "coveted" shoes, yet Nike would intentionally manipulate the market so there was less available stateside with a MID-December release. That in turn had parents standing in lines trying to get OVERpriced shoes for their kids for Christmas. Years of doing that lead to criminal behavior and deaths over the shoes. While Nike and Jordan aren't the direct blame for this, they surely (until recently) didn't care to de-incentivise this social behavior.

Those two things alone have kept me from buying anything Nike for the past 15 or more years. They make good products. The athletes they get behind and the marketing is outstanding. But I can't get wi

"Momma always says there's an awful lot you could tell about a person by their shoes. Where they going, where they been." — Forrest Gump

I bought a pair a new balances that lasted me two, three years before needing to be replaced. The new Nike I bought lasted 6 months before the plastic split in the back.

I remember Nike literally told every retailer to screw off as they were only going to be selling Nike online so they can keep all the profit to themselves.

$25 shoes selling for $200 is ridiculous. No thanks, I'm not an Olympic runner ...

The whole point of a brand is the assurance of quality. If the shoes are made by the same handful of manufacturers for every brand with the same level of quality, then what is the point of paying extra for a "premiumx brand?

Nike also tried to abandon the average American. It pulled its supplier deals with stores like JCPenney, Macy’s, and independent stores. They thought the customer would chase them, not the other way around. They’ve already reversed course and reentered Macy’s and JCPenney, but the damage is done.

I work in equipment for one of the largest and most successful athletics divisions at a community college in the country. We also host several large events every year that Nike is a major sponsor of. The school purchases easily over $1m in gear every year (yes not big compared to 4 year universities but a lot for a community college). We've been exclusively Nike for over 10 years now. The last 3 years though we've had constant issues with their clothing and shoes - blowouts, rips, tears, stitches coming undone. Just this past year we've had to replace 60 football jerseys, and 15 volleyball jerseys because of tears that would never have happened with older, thicker more well built uniforms.

Meanwhile the costs have gone up substantially (considering they're made overseas), lead times take several more months than normal, and Nike has gotten more restrictive and less varied in models of gear so we can't get exactly what we want if there's only a couple options.

I've been hearing mumblings of us considering offers from other brands when contract renewal comes up.

As a consumer never even cared about any of those scandals. Too much model churn, too many models, too expensive for the quality you get, too much variation in quality across models. The brand simply comes across as mass produced garbage.

I worked at Nike WHQ for a few years. I wanted to love it so much but the culture was toxic. One big popularity contest and endless meetings. Literally in meetings ALL DAY.

They gave up quality in favor of raising the price at the same time… Who would’ve thought that was a bad idea

13:25

Ah, the classic "Bring in a CEO from another random company who comes in and messes everything up by focusing on short term gains at the cost of everything else"

A tale in corporate America as old as..uh...sometime between the 80s and the 2008 housing collapse.

My family doesn’t buy much Nike because my grandpa helps Mr. Bowerman with the waffle soul and glue for the waffle soul when they first started. My mom and her siblings were supposed to get free shoes for life (Grandpa chose free shoes over stock because he had 7 kids). Hindsight is 20-20. Regardless, soon later my grandpa died on brain aneurysm and Bill and Phil never honored the agreement for the family. We have original hand written letter from Bill. We also have original Nike shoe prototypes and original waffle irons in the family. My aunts have tried many times getting in contact with Bowerman (before he died) as well as Nike and they never even gave it a moment of thought. So we don’t really like Nike much anymore. And also their products have become garbage.

Turns out selling overpriced trash is not a viable long term business strategy.

the choice to put the sponsor at the end of the video instead of anywhere in the video is commendable, thank you

You timed this for the earnings call and 52 week low