The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 321 — The cost of shaking things up 😬
Nike's shift in strategy is coming at a cost.
Goooood morning, family. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for rocking with me today. I appreciate your time.
POLL RESULTS: On Monday I asked you all how interested you were in the Reimagined Bred Air Jordan 4 coming this winter with a material change.
There were 63 of you who voted. Thank you for voting.
Only 13 percent of you called the shoes a “must.” Another 30 percent of you decided against them.
The remaining 57 percent of you were still undecided, which feels pretty significant to me.
I didn’t expect so much uncertainty — especially not with how much hype the reimagined line carried initially. Wild times. Can’t blame y’all, though. I feel the same.
Let’s jump in.
The cost of changing direction
Nike is playing musical chairs with its C-suite again. Several executives at the swoosh were shifted into new roles, Matthew Kish of The Oregonian reports.
The four executive changes came in four key sectors for the brand: Design, innovation, marketing and technology.
John Hoke is Nike’s new chief innovation officer, Martin Lotti is the new chief design officer, Nicole Hubbard Graham is the new chief marketing officer and Muge Dogan (the former president of Amazon Fashion) is the new chief technology officer.
Birds-eye view: Nike is shifting its focus to innovation and design. This comes after investors complained about Nike’s current popular styles sitting on shelves and the lack of innovation earlier this summer. That’s the impetus behind these changes as well as changes the brand made back in May.
There’s a but coming: That also seems to have come at a cost. Along with these new executive moves, there appear to be several employees who’ve been laid off in the process.
Footwear News Shoshy Ciment reports that at least four employees posted word of their layoffs on LinkedIn this week.
“The news was made public after at least four employees posted on LinkedIn this week that they were impacted by a round of layoffs that occurred last week at the Swoosh. According to the posts, the cuts occurred across talent and product management teams as well as in contracted roles like copywriting.”
According to the LinkedIn post Ciment sites above, most of the cuts seemed to be coming from Nike’s digital product division. One response to the news of cuts on The Layoff’s Nike message board says that around 40 employees were let go.
That’s an anonymous post on a message board, so we must take it with a grain of salt. But all of the tea leaves here seem to indicate that there’s a pretty sizable swath of employees who’ve been cut.
Why this happens: When businesses shift strategies and priorities change, some people’s jobs get lost in the shuffle.
That’s not just a Nike thing. It happens across industries.
I’ve seen it happen a ton in the media industry. Particularly when different companies are acquired and brands combine their assets.
Looking back: This is something that I speculated was coming earlier this year when complaints among analysts and investors about Nike’s inventory glut were still pervasive around the industry. It sounded then like major organizational changes would be coming. Innovation is always good for the consumer.
But I also thought it could mean layoffs as priorities shift and the company tries to cut costs in certain spaces and spend more in others. I never want to see that. I’m sorry to see it’s happening here.
If you’re one of the employees reading this, I know it’s not worth much but I really hope you land on your feet somewhere very soon.
Rich Paul’s first NIL athlete
Rich Paul is steadily continuing to build out the athletic roster of his Klutch Athletics brand.
The news: The brand officially added Kentucky’s Justin Edwards to its ranks with an NIL deal earlier this week.
Edwards joins Klutch Athletics as the brand’s first basketball athlete.
He’ll join NFL standouts Will Anderson and Chase Young as the brand’s only current athletes on tap.
My take: This move feels a little strange to me for all parties involved. Edwards is a college athlete at Kentucky who is now signed to a company run by an agent. That is weird. News like this would’ve completely shattered the zeitgeist five years ago.
Alas. Here we are. It’s regular now. Nobody bats an eye at this. On one hand, I think it’s great that Edwards gets a bag and opportunity. On the other, I’m just not sure I’ll ever be used to an agent having his own athletic brand like Michael Jordan does.
The big picture: This could be a huge get for Klutch Athletics.
Edwards is currently projected to be a top-five pick in next year’s NBA draft. ESPN’s current mock has him going 5th to the San Antonio Spurs.
It’s still early. His status could rise — or fall depending on how he plays at Kentucky. Regardless, the talent is there.
There’s a scenario here possible where the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft won’t go to the brands we’re used to like Nike or Adidas or even Puma. Instead, that top spot could be reserved for Klutch Athletics — a brand partnered with New Balance.
Strange world we’re living in, folks.
Related: I talked with Rich Paul about Klutch Athletics earlier this year. Check that conversation out here.
It’s the principal
Alright, folks. I need y’all to help me out here. Let me know if I’m bugging.
So the A Ma Maniére Air Jordan 5 “Dusk” is releasing soon. I love the shoe. It’s the best AMM joint I’ve seen in a minute. So, of course, I entered into the raffle via EQL — the service the brand is using to run everything.
How it works: It’s just like any other raffle if you’ve never used it.
You enter your information and submit your payment. If you win, you get charged.
The big difference is that EQL supposedly does a great job of filtering out botters and repeat entries trying to break the system.
I don’t say that snarkily. I have no idea how effective EQL is. The retailers I like use them, so I generally just go with the flow.
However: This week, a homie brought up to me that there’s a “Run Fair” fee included in the price for these sneakers. Think of it as a processing fee. EQL charges an extra 2.5 percent to your purchase if you’re selected and you pay that.
In this case, with the AMM 5 ($225), the fee comes out to $5.63. And that’s where my problem comes in.
That’s not a ton of money but for an already expensive shoe that price adds up.
Between EQL’s and AMM’s $20 shipping rate, that’s an extra $25. So we’re talking $250 and that’s before we even get to taxes.
Again, it’s just a little more than $5. It’s not enough to stop me from wanting the shoe. But, man, that’s irritating
Anyway, y’all let me know. Am I bugging? Or is this kind of annoying?
Lil Yachty’s Air Force 1 are kinda cool
I was terrified about Lil Yachty’s upcoming Air Force 1. The thought of him coming to us with an AF1 that had a boat sticker on the heel and nothing else haunted me to no end. Can you blame me? We lived through those Travis Scott joints.
The sneaker gods answered my prayers. These Yachty joints? They slap.
I don’t wear Forces usually but I’d totally wear these. IT’S US.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’ALL KNOW THE VIBES. LET’S GET IT.
First, the homie Thicc Saban came through with the Sesame Street Forces. That’s what we calling these y’all.
Then the homie Jed came through with the SB Air Jordan 4s and I REALLY WANT THESE STILL.
The homie Hardly Clerkin popped out with a simple and clean pair of Forces. We love classics.
The homie Matty O popped out in the Olive Vomeros. What a beautiful shoe, man. Seriously.
The homie Nate came through in the Khaki Travis 6s. These are so slept on. Even as a Travis joint.
Then the homie Rick Dubb send us home in the GRANDMA SHOES. Unheardof really did it with these, man. The Rivalry Lo has never looked better.
SMOKED THAT. Wow. Good stuff, y’all.
That’s a wrap, folks! Thank you so much for rocking with me today. I appreciate you taking the time. Have a fantastic weekend.
Let’s chat again on Monday. Until then, folks. Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯
Grandma joints are so nice