The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 367 — The Olympics were one big Nike ad 🏅
Nike bet big on the Games and it seems to have worked to some degree
Good morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for rocking with me today. I appreciate you giving me a bit of time. I missed you guys.
What I’m rocking 👟: I think I’ve worn the Air Sunder Max almost every day over the last two weeks. That shoe is INCREDIBLE. Please lean into this one, Nike.
Just touched down 📦: Got the JFG 990v6 in the Prom Blue colorway. The monotone color doesn’t work for some, but I love it. I can’t wait to rock them. Just…gotta get the Sunder off.
Let’s jump into it.
Nike worked the Olympics
Nike bet big on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and the bet seems to have paid off in a major way.
The news: The Games were a major tailwind for Nike’s digital business. The brand received a direct boost from the Olympics, according to a report from Reuters.
By the numbers: Data from a research firm, Similarweb, showed that visits to Nike’s website skyrocketed during the games and led to thousands of sales.
On July 31, according to the data, visitors to Nike dot com peaked to 2 million. This was following Simone Biles clinching gold.
Out of those visits, 86,900 ended with a sale, according to the data.
The big picture: For months now, Nike has been setting up the Olympic games as its big stage to show off new product and tighten its grip on the footwear industry.
The brand laid the groundwork down with its Air exhibition in Paris back in April.
It brought media members and influencers to Paris to show off its biggest athletes, best products and show the capabilities of its Air technology.
Setting the tone: Nike’s exhibition was supposed to be a tone-setter. It was the beginning of a narrative shift for the brand.
It needed to change its messaging. For the last couple of years, everyone has been talking about how stale the brand had become and, for so long, Nike hadn’t done anything to change that. It didn’t give us anything new or fresh. It didn’t shift its messaging. It just…kept going with what it was doing.
These Games changed that. Nike used the Olympics to send a message — not only to the competitors competing against its athletes, but also to the other brands out there.
That message is this: We’re still the best and everyone else is just playing for second.
Between the lines: The most fascinating part of it to me was that, for once, Nike centered that story around its athletes again for the first time in what feels like forever.
It wasn’t, say, Travis Scott delivering this message. It was LeBron James. It was A’ja Wilson. It was Sha’Carri Richardson. The folks who were at the Games competing at the highest level were the center of the story again and, honestly, it was fantastic to watch.
My favorite example might be this video from the brand following the USA Basketball’s win over France.
“Every four years, teams come from around the world to compete,” Diana Taurasi says in the ad before pausing for a tic. Obviously, she’s talking about the Olympics. But you just know there’s something else coming.
Then she simply adds: “For second place.” It’s so good.
Dig deeper: What really makes this so good is that, obviously, Taurasi is talking about the Olympic basketball team. They’ve won eight straight gold medals. Everyone is truly plying for second.
But the more you sit with it, the more you realize that this is actually about Nike, too.
Even in a downswing while the brand is slumping, there’s no bigger name in the footwear industry than Nike. There’s no brand with more athletes, so there’s no brand with more medals. The brand simply wins by sheer volume alone.
It’s haunting in a way, really. As bored as we get with Nike and as stale as it might be, it’s still inevitable.
The bottom line: For a majority of the last two years, Nike has been playing defense. For the first time in a long time, the brand is on the attack.
I don’t know where things go from here for Nike. It’s one thing to talk about how you’re the best, but it’s another to actually be it. We’ll still need to see this backed up through good, quality product moving forward.
But, if there’s a Nike turnaround coming, we’re going to look at the 2024 Paris Olympics as the moment it started. Trust me on that.
Salehe is still deep in his bag
Salehe Bembury has never been a man who is just tied down to one specific brand. When he signed on as the creative director for Puma Hoops, some people out there seemed to believe the brand may have been able to tie him down.
If his movements over the last few days are any indication, the man is still a rolling stone. At least, when it comes to #TheBrands anyway.
What’s new: Salehe’s got his new deal with Puma, but he also has plenty of upcoming work in other spaces, too.
He was giving out free pairs of his upcoming New Balance 530 in Copanhagen last week. He also gave us a sneak peak at a potential upcoming New Balance 991v2:
That’s not all. There’s also a Crocs…boot? Which, uh, yeah. Not my vibe. But these will surely work for somebody!
The big picture: Salehe’s work with Puma Hoops is certainly exciting. I can’t wait to see what he’s cooking. But don’t expect him to slow down outside of that.
Fear of God on its last legs with Adidas?
It feels like Fear of God and Adidas are just getting started, but it seems like Jerry Lorenzo is already on the clock.
The skinny: Signs already pointing to the end of things between the two parties, according to our friend Lois Sakany.
Sakany wrote that she’d heard the brand wouldn’t be re-upping Lorenzo’s deal at the end of the calendar year.
Adidas later reached out to her, clarifying that it was, indeed, working with Lorenzo on product for 2025. So technically, 2024 wouldn’t be the end of FOG x Adidas.
However, the brand didn’t comment on the contract situation nor did it speak to anything beyond 2025.
There’s more: After Sakany’s initial report, Lorenzo spoke with Complex about his situation with Adidas and had this to say:
“With Adidas we have the Fear of God II coming at the end of this year… The III hits Holiday ‘25. After that, the future will be determined by the promise fulfilled by these next two performance shoes.”
While it sounds like Lorenzo definitely has 2025 plans, it also certainly doesn’t seem like the future beyond that is certain. Sakany’s instincts were spot on here, even if the timeline wasn’t exact.
Between the lines: Remember, FOG and Adidas partnered together at the tail end of 2020. Nothing had been produced from Jerry for a majority of that time. And, when we finally did get the drop, it was pretty underwhelming.
It’s important to remember that Lorenzo was a Kasper Rørsted signing — not a Bjorn Gulden one. It makes sense that Adidas would be in show-and-prove mode with FOG.
The Gulden era has been one defined so far by inline product — not collaborations. FOG feels like less of a priority.
The bottom line: The clock is ticking on Fear of God. We’ll see how these next two projects go.
Adidas and Anthony Edwards are undefeated
We talked about how good the Nike spot earlier was, but man. Adidas is continuing its tear with Anthony Edwards. Turning a gospel hymn into a hoops commercial after winning a gold medal is certainly not what I expected to see.
That’s what makes this spot so good.
Masterful stuff. Tell Noah Lyles to simmer on this one.
What’s droppin’, bruh?
AE 1 Low “USA” — Thursday, August 15
New Balance 993 MiUSA “Driftwood” — Thursday, August 15
The Museum Visitor x Asics Gel-Kayano 14 — Friday, August 16
Nike Air Foamposite One “DMV” — Saturday, August 17
House of the Dragon x Merrell Agility Peak 5 “House Targaryen” — Saturday, August 17
That’s a wrap! Thank you for reading today. I appreciate you. Hope you have a fantastic week.
Talk soon. Peace and leave. Be easy, be safe, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯
The JFG Paris shoes are so good, both colorways
Did Nike get to pick the MVP of the basketball games because Steph and his UnderArmor shoes should have received that award? Dude delivered the title.