[Windhorst] Nike’s stock has been obliterated over the last 24 months. [Swiss investment bank] UBS analyst says part of the reason Nike is selling fewer basketball shoes is that basketball players aren’t as popular as they used to be.
Basketball shoes aren’t fashionable or trendy, regardless of who is in the league. Wembanyama could become the biggest basketball and movie star in the world, and his shoes still won’t sell like Jordan’s did in the late 80’s.
Basketball shoes aren’t fashionable or trendy
Nailed it. Back in the day, more people wore NBA shoes off the court than on it. That’s just not the look right now though and it hasn’t been in a minute.
I’ve never understood why these guys don’t capitalize on the sneaker trends more, there’s no reason they shouldn’t make Asics GT-2160 style shoe or something similar to go along with the signature models.
I’m going to add that the Nike shoes just don’t feel good, atleast for me. Whether it’s basketball or running shoes, none of them feel right. Maybe the quality has gotten worse or other brands are getting the upper hand now. Im not entirely sure though.
Their carbon plate stuff for running is still fantastic like the Alpha and Vapor flys. Their day to day like Killshots or basketball shoes feel AWFUL. I don’t understand how these products are the same company.
Naming Killshots or their basketball shoes as day to day shoes is hilarious.
For day to day you should go with the Air Max 1 or 90 or stuff like the P6000 and Air Force 1.
This comment is so reddit bro
Nike shoes just don’t feel good, atleast for me
Too narrow. There’s a thread on the NFL subreddit talking about how JSN went from a size 12 Nike to a 10.5 when he got drafted and the hamstring injuries stopped. Nike shoes of all kinds run way too narrow and wide footed people have to size up beyond what is comfortable and healthy.
NewBalance ftw.
your anecdote makes the opposite point of what you’re trying to say.
It sounds like JSN’s shoes were too wide, and his injuries stopped when he wore a narrower shoe.
No, if you have wide feet and narrow shoes, you just size up to fit your feet inside. When you switch to a shoe that is the correct width, the length will come down because it’s no longer being used to compensate for a lack of width.
I think he’s saying that JSN has to size up to get to a comfortable width but really the length of his foot should have been the 10.5
No he was a 12 to get the narrowness larger/wider but shoe was too long at that size. Nike
10.5 shortens the length but is still wide enough despite smaller shoe size. Not Nike
They break apart in a year. Last Jordan’s I bought are barely worn and trashed to hell from doing nothing. The glue is coming apart, shit is turning yellow, and they feel like they’ll fall apart if I dared to play basketball in them.
Meanwhile, my white Jordan 12’s from when I was a teen that I wore daily for awhile are still in great condition.
In other words millennials are killing Nike.
That’s spot on, I feel like my last pair of Nike basketball shoes just felt rough inside. I recently switched to a far less expensive Way of Wade shoe and it feels a lot better.
I think you’re spot on. I don’t know anyone whose first option is Nike shoes. Brands like Altra, Brooks and Hoka are what everyone I know tend to buy.
Nike has always felt like this to me. They are always thin and uncomfortable. Ive had a lot better luck with reeboks and even adidas depending on the model. There are Nikes like some of the kyries i cant even get my foot in.
Nikes have never sat well on my feet even before their quality has declined.
I love their running shoes just for everyday wear. Usually I’ll buy whatever style I like on sale and they’re comfortable and light. They feel like they fit and support my feet perfectly.
Nikes whole color scheme also looks like was designed by a 6 year old. There’s no sophistication to any of their shoes and when they do make something good, it is never in stock
Nike quality is absolute garbage these days
I never understood how these became popular again. These were considered dad shoes you’d find at Walmart for the longest time.
Fashion is cyclical, it’s why slim cuts have gone away
Bingo i understand prioritizing having functional shoes that are comfortable for you to play in but not having a lifestyle shoe is crazy at this point
I mean Booker is kind of doing that with his signatures
Westbrook came out with non-basketball shoes about a decade ago. Got them for my birthday- actually look pretty good and I can rock them professionally in a business casual setting.
I never wanted a pair of shoes as much as the Jordan IVs. Every rich white kid had a pair, and they played exactly zero basketball
today more kids want Jordan IVs than they want the new ones.
