Since we support brick-and-mortar retailers, we found Nike’s u-turn regarding retailers to be welcome. They initially planned to cut off 30% of stores but have since returned to them.
How a company's sales and growth can be affected by the message it conveys to customers.
July 18, 2023
Allbirds stock is down 95% since its November 2021 initial public offering. People may say the company launched the wrong products (did you buy one of their puffer jackets?) or tried to grow too quickly. I believe there is a larger reason: you can’t scale a company by leading with an environmental message—which is Allbirds’s pitch. Consumers rank saving the planet as one of their least pressing concerns when making a purchase. The leading factors consumers look for when ...
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We’ve been tracking brands that try to bypass stores, from Nike to some tabletop brands that will go unnamed. While Nike has backtracked from cutting out stores, Levi’s continues on the path shares this weekend’s The Wall St. Journal.
The last fifteen years have been marked by brands investing in their websites, sucking up customers via Facebook and Google ads, and bypassing their stores.
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Here at Shop Local, we’ve seen brands try to cut out indie stores. We’ve seen big-name companies close accounts in good standing and raise minimum annual purchase amounts in the toughest of times in order to cut out indie stores. Well, now some of these brands are back with hat in hand.
THIN AND SIMPLE says it all, a perfect moniker for Pampa Bay’s latest juggernaut, a throwback to the shapes and looks the company achieved in stainless steel, its one-time material of choice, a decade ago. Then, in 2016, Carlos Barbagallo, president and owner, decided to segue into the dishwasher-safe, tarnish-free porcelain that looks like metal, using a proprietary, state-of-the-art technology that’s neither painted nor glazed. “Thin and Simple is our homage to the looks we ...
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My friend works at the Swiss running shoemaker ON. She recently texted me and suggested I try their running shoes. Three weeks later, I was handling two boxes of their Swiss engineered shoes. On one ON shoe, there is a little Swiss flag and the words “Swiss Engineering” printed. When I get a pair of Nike’s, they don’t say "Beaverton-engineering" or "US-engineering." Nor do Adidas shoes proclaim “German engineering.” ...
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Last February e-commerce company Shopify Inc. replaced the “Ottawa, Canada” dateline that began its press releases and earnings reports with a strange new one: “Internet, Everywhere.” The geographical shift came at the insistence of Shopify’s founder and chief executive officer, Tobi Lütke, who tends to view such matters through the prism of cold, hard logic. In May 2020, only a few months into the pandemic, he’d made the early, seemingly rash decision to...
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"Are you happy?” That’s a question you may ask yourself. Your parents and friends also likely inquire (I hope!). While it may seem flaky to say, happiness is important. This topic was the subject of Dr. Edward Diener, who passed away in April of this year. Dr. Diener, who studied happiness and earned the moniker “Dr. Happiness,” reported that happiness often correlates with social relationships, being with others, and not being alone.
Brands and retailers used to be friends. Now they're: 'frenemies.' Brands continue to use the power of e-commerce websites and social media to work around retailers, as evidenced in this news that Nike is no longer selling to Macy's.
“If the shoe fits, wear it,” goes the old saying, and today’s Times shares the state of indie shoes which may sound familiar to indie gift shop owners. This story seems to be ‘a fit’ for our industry, too.
I recently visited a Footlocker and noticed they had moved the Nike shoes to the back of the store. Why? Nike, with all of its stores and direct to consumer website promotion, is now a competitor and Footlocker is trying to reduce its reliance on Nike. To that affect, I went to the Nike ...
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February 7, 2019
February 7, 2019
Wanna see the future of retail? First, look back. Look back at the newspaper industry and its hard, swift fall over the last 15 years. Facebook (and other tech platforms) replaced newspapers across the country as the world’s information and advertising platforms. General lesson: platforms replace individual players. Next up: Amazon’s platform is going to substitute national brand (and retail) names with its private label business. Don’t like it? Amazon doesn’t care. It owns the world’s largest ...
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December 31, 2017
December 31, 2017
Do you visit Atlanta for the tradeshows? The creator of AmericasMart, John Portman, just passed away at 93. He was unique in that he designed and developed many of his properties. That is extremely rare. It would be like Nike owning gyms; one is normally just one part of the ‘food chain’. Starting in 1961, Portman helped revitalize downtown Atlanta. What’s also interesting is his business partner: it was his old college professor. He co-wrote several books and was even the topic of a movie. He ...
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June 29, 2017
June 29, 2017
More insight into Amazon "getitng in bed with Nike," as a wholesaler said.
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Do suppliers try to bypass you and sell direct? Imagine if your suppliers refused to sell your store items but offered them to complete strangers directly. That's what Nike is doing by only selling its new self-lacing sneaker at its stores and online.
How do we help suppliers and brands work together vs compete?
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December 30, 2015
December 30, 2015
What does a running store have in common with a home goods boutique? Both are struggling to compete against vendors selling direct. Nike is increasingly hurting indy athletic shops by selling direct. In the home goods world, many brands are doing the same to their retailers.
When you read the article about Nike, many of these same quotes could come from players in our home goods industry:
Please see the attached screen shot. This is the sign up form for Nike's Ballers Network, a Facebook application that lets you arrange basketball games with others. To use the app, I was surprised I had to allow the app to pull all my profile information, photos, friends info, and other content. Does that seem a bit intrusive? I can go to a web page anonymously, but this app downloads my life before I can even view it.
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