Their strategy hasn’t unfolded as they expected
Published: 31st Jul 2024
Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – Yes, Nike has been down this road before. Their current new Global Strategy to streamline their distribution was implemented and we independent businesses were out of their bigger plan. This sadly led to many independent retailers, dependent on
Nike, Adidas, NB, etc., to close down or to downscale their operations.
Nike had previously also taken this decision almost 15 years ago, and then reverted to supporting us again. I’m not certain whether this will be the case this time round. Certainly, in our segment of the market, no Nike product available at street level encouraged the fake market to flourish. The fakes have substituted the aspiration of the masses to a large extent, unfortunately.
Also, the chain groups like TFG, Truworths, and Mr Price are over saturated with these brands, but are not offering the correct styles that the customers are looking for.
Nike has also gone top end to stores like Lemkus, ShelfLife, Archive for their more exclusive SKUs. We were stockists of these Jordan, Air Force styles and had great sell throughs
It would be a win-win situation for both us independents, mini-chains and the brands to restock these brands. It’s quite apparent that their strategy has not unfolded as per their expectations,
We look forward to their next move.
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