Likely unpopular opinion, but many Jordans sucked to play hoops in, they were better as fashion pieces than actually being a basketball shoe. Then again, I loathe high tops in general
I tried low tops once and sprained my ankle twice in a month. Never in high/mid tops. Idk how yall do it
I think it depends on whether you’ve got more vulnerable knees or ankles. If the ankle is held more tightly, it’ll be the knee taking the brunt of the damage
Yeah my knees are fucked but my ankles are a rock, I’ve played in running shoes since I turned 30 and shit has gotten much better for me as far as minor injuries; however, I was also a power lifter in my 20s so solid chance I fucked my knees doing that with pickup in mostly High tops helping out
We must be similar age as I recall craving those shoes too! Also the various pump up shoes were huge - I know I had a pair of those.
Hey fellow old person! Me three. Mom wouldn’t let me have them because they cost too much
Shoes in general have waned a bit in popularity. I remember the huge hype in the mid 2010s with Yeezys, Adidas Ultraboosts, etc.
Then I think during Covid Nike shoes had a bit of a resurgence. But shoe hype has died down a bit.
Yeezys were the beginning of the end. Those were some of the ugliest shots ever made.
People were walking around looking like they had tractor tires on their feet.
They were all over my college campus and dorms in my first base. Everyone and their momma had a pair of those things. When the Yeezy slides came out it was even worse.
Terrible take
there was a massive sneaker boom in the 2010’s that died during the corona shipping disaster
They’ve gotten expensive and aren’t super functional.
On top of that, when you buy basketball shoes and wear them casually they last a long time and it doesn’t really matter if they degrade some.
The money is in running shoes because runners need shoes replaced all the time and people tend to prefer them for all-day wear. Nike is getting killed here since all the growth in running is going to Hoka and ON.
My kid plays basketball and I asked him why nobody wears basketball shoes off the court and he said slides are way more comfortable and they don’t wanna ruin the traction on their shoes by using it daily. Kids in his school also don’t wear jeans anymore bc why would they wear jeans when sweats are more comfortable. It’s a totally different age now.
Jordan was different in every measure
On the court
Off the court
As a cultural icon he was a supernova that lebron/steph/kd can’t even touch
It’s impossible to be that famous now.
Fame is much more spread around because there are so many more entertainment options.
Yep. Same goes for music artists. You can literally find hundreds of millions of people that don’t give a shit about Taylor Swift or know any of her music. Backtrack to the 90s and that is not the case with Michael Jackson.
That’s because of the internet. You’re not competing with just your region anymore it’s now the entire world.
Some of that is Jordan, but much more of that is how divided our attention is across various platforms for content.
The NBA is competing against Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, YouTube, Xbox, PlayStation, TikTok, Instagram, etc. Not to mention, just going outside and other social activities.
People aren’t huddling around the TV to watch an NBA game like that anymore or purchasing magazines to see Nike ads. This isn’t a Nike problem as much as it’s for most retail brands who have a similar business model.
Obviously Jordan was probably the peak of national basketball popularity and 30 years ago was a different time. However, even compared to itself 10 years ago, the sport/league/stars are comparably (by some measures and this report) less popular.
You good G?
*like Jordan’s sell in the 2020s lol
You seem to be missing his point. Basketball shoes aren’t cool outside of sneakerheads regardless whose shoe brand
And sneakerhead culture as a whole is nowhere near what it used to be. I remember when people camped out for drops, the pandemic and rise of scalper/reseller pretty much killed it. Youth fashion now is way more about clothes than specific new shoes (and is probably better for it imo)
the SNKRS app/rise of StockX & GOAT was horrendous
This shit right here. We turned shoes into collectibles and made shoes more expensive.
Everything that goes trendy and with a limited stocks becomes a market for resellers/scalpers. Sneakers, Labubus (wtf was that trend), pokemon cards… It is the final nature of the capitalist society: people try to minmax money from everything.
Nike was at its peak price when the resell market was booming. The decline in their stock coincides with the mass production of their hyped shoes to counter resellers. Once those shoes became commonplace, the trendsetting fashion people moved on to high class shoes like Rick Owens, Balenciaga, Maison Miharas, etc.
it doesn’t help that Hoka, On, and other performance running shoes soaked up space in athletics while nike were busy trying to corner the fashion market.
The speculative market has killed so many hobbies. It’s a shame them and things like pokemon cards are seen as an investment asset so people who actually want to enjoy sneakers, cards, and the like are SOL
Reselling across the board isn’t what it used to be. Just people hoarding and jacking up prices on second hand items trying to be the next wolf on wall street. Shits lame.
