Last week, Nike announced that sales had dropped much more than expected in the last quarter. This led to a 20% drop in their stock in one day, and a rise in questions about the company’s future. Are Nike’s days of dominating the sneaker industry coming to an end?
It’s hard to say, but their back is definitely against the wall. Jordans and Dunks haven’t been generating the same excitement as of recent, and the pairs seem to be on every shelf of every store. Nike’s “Innovation Kitchen” has not been cooking recently. The hype isn’t there anymore.
What happened?
It’s a combination of several factors, but one thing that’s for sure is that Nike has been on top of the game for a long time. It could just be brand fatigue, and other companies generating more excitement about themselves. New Balance, adidas, ASICS, Yeezy, and others have all been increasing their market share for a few years, and it’s catching up to Nike, who is losing market share.
Additionally, Nike hasn’t released any winning new shoe models recently either, only colorways. One of the most recent successes were the Travis Scott Dunks, which have slightly different features than the regular Nike Dunk, but other than that, Nike has been exhausting Jordan 1s, Jordan 4s, Dunk Lows, and Jordan 11s, which have all been released for years.
It could also be sneaker industry trends – athletic shoes are not as popular as they once were, and streetwear shoes are up. This switch in trend caters more to a company like New Balance, although Nike certainly has their fair share of streetwear.
But, this might all just be a little bit dramatic. Nike makes over double the revenue of their biggest rival, adidas. At any given time, most of StockX’s “Trending Sneakers” are either Nike or Jordan. Nike is the indisputable top dog of sneaker resale right now, and it’s going to take a long time for that to reverse.
Are they having some problems with their market share and revenues? Absolutely. But, Nike have the resources, innovation, and personnel to bounce back, and if Nike is going to fall off, it’s going to take a long time for that to happen. So for now, keep wasting your mornings at 10am on the SNKRS App, because Nike have built themselves such a big lead that it will be hard to take them down.
Mateo Moyon