The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 383 — The Hill era is official🚨🚨🚨
And we've already got a bit of direction, folks.
Good morning, friends! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate you!
Missed y’all. Hope you’ve had a great week. Bowie State’s homecoming is this weekend. Hopefully, it’ll be a blast. I’ll be outside for a minute, so if anyone in the area is popping out, lemme know! We can link up.
Let’s jump in.
And we’re off
Nike’s new era is officially here. Elliott Hill had his first day on the job as the company’s new CEO on October 14.
Behind the scenes: I’ve spoken with a few employees at the company who tell me that the morale is high on campus. Folks are happy to have a true blue Nike guy back in the seat — a guy who worked his way up from company intern to CEO.
Everything I’ve read this week points to the same vibe. People are happy about this move.
What’s next: The honeymoon phase is still in effect. That’s only natural, considering Hill is only a few days in on the job. But, soon, he’ll be rolling up his sleeves and working on solving Nike’s biggest problems.
He knows the company is in a bind right now — he said as much in an internal company introductory meeting, according to reporting from Complex’s Brendan Dunne.
“There’s no hiding the fact that we’re in a tough spot right now,” Hill told employees. But today's story is less about the space Nike is currently in and more about where Hill will take it.
The new CEO broadly laid out a few of his goals in the meeting, both for the immediate and long term. Let’s examine them:
Financial stability: Hill told Nike employees he wanted “strong results” for his first fiscal year back at Nike. The company’s fiscal year ends in May. The brand has the next 8.5 months to get up to snuff.
After postponing its investor meeting, the brand pulled its financial guidance for the year. This was unprecedented but made sense considering the CEO switch.
We should assume the outlook isn’t currently great. First quarter revenue was down 10 percent year over year.
Building with tech: Hill reportedly wants to build a stronger tech platform for Nike moving forward into the future. “We won’t reach our goals without a strong tech team that’s delivering results on behalf of our consumer and our business,” Hill told employees.
Artificial intelligence is a priority for Hill at Nike. That’s hardly surprising — every company is trying to figure out the best uses for AI moving forward. It’s fascinating to think about what that could mean for Nike.
“Cleaning up” Nike’s franchises: Dunne writes that Hill mentioned Nike’s strategy of peeling back on the popular retro models leaned on during the Donahoe era. The Dunk and Jordan 1, specifically. That’s already underway, so we should expect it to continue.
THE KYW NIKE FIX: Here’s what I thought Nike should be focused on in the early part of Hill’s tenure.
The big picture: The priorities laid out by Hill are a bit broad, but they do focus on the things people have been asking for. He’s continuing the peel back on retro, looking to be innovative with technology and trying to satiate investors by cleaning up Nike’s books and trimming retro fat off its inventory.
Ultimately, we have to wait and see how everything gets executed. But if you’re invested at all in Nike’s success as either a fan or someone with a stake in the company, you should be thrilled by what you’re hearing so far.
Still climbing that ladder
Speaking of investors being thrilled, Adidas raised its sales and profit guidance for the second time in four months thanks to a strong third quarter. The company announced the decision on Tuesday.
What it’s saying: Adidas expects its revenue to increase by around 10 percent this year, bumping it up from the previous high single-digit rate anticipated in July. It expects to have a $1.3 billion operating profit,
What this means: I know this can be confusing, so let’s break it down. This is basically the company setting goals for itself.
When a company sets a guidance mark, it tells you how much it expects to sell and what profit it believes it’ll walk away with in the end.
The higher the number, the better investors feel. The lower, the worse. You get it.
Adidas feels pretty good about itself right now.
The big picture: This is a continuance of the strong start the Bjorn Gulden era has gotten off to. He steered the company away from a historic operating loss after the departure of Yeezy, and now, things are on a legitimate upswing.
I certainly didn’t predict this. Not too many people did. I’m honestly not sure anyone could have, considering how entrenched the brand once was in Yeezy.
Adidas’ work in building steady ground through its terrace shoes has gone a long way in righting the ship. Plus, it’s done fantastic work on the basketball side that has kept people excited about what the brand has moved forward.
Up next: Creating legitimate excitement in the North American market the priority for Adidas in 2025. If it can achieve that, the sky is the limit.
Dr. Martens is getting weird
There’s a cool thing that’s happening in footwear right now. People today are more willing to try new, unorthodox things out. You still see classic silhouettes, sure. But you’re also seeing people in funky-looking Crocs, clunky loafers with wild patterns and more.
It’s weird, but it’s created a diverse cultural aesthetic that brands are all trying to embrace.
Enter Dr. Martens. The company’s rebrand has been about embracing the consumer's quirkiness, High Snobiety’s Tom Barker writes.
The company launched its 14XX line in 2023 to go a bit more left with its product. As it turns out, the line has pulled the rest of the company with it. Gone are the days of the simple Dr. Marten’s boot with the waxy leather, bright stitching and hard-bottomed sole. Here are the days of, well, everything else.
Barker writes:
“Rather than 14XX being the outlet for more experimental Docs, 14XX has apparently inspired the company's mainline fare to become equally adventurous, even beyond the limited-edition collaborations that allow no-holes-barred experimentation for brands. Dr. Martens is no exception — its ongoing Central Saint Martins partnership being the most notable of the lot — but its seasonal, general-release shoes have been a surprising source of eye-catching oddities.”
The result is a bunch of stuff that looks like this:
That’s cool, creative and a bit wonky. But it works! And, most importantly, it seems to be something the Dr. Martens consumer wants to buy.
Salute to Dr. Martens for not just being innovative enough to pull this off but not taking its legacy so seriously that it couldn’t be bothered to spice things up a bit.
This would’ve been so cool
I’ll never forgive Magic Johnson for robbing us of the coolest sneaker commercial ever.
Larry Johnson explained how his “Grandmama” commercials with Converse came to be on the All the Smoke podcast live show. Turns out it never was supposed to be. It only happened because either Larry Bird or *AHEM* Magic Johnson bailed out on the original spot that was supposed to happen.
I’ve never been more upset about something that has nothing to do with me in my life. I want to see this commercial so bad and it doesn’t even exist.
Thanks, Magic.
#TheKicksWeWear
First, the homie Josh popped out in the Tatum 2s. Man, I’ll tell you. These Tatum joints? They nice, yo.
Y’all already knew Storm was going to do exactly what she had to do with the fall fits. SHEESH.
The homie Trudy came through with the Kobes and a pair of Mamba socks to boot. This is an awesome look, man.
The homie AARP Youngboy popped out in the LOAFERS! Stylin’ and profilin’, family.
The homie D Book came through with the Craft AJ3s. This is such a slept on pair, gang.
The Gray Beard Bandit came through with another awesome AJ4 combo with these socks. Y’all really killing this sock game this week.
The homie South Side came through with the Verdy Dunks and, the more I see these, the more I need em. So fluffyyyyyy.
Then my guy Dev sent us home with the AJ3 x Spike Lee combo. Dog. THAT’S REALLY SPIKE LEE.
Y’all smoked this, fam. Wow. Goooooood stuff.
That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading today. Appreciate you. Have a fantastic week.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, hit me via email at mikedsykes@gmail.com or shoot me a message via Substack.
Until next time. Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