Scalpers moved on from sneakers to Pokemon cards lol
If ya’ll have never been to the Nike employee store on a day there’s a drop, it’s crazy. I went one day a year or two ago, I don’t work for Nike I just got a pass from someone who does, and I didn’t know there was a drop, I just wanted socks and shorts. When they opened up people literally sprinted to the shoes and just dumped boxes and boxes into carts or bags or whatever they could, even just pulled things from the shelf to the floor to claim because once it’s off the shelf I guess it’s been claimed. All obviously to resell, various sizes, a bunch of the exact same thing, and most of these people work for Nike or are family of the employees.
Shoe culture turned out to be a fad more than a sustained market at least at the levels we were seing in 2016-2021
Also in a bad economy luxury item collecting that’s especially fashion based to some extent has no chance. Post covid economy collapse the only thing that seems to be still going is pokemon cards.
shoe culture in general has gone away. young adults these days aren’t door crashing for the latest sneaker. they’re wearing loafers and doc martins
That’s what happens when you make buying shoes difficult and don’t address the problem with resellers.
I don’t get why players don’t do casual shoes within their deals. Not all, but one or two models among their 3-15 other pairs. Booker went half way, it they don’t look great still. Or even a specific color way of a more popular shoe with their logo or signature on.
Im amazed at least one player hasn’t demanded “I want an old school classic style model”
Booker seemed to get this. His shoes are one of the few that look normal.
I wonder how much can also be put on athletes seeking deals out of BIG Shoe. Following the Big Baller Brand saga, athletes have been active in securing a logo-merch deal away from shoes and some also went to Puma, NB, Anta, ect.
IIRC historically, big men don’t sell shoes it’s point guards and wings that do. Casual fans want to see and believe the shoes will make them shoot like Kobe/Jordan/Curry, Dribble or play like Kyrie/Curry/Harden or dunk like LeBron, Ant, Ja ect.
If you look at last year’s MVP ladder, Most of the players are struggling with popularity league villains, or they play well but don’t have the charisma or perrenial championship expectations of previous shoe sellers.
perrenial championship expectations
Was gonna say Shai will fix this then I saw his Converse 💀 my goodness they look like b movie sci fi shoes and not in any sort of good way
The quality has also taken a nosedive and they haven’t made anything good in awhile.
Basketball shoes aren’t fashionable or trendy,
Jordan’s were stylish back in the day. Many of the player shoes now days are horribly designed.
I think this is the point. NBA players used to set the trend on urban fashion. Now Tik Tok is basically more influential on NBA players than they are on the wider culture.
TLDR: NBA players are doing Tik Tok dances, not the other way around
Maybe I’m just old but have they tried making them not so fucking ugly? The early Jordans look so classic and the ones they roll out now look like they collaborate with Nerf to come up with the designs
Yeah I went to Dicks the other day for new bball shoes and they had a bunch of dumbass neon green mixed with bright blue designs. Goofy ass weird shapes all over them. Terrible designers
There are also a bunch of these “basketball” shoes that when you look them up, the descriptions are basically “great shoe, but not good for hoopin in.”
I just want normal-ish basketball shoes made for playing basketball. Not a fucking nerf football covered in randow plastic wrap.
Give me back my Reebok high tops with the Velcro strap at the top. They would suck to stand in all day, but felt just fine for hooping. Solid leather would have the puppies sweating though
I tried on the weird shape neon Nike vomero 18, and it was like I was floating. I bought a pair. More comfortable than any Jordans I own
No joke, just looked those up and I realized those are the shoes I bought for work, except they’re white. Very comfortable
Same, went to Nike store the other day, all the sneakers look like alien slippers.
Everything on the wall was ugly af except for Jordan 1s.
Damn those are so simple yet so classic. I have like 5 pairs and i still want more.
The Book 1s looked good imo, and then Nike decided to make the book 2s look like a outlet running shoe
Idk man the tongue is fat like it’s a skateboard shoe and the laces get loose around it for hooping.
Agreed. The Book 1 is the only basketball shoe that can also pass as a lifestyle shoe. I don’t even like Booker and think it’s the best shoe in the league.
