Relationships have to be more equal

Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – I’m sure Nike’s decision to drop so many retailers can’t have helped their recent performance, but I don’t know how much damage that did to them.

It was mostly motivated by the opportunity to double their markup – that’s the only reason that makes sense. But what they didn’t take into consideration was specialist knowledge – in our case, for example, 75 years’ worth.

They’ve reversed that decision for some of the bigger guys.

We haven’t approached them to reconsider because currently we don’t need them. However, I’m sure both sides would benefit from working together again. I’m not asking for an apology, but I would definitely consider carrying their range again under a mutually agreed arrangement.

There were some negatives to working with them. They put pressure on us to take product which we knew we wouldn’t be able to sell much of – like boots to retail for R6000 – and they wanted us to take a full size and colour range. We’d end up selling 1 or 2 pairs.

I think it’s important that they understand that retailers who know their market shouldn’t be under pressure to buy what they know they can’t sell. There has to be give and take.

With very big companies like Nike, there are new people all the time, and often they don’t have the specialist knowledge. Sometimes they ask me for guidance. It would have to be a more equal partnership.