The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 140 — Trouble in Paradise?
Nike's Q3 earnings report wasn't the greatest.
Good morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thanks so much for rocking with me on this incredible Monday. Hope you had a fantastic weekend!
NO KYW ON WEDNESDAY OR FRIDAY. I’ll be back on Monday, though, ready to go with your Deep Dive! I promise. Don’t miss me too much. We’ll still do #TheKicksWeWear. I love y’all that much.
Let’s jump in.
Nike is going through some things
(Photo by Nelson Ndongala on Unsplash)
Nike had its third-quarter earnings call on Thursday and the numbers weren’t the greatest.
The details:
The company’s revenue is down by 10% year over year and has seemed to stagnate.
That number is similar to Q2 where revenue dipped by 11% year to year.
The company is blaming the drop on shipment issues, per CNBC. They say they’ve faced delays of more than three weeks on inventory.
There’s more bad news. On top of that, they’re still laying folks off. The company let go of an undisclosed number of employees last week, per Oregon Live.
This is part of that same downsizing we saw from the company that began last summer. It’s part of Nike’s plan to become a “flatter, nimbler” company.
It stinks. Layoffs suck. Especially in the midst of a global pandemic. We should always be sensitive to that.
The timing is awful. Remember, this all comes on the back of the Hebert scandal and the Trophy Room debacle. This is a rough patch — it’s the first one we’ve seen Nike have in a while. It’s one we should have always expected, though.
We’re in the middle of a global pandemic so, of course, there are going to be shipping issues. There are also still store closures to deal with and manufacturing details in play. That isn’t stopping anytime soon.
Nike is also aggressively ramping up its DTC transition, which is slimming down the company and clearly impacting the way it operates in ways both good and bad.
These things are all happening at the same time, which creates these strange circumstances. At some point, they’ll end. And we’ll see what things look like when they do.
New Balance’s quiet rise in 2021
(Photo by @felipepelaquim on Unsplash)
New Balance had an awesome year in 2020. 2021 is shaping up to be just as good, if not better.
They’ve hit the ground running.
NB announced the launch of their second general release basketball shoe, the “TWO WXY.” Honestly, looks a lot like The Kawhi.
They dropped their stake in baseball with Fransisco Lindor’s signature New Balance joint.
They also just announced a new partnership with Italian Luxury Brand Stone Island.
They’ve been so smart with their moves over the last year. The dive into sports is brilliant. From a marketing standpoint, you’re not going to find a bigger stage to show off product.
On top of that, they’ve introduced us to so many new lifestyle silhouettes after making the 992 their tentpole last year. We’ve seen big pushes from the 550, 327, 2002 and 1300 so far over the last few months. They have new life now.
This is how you build. Things are going slowly, yes. But that’s good. Bombarding us with heat might give you a good two or three-year run — we’ve seen that work and fizzle out.
But the slow roll? It builds anticipation. It builds hype. That’s what NB is hoping might make this sustainable.
This is wack as hell
Shoutout to everybody for getting Chinatown Market out of the paint this week. This is a brand that very clearly makes a profit by appropriating Chinese culture.
Yet it took people complaining in the company’s Instagram comments for (white) founder Mike Cherman to acknowledge the Stop Asian Hate movement.
And he did it...by selling T-shirts.
Look, man. It’s a shame that it needs to be said at this point. You shouldn’t steal people’s culture, first of all. But if you’re going to do it? The least you could do is lend your platform to those folks when they need it.
This is super gross. Chinatown Market needs to be better. Honestly, it could start by changing its name.
SPECIAL DELIVERY: Happy Air Max Day!
Special delivery is back! Shouts to the folks were kind enough to send us our first Air Max joint. We took a look at Nike’s Air Max Pre-Day and...it doesn’t really look that much like an Air Max shoe?
I explore the shoe’s details and talk about why it’s so different here.
Hope y’all enjoy this one as much as I did!
What’s droppin, bruh?
Craig Green x Adidas ZX 2k Phomar — Monday, March 22
Public School x New Balance 327 — Tuesday, March 23
Air Max 90 “Bacon” — Friday, March 26
Yeezy Foam Runner “Sand” — Friday, March 26
CLOT x Nike Air Max 1 “Kiss of Death” — Saturday, March 27
Thank you so much for rocking with me! Again, I’m out on Wednesday and Friday. But I’ll be back with some goodness next Monday. Already can’t wait to get back, family.
Until then. Peace. Be safe, be kind, spread love. Signing off.
-Sykes 💯
OF COURSE the dude behind Chinatown Market looks like that.