I like the book 2’s for casual wear. Kinda like an AF1, but I wear them with baggier jeans/pants
That’s why I thought the Book 1s were so awesome. A modern performant hoop shoe that still looked super clean and can be worn casually. I wish more players signatures would fit that trend. Kobes, Ants, etc. are super COOL looking, but they’re more like a cleat than a sneaker. Nobody is going to casually rock some Kobes anymore.
Literally the exception to the rule for newer sneakers
And the book 1s were want of the most successful newer launch shoes for that reason.
I’m not a Lebron stan at all, but credit where it’s due his Soldier shoes are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn and look pretty good (to me). Admittedly I’m not sure about the new ones, I get old Soldier 8-9s.
Edit: more like 9-11s. And it looks they don’t make Soldiers anymore lol. RIP
You must be a big guy
Can’t tell if Baneposting, but yes bigger than yo average just not Lebron big.
I think he meant fat
Weren’t early jordans literally just completely normal sneakers?
Yup. I read how the Kobe 5s (I think) are the most worn shoes by nba and wnba players. They’re also really clean and simple looking.
“People don’t care about NBA players anymore.”
“People don’t care about superhero movies anymore.”
No. Everything is crappier and more expensive, and everyone is broke.
I only wear Nike shoes. Mainly AF1’s
I used to be able to log into Nike app and have lots of choices for \(60-75. Now the cheapest is \)100
The original Air Jordan’s were \(65 (about \)180 in today’s money). The LeBron XXIII are now $235.
They’re like 30% more expensive just because Nike feels like it.
Inflation has hit everything except for working class salaries.
Onclouds and the new wave of these eco friendly sneakers are expensive as Nike shoes and are thriving. The article is partly true, you guys just don’t want to admit it.
Why do people call them “Onclouds”? Isn’t the brand just “On”?
Those shoes also wear so much better than a clunky ass pair of Nikes. I need some support and cushion lol.
Absolutely. Times changed and Nike didn’t keep up
Onclouds are so fucking comfortable. As I get older, I just don’t care about trends and looks anymore. As long as they’re not literal clown shoes and I can walk around an amusement park all day without feeling like needles are shooting up through my feet - I’m in.
On cloud IS a trend brother. You’re just not aware you’re following it yet lol.
If there are more comfortable shoes out there, point me that way!
lol I just meant in general. There is a new trend wave of eco friendly lighter shoes. Similar to the nba trend in the 90s and 2000s.
All of those things can be true at the same time
Yeah, it more feels like people are trying to keep a content wagon going and don’t care about the quality. They are so afraid of it of sight, out of mind, if you keep you content quality high, people will continue to come back even if it takes a lot of time in between.
Right? I’d love to cop some of these shoes but they were already expensive AF when they were like 120 a pair. What they charge now, I’m halfway to my own custom orthotics at that point for the money.
Especially the broke part. I make roughly the same money I did 4-5 years ago and in reality I’ve lost at least 40% of my buying power if not more.
are players selling that many shoes and it is that significant in Nike’s stocks ? I think it’s more how overall Nike has been really bad on multiple layers not because of shoes, correct me if I’m wrong
The previous CEO cut ties with a lot of Retail partners because he wanted to push Nikes direct to consumer sales through their website and app. Pissed off a lot of people. I think this has a much bigger impact than basketball being less popular.
You’re right. That opened the door for all of the running shoe brands that have gotten popular the last few years. Hoka, ON, etc
Every cameraman at the past UFC event had Hokas on
They’re having a moment
Camera op here…
Shooting MMA from those platforms cageside is among the most physically demanding work I’ve ever done. A UFC event, from early prelims to main event is like 6 hours of being on air. It’s like shooting 2 or 3 NBA games in a row. I wouldn’t read the utilitarian choices of cageside cam ops as a great fashion trend.
That being said, my shoes show up on TV all the damn time and companies should definitely give me free shoes.
NBA refs also wear hokas in games
I think the decision to go direct is the cause of all this, I don’t think it’s because customers are pissed off.
I actually like using their app and ordering shoes, but it’s actually been hit or miss if the shoe works out for me. Shoes are so unique that every brand and every model etc all fit differently and are still very hard to order online. You like to go into the store to verify and then go home a phone.
In addition I think they underestimated the volume of sales at people still go into a Dick’s sporting goods or what not to buy shoes. For example I’m a father whose son plays youth sports, and I wouldn’t even dare think about ordering him a pair of shoes through the app. And of course while we’re at Dick’s sporting goods getting him soccer shoes, we are likely to buy him a new pair of everyday shoes.
