The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 384 — Thinking about Nike's future with AI 🤖
The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 384 — Thinking about Nike's future with AI 🤖
One of Elliott Hill's priorities at Nike is diving deeper into AI. Here's what that might look like.
Good morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate you stopping by.
Have a good weekend? I sure did. Homecoming was fun. On another note, big shoutout to the New York Liberty. Congrats on your very first WNBA championship. And, also, congrats to the creative team that came up with the copy for this commercial at Nike following the chip. Give the homie a raise.
Whatever. Let’s dig in.
Nike x AI
One of the more eyebrow-raising details from Elliott Hill’s opening meeting as CEO at Nike was his commitment to advancing artificial intelligence into the company’s operations.
What he said: “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. Conversations have begun on how artificial intelligence can be part of that process, per Complex.
We’ve got to give credit where it’s due. John Donahoe pushed Nike to tinker with AI with the brand’s move to its direct-to-consumer offensive. Hill wants to take things even further.
My question is, what does that look like? And, maybe, the most pertinent question: How can it be good without being gross?
Where we’re at: Before we answer that, let’s talk about what the brand already does with AI.
Nike Fit uses augmented reality and artificial intelligence to scan and measure a user’s foot to determine the best fits and products for that individual.
It uses AI to datamine. It gathers customer insights and organizes them to determine user preferences for favorite colorways, sneaker models, and more.
The brand has also begun to use AI for the ideation and creation process. We saw that this summer when Nike held its AIR exhibit in Paris and unveiled several AI sneaker models that looked pretty terrible.
What’s next: In building a stronger technological platform for Nike, Hill will likely want to push some of these initiatives forward and make them more present and stronger for the brand.
How does the brand do that? By developing a personal shopping assistant for every customer in Nike’s app. Think Siri, but for Nike.
The brand could take its current chatbot feature on its app and integrate its current AI uses into it.
You could integrate Nike Fit into it, allowing the assistant to find the best sizes and fit for the consumer.
It could also provide users with pertinent background information on certain products. For example, if a user was interested in a certain model’s origin or backstory, the personal assistant could make that available readily.
Imagine a native reverse-image search feature within Nike’s app. Screenshot a sneaker you see online or take a picture in the wild and send it to the personal shopper bot to figure out what it is.
It’d already have access to the data and preferences of the user, so it could easily put together shopping lists and recommended products for a user.
It could process orders and answer questions for users as they may have them, too.
A reference: I’m imagining something similar to the transformation Google is making in its shop tab. Business of Fashion’s Marc Bain has more on Google Shop’s transformation here:
“Google’s new shopping experience marries the company’s shopping graph — its continually refreshed dataset of 45 billion product listings — with its new Gemini AI models. Along with providing AI-researched information, which can include elements like videos from YouTube and social media, it also offers recommendations for products.
In its new personalised feed, Google will use the data it already gathers on users to show options like similar styles of products to what they’ve browsed previously. It will also allow you to thumbs up or down items so you can see more products, or fewer, like those in the future.”
Be smart: This wouldn’t be the easiest thing to develop. Siri didn’t become what it is today overnight. Building the LLM out is just one step. Integrating other features into it takes time.
The big picture: It’d be an ambitious project, but it could be worth it. No other footwear company has anything like it. It’s a technological advancement that could completely change the consumer’s experience.
I’m interested in what y’all think about this. Dumb idea. Or would you be into this?
Paige Bueckers makes history
A few weeks ago, I talked about Nike’s new deal with Juju Watkins and what giving her a potential signature shoe in college could look like.
We’re getting a glimpse of what that could look like through Paige Bueckers.
What’s happening: It’s not a signature model, but Bueckers is getting her own player-exclusive GT Hustle 3 model that she’ll be wearing at UConn, according to Sole Retriever.
Why this matters: This is the first time a collegiate athlete has had a footwear product.
This isn’t a signature model but it is a player-exclusive joint with Bueckers’ name and logo.
Because name, image and likeness rights for athletes have only existed for a few years, there haven’t been many opportunities to do something like this. The brand is taking advantage of the landscape, plus the fact that Bueckers is a Nike athlete playing for a Nike school.
The big picture: This feels like a test drive, right? These probably won’t sell many units, but it allows Bueckers to build her name at UConn this season with Nike directly attached.
If Bueckers can build a bit of momentum this season at UConn during her senior year, then it shows us a couple of different things:
First, if it works, it’s proof of concept that signature and PE models work at the collegiate level. We’ll see much more of it moving forward.
Second, if the first point stands, it makes it even more imperative for brands to create opportunities for synergy at the collegiate level. It could open up more opportunities for athletes to leverage their NIL with the brands sponsoring their schools.
Let’s be sure to keep an eye on this moving forward.
Why LVMH sold
If you were wondering why LVMH decided to sell Off-White, look no further. We’ve got the reason right here: It was money.
What happened: LVMH’s third-quarter sales are reportedly down by five percent, which is a complete whiff on analyst expectations, per Business of Fashion.
This is a bigger-picture problem for the luxury fashion industry. Revenue growth has steadily fallen for the company amid diminishing consumer interest in luxury fashion products.
A dip in sales in Asia is at the center of this. The region had become a boon for luxury brands through the 2010s. Following the pandemic, that’s changing.
“Many Chinese customers sat out the boom in luxury sales that followed the pandemic: surging domestic sales during certain quarters never fully made up for the loss of hefty purchases Chinese shoppers used to make abroad,” BoF’s Robert Williams writes.
Mitigating losses: Selling Off-White helps minimize the damage from the industry's current headwinds.
It helps give LVMH a nice return on a non-legacy brand that wasn’t necessarily helping it grow.
It also removes expenses from the company’s plate with one less brand to take care of, allowing for a better year-end profit margin.
The big picture: The sale of Off-White still doesn’t exactly sit right with me as someone who appreciated what it brought to the culture. But almost any other brand in LVMH’s place probably would’ve done the same thing.
The Wu-Tang timeline
If you’re still searching for the Wu-Tang dunks, Nike won’t be leaving you hanging. There’s an official release date for the re-release of the legendary sneaker: November 9.
The Wu posted this to Instagram on Friday, showing off the special box that pairs will come in.
November 9 is, apparently, Wu Tang Day in New York. Mayor Eric Adams decreed it as such in 2023. That was the day the group released the album 36 Chambers back in 1993.
Considering the circumstances around him, I don’t know how good that decree is these days. But that’s neither here nor there. The shoes are coming, folks.
If you want them, be ready.
What’s droppin’, bruh?
Kith x Asics Gel Nimbus 12.1 “Ice Blue” — Monday, October 21
Central Cee x Nike Air Max 95 — Thursday, October 24
Nike Air Force 1 “Jason Vorhees” — Thursday, October 24
A Ma Maniere x Nike “WYWS” Air Max 95 — Friday, October 25
Nike Air Foamposite One “Tekken” — Friday, October 25
Bad Bunny x Lionel Messi x Adidas Gazelle Indoor — Saturday, October 26
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading. Appreciate you. Have a fantastic week.
Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯
If Nike pulled real AI integration into footwear/retail it would be the final dunk.
Among brands they have the upper hand on data, but one thing that would worry me in that scenario (machine learning dominated design and rwtail) is that big tech or big retail could have the upper hand against Nike.
Amazing possibilities indeed.