Wendover did a video recently on it and I find his thesis more compelling than windy and it incorporates your idea.
https://youtu.be/WGhy62UZnbg?si=obxE6lrZIU9hCyul
I think a lot of Nike’s power at their peak was having the biggest names. Their products themselves may be worse these days but you can say that about almost everyone.
Look at their golf division. 20 years ago they were a major player in golf solely because of Tiger. His legacy went down the drain and Nike is out of golf.
They don’t have new faces to match the old ones and that is hurting Nike more than most companies.
I mean Nike is the sole clothing sponsor of (by far) the two best golfers in the world
Yeah, Rory’s whole fit at the Masters was all Nike. It looked good too. No other sponsors or patches on his clothes.
And yet neither has the icon or notoriety of Tiger’s red polo. Its just a different time now. Chasing a single global icon just isn’t a smart strategy anymore.
Their golf division is currently one of their most profitable areas of business
Yeah, they’re in decline across the board. When I go into the local Nike store, there is nothing I would buy for myself or my kids.
And the kids all want different brands… it does not have the same brand appeal that it used to.
They had a virtual monopoly on the running shoe market but the last CEO was a dumbass and only had limited releases to appeal to the resellers and normal people couldn’t buy them making room for other companies like Hoka. Similar stories across their various departments and here we are today. Speculation on my part but I can’t see it being a good move to partner with Fanatics when all their products are trash but still have the Nike logo on it.
Companies will either blame something out of their control, or the guy they just fired.
The shoes suck! Bad fits and uncomfortable. I had to buy old Kobe’s to play more than a game or two without my toes feeling terrible. The new shoes suck
Nike lost me as a customer when they started paywalling the actual performance aspects of the shoe behind sponsorship deals.
Used to be Nike always had a line of playing shoes with the same tech in them as Jordan’s or Kobe’s or whatever. If you wanted the style you could have it but if you wanted a real court shoe for just $100 they had them.
But when I went to buy court shoes when I could still play men’s league I discovered that only $250 LeBrons were allowed both the heel and forefoot air bags in them. No other shoe they made had them both for years. Make this billionaire even richer for us and fuck your knees.
That was the last time in my life I even considered a Nike anything.
Nike used to mean the best tech you could buy, now it means getting ripped off the most.
Try Antas or Li Nings. Chinese shoes have been great with their tech especially the last few years. They perform better than Nike and Adidas
Go on r/BBallshoes and they’ll agree too
Sounds cliche but they really don’t make them like they used to
I miss hyperdunks so much
Man I can’t wait til unshittification becomes the economic wave instead of enshittification
I’m gonna spend so much money
I agree, product of using a bunch of suppliers and not having good control over them. They’d rather just sell the shoes than tell them a batch is bad.
Thankfully I don’t play anymore but if you thought the new Nikes were bad you should’ve tried the MB01s… Those were utter ass, no wonder he was always fucking up his ankles.. Still have my old CP3s from when I actually played, grip is crap now on a wood court but damn they were amazing, that slightly flared sole was perfect for stopping those slight ankle rolls.
Actually I bought a knock off pair of mb03s that look like showground vomit meets oil slick. They were more comfortable (for casual wear and stuffing around) than legit MB01s, internally they’re crap, effectively they’re just wide fit Chuck’s, but they’re my favourite gym shoes I’ve had.
Not basketball, bought a pair of Nikes for the first time in a while (Blazers) and they were shockingly uncomfortable. Like, substantially more uncomfortable that comparable pairs of Adidas and Vejas that I own
Once I tried barefoot shoes I stopped wearing nike altogether. A lot of the popular shoe brands like nike cram your toes into the toebox. It hurts.
Shoes cost money
gotta have money to buy the shoes
those same shoes that cost money are getting increasingly more expensive whilst seemingly also becoming of worse quality.
money is something of a scarcity nowadays.
I’ll pass. And if I do need any shoes I look elsewhere.
Yeah I don’t buy shoes that are more than $80 unless they serve a specific purpose outside of general wear.
Bingo! Sneaker culture was always weird to me with people willing to spend thousands of dollars on shoes that they never even wear! Meanwhile the same shoes cost less than $50 to make!
It’s crazy how no one brings this up. There is actually quite a few modern basketball shoes I really like the look of, but the insane cost of them along with everything means I dont have the funs to drop a dime on them.
I work in finance at an S&P500 retail/shoe company. Volume of sales is increasing year over year despite prices also rising a ton due to tariffs.
So my only push back is that people still spending on shoes more today than at any previous time. Nike’s competition improving is by far the leading result as to their decrease in market cap and market share. It has nothing to do with money being scarcer despite what Reddit wants to believe. I previously worked in the cruise industry and media industry. Dollars continue to come in at record amounts despite both being very discretionary spend.
Nah. There was a time people wore basketball shoes casually, you would see people rocking foams, KDs, Kyries etc everywhere. Even Jordan 1s fell off in popularity. The comfort aesthetic is in now. I see way more Asics and New Balances than any other sneakers now. It’s a fashion thing not a basketball thing
Yeah I don’t know why people are trying to blame other things. Basketball shoes were the go to casual wear shoes for like 25 years. They are no longer. If you see a guy wearing Kobe’s walking around in jeans while shopping, it’d be an odd choice. But in 2011? Shit was normal. No one is putting on Kyries to go out to drink. They would in 2011 though.
The comfort aesthetic
Bingo. The older generation that bought Air Forces are now in their 30s or late 20s. They rather have the comfort walking shoe. This could be anecdotal, but people now are way more aware of their feet (flat, wide, small, big, etc.) and value comfort rather than style.
Also $100+ for Air Force ones that they keep churning out seem like a ripoff
And we are all wearing new balances now
Does Nike even make wide shoes? I’m pretty sure they just don’t exist. I always browse Nikes when I buy shoes and never find wide sizes.
Asics and New Balances
I know I’m old when these still look dorky to me
I’m in my 30s and feel the same. I can’t shake the old stereotype that New Balances are for unfashionable middle aged guys. But now I’m the unfashionable middle aged guy because I’ve been sticking with Nikes for my casual shoes. Way of the world I guess.
nike killed they own stock with 10+ years of that bullshit ass snkrs app then letting scalepers run wild, having kobes and shoe drops that literally nobody could get
so we all found rep sites and now I wont go back to paying retail or your bullshit app. Reps for the win. Nobody has ever noticed and if they did I wouldnt care. Just got some fear of god nikes for $75 with shipping and they are 1:1.
suck a dick nike i hope yall get played out like studs
I have a pair of rep Jordan 1s in my collection where the guy who makes them literally brought OG pairs to determine the leather thickness and OG construction methods and used colour calibration software to determine the exact colours of the dyes to use and durometers to determine outsole hardness
Also there’s a guy out there who makes fake AF1s and puts zoom air in them
Is there a um rep site for older Lebron Soldiers? My favs are getting more expensive even buying used.
I tried to find the full report referenced by these reporters but wasn’t able to and assume it’s behind some financial industry paywall or subscription.
I did learn that the report’s author’s name is “Jay Sole”, which is pretty funny given the subject matter
It’s crazy how they’re not selling more $200+ shoes, makes no sense whatsoever.
I mean, the last 5 years have been GREAT for the public and 16-30 year olds (the typical sneakerhead range) at large, yup…no declining job market, no AI replacing jobs left and right, no inflation, no skrinkflation stretching dollars even further, no rising costs for everything across the board, no uncertainty re: housing, no political turmoil or wars that might cause even more undue stress.
Yup, no idea why Nike isn’t selling as many shoes now. Must be because there’s no popular players. Sounds about right…
You’re spot on, just want to point out that AI isn’t actually replacing jobs, C suites horny for enslaving us have been buying the horseshit from AI companies and laying people off. That trend is beginning to reverse, but that’s one factor in a sea of terrible policy defining our unregulated capitalist economy.
I was going to say this same thing. I work for a consulting firm. In my experience, companies are not implementing AI and laying off people en masse.
Most of the companies who claim to be using AI well enough to lay off employees are, not surprisingly, companies that stand to profit from AI like Adobe, Salesforce, etc. I think their claims are dubious, at best.
I’m not saying it WON’T happen, but right now, AI is just a convenient excuse for companies to use when they don’t want to spook investors by being honest and saying: we have no cash flow.
IDK maybe stop making ugly overpriced shoes?
Nike doesn’t make the best basketball sneakers anymore. They don’t even put their best tech in their signature lines anymore. Cheap materials with bad qc, and the people who hoop know that.
I’m a white dude in his mid 40s. I own four pairs of retro Jordan’s and I’ll only wear them with jeans as they look silly with any other clothing. I mainly wear OnCloud Rodgers as my day to day shoes because also, at the end of the day they’re just so much more comfortable than anything Nike puts out.
My kid went through a sneaker phase in his early teens but then him and the other kids realized that basketball shoes made for terrible day to day shoes. Now they just wear low cut Jordan’s and Air Force ones if they wear any Nike at all. Since I live in CA I know Nike will lose its cool any day now for more casual shoes and flip flops.
Even for non-sports fans, it’s the price and availability that was/is the issue, worked at a retail store that used to sell Nike’s really well, then around covid, Nike changed their business model, they went from over 30,000+ distribution partners to only 40. They thought the covid sales was going to translate and they could sell directly online on their website and even pulled out of Amazon. Even though they stopped selling to us, 6 years later, people will still ask for Nike’s, begging to get them because they were used to buying it from there.
This is more of a huge business blunder and over-rotation out of wholesale selling and retail than basketball stars losing their impact. And now, their strategy is reversing their decisions, expanding back into retail and going back on Amazon, while the economy gets worse and people are buying way less of everything (retail wise, my experience).
Just another fact that while league revenue may be growing due to inflation, their overall influence and popularity is down.
Bingo. The quality of the game isn’t what it used to be. No defense, too many fouls
Just the fact that the amount of competition for attention has exploded with the rise of social media
Dunks and AF1s were (are?) some of Nikes biggest sellers and had nothing to do with athletes.
I think that Nike still has the best tech and has the most invested in innovation. They still make the best basketball shoes.
Nike just lost track of the midrange consumer, the non-athlete. Hoka owns comfort, ON/NB owns casual, running has split among like 8 different niche challenger brands.
It has nothing to do with marketing athletes and everything to do with not listening to your customers, who largely include nurses, seniors, ‘loop around the block’ runners, and the sneakers at the office crowd. Not everything is about marketing.
That said I do think the NBA’s star is fading relative to where it was.
Nike Quality is garbage and lots of the new silhouettes look terrible.
Shoe quality in general has dropped all around. Running shoes use terms like biodegradable and lightweight to hide the fact that the materials are crap and you will have to buy a new pair every 6 months.
I know a lot of you will disagree but the NBA product actually has gone down over the years. They need a revamp. The regular season is just so boring.
Yeah no new national stars. Luka and Jokic aren’t going to be one. Shai is a personality blackhole and not flashy enough.
Anthony Edwards is honestly the answer, we need to see him go to that MVP level.
And he’s signed with Adidas.
Doesnt help that most of those shoes are like $200 lol, i feel like most of the basketball shoes were more budget friendly 10 years ago. I remember every kid in middle school and high school wore lebrons or kds.
The new Lebron’s and GT Cuts MSRP for damn near $300. It’s getting ridiculous.
Idk who told Nike they should make all their shoes a limited run and so expensive but when that’s the case people will look elsewhere. As critical as I am of Kanye, he did mention this over a decade ago when talking about his move to Adidas where his line was much more widely available. Meanwhile dunks that used to be relatively inexpensive regular sneakers shot up in price. I got younger relatives in late teens and early 20s now which is the time when you’d see more people collecting sneakers deciding to just rock crocs now because lots of the shoes people want are prohibitive in price or expense at retail, and this isn’t even looking at how much the limited number influences the resale price
Money. No one has money to buy anything. Didn’t Doritos just lose like 1 billion dollars after raising prices to \(8? I stopped buying on cloud shoes because they went up to \)160. I’m not playing this game anymore. I’m going to opt out of buying anything until they give us fair prices again.
Well when your product is dogshit and rife with gambling ads shady (dogshit) refs, rewards general managers with a #1 overall pick after trading away a star with a rigged lottery who the fuck even wants to watch it?
Bullshit they just let a lot of the peak stars go to other companies. That basketball show cash is being spread across other sneaker brands.
Theyre selling an expensive fashion statement. The rich can always afford that stuff. But the vast majority of people arent rich.
Hard to sell millions of pairs of expensive shoes when there isnt millions of people to afford them.
The product of American “Basketball” is not as good as it was in the 90s. Hence the merchandise will not sell at the same volume. Yes they can jack the prices up but that house of cards will fall soon, along with ticket prices and streaming packages.
They have like 7 athletes to cater to and some takedown models, not to mention the upcoming Cade, Wemby and Caitlins as well as protro Kobes and non-sig lines like the GT series and Precisions. Then they got the main Jordans, Luka, Zion and Tatum lines (although I think Zions may be done) in addition to Shai’s line.
That’s just way too many shoes for consumers to be buying every year when most people probably have 1 or 2 hoop shoes. It doesn’t help that they exclude their best tech out of some sig lines. I’ve seen people say that Nike seems to be putting out budget shoes just with a name attached to them.
I mean shits expensive dude and no one has any money lmao
I think people just don’t have the money, but also many NBA players are signing with other brands or creating their own brand. I think basketball players are still pretty popular.
competition is much better now. chinese brands and new balance both making killer shoes.
Basketball shoes are fucking ugly now to be honest
This is one of the effects of not showing games where people can watch them consistently. Only people who are already basketball fans are gonna get the apps and subscriptions and figure out how to watch the games. If only fans are doing that, how do people become new fans?
I know I’m a fan because my local tv station showed every Pacers game when I was a kid so I would tune in to watch, which turned me into a lifelong fan.
Fashion trends come and go.
Entertainment options are a plenty so nothing is as popular as it once was if it were around when options were more limited - the attention economy has been smoothed like peanut butter.
When I think of basketball shoes, I think of Jordan’s. That’s it. A bunch of other guys have signature shoes, but I couldn’t spot them nor care. The market is diluted. No basketball player, not even LeBron, carries as much weight as Michael Jordan.
Michael Jordan is 63 years old and his brand sells more than all other players combined when I looked it up. That’s the epitome of first mover advantage and cultural phenomenon.The young fanbase today never saw him play and LeBron never had the pull like him. I keep going back to when Jordan played things were simpler, life was simpler. Stars were stars and had gravitational pull to them. Today the entire entertainment space is very diluted because more people have their slice of the pie. It’s harder now to standout. The shoe thing is just one example.
Kids don’t look up to athletes as much as they look up to YouTubers
I don’t really think it’s that NBA players aren’t as popular. It’s just that over time, basketball shoes have become way more performance-focused over comfort. Everyone has been moving towards New Balance, On Clouds, Hokas, that’s just the style now. I don’t see why I’d pick a pair of KDs to walk outside in over a pair of NB 740s
Nike turned shoes into NFTs. So they deserve the same fate as NFTs.
Maybe if they didn’t take 10 fucking years for everything.
How does someone like Caitlin Clark NOT have her shoe released yet?? Situations like that where she was absolutely blowing up but somehow Nike waits forever
Nike conducting terrible long term business practices for decades and then saying their stock is down because the players are less famous is peak comedy
This is because Jordan put the basketball on the map. Nothing will come better after him. Also, Nike sells overpriced shoes.
Maybe it’s because billionaires control everything and have squeezed everyone so much in this economy that nobody has any fucking extra money to be spending on shoes?
There was a good video I watched on this. Basically, Nike had all the leverage, but both stopped invocations and let a few speed bumps get them off course from some incredibly lucrative options.
They had the option to buy On running and didn’t, and massively failed to capitalize on the long distance shoe segment, which has turned into a lifestyle trend.
Missing on On running was massive, though.
People aren’t wearing basketball shoes anywhere besides the basketball court these days. Typically for the average person who just plays basketball for exercise they only need 1 pair of basketball shoes at a time.
It’s not about player popularity. There’s increased competition in the sneaker market and basketball sneakers aren’t really worn with casual attire anymore. Also, with respect to performance on the non basketball sneakers, Nike has dropped the ball their as well why increasing its prices.
Nikes products are way worse than they used to be. Their clothes feel cheap now
chinese brands are dominating from my experience
So what is the gold standard for basketball shoes nowadays? Adidas? Genuinely curious
I think with all sports, but especially basketball, we have learned so much that the hoops dream just doesn’t exist to the average kid anymore.
Kids are getting specialized training from the time they can walk. Without that, and without the required genetic gifts, the chances of basketball being THE thing to you just seems to have diminished a ton.
Well there was also the massive sneaker bubble that eventually burst.
comfort plus every mf got their own custom shor nowadays it seems like.
Ant has turned my kids 100% adidas