What's wrong with Nike?

[Mean Purple]

Amazing that a shoe company started by a runner and his coach could lose the running public.

widths can matter to quite a few folks. just ask DoD. There are dudes at basic who could, and sometimes do, go on to work in the footwear industry. Regardless, their kids know how to take care of their feet. lol.

It's also why Tecovas are not that great a choice. Cowboy boots fit on the instep. That's key. The "pop".

In the end, The best pair of running shoes I've seen had the white/lighter colored part of the soles and shoe tinted reddish brown. There's good running dirt in the pines of the South East.

 

[businessofsport]

Amazing that a shoe company started by a runner and his coach could lose the running public.

MMJ, spot on about runner preference. Adidas has 11 podiums to Nike's 5 in the 2026 Marathon Majors so far, and Nike's won just 2 of 8 races... even sub-2 hour marathon, Nike's own "moonshot," finally fell with two guys racing in Adidas. For everyday runners, Brooks and Hoka each have about 23% of US running shoe sales, On's growing even faster than Hoka, and Brooks passed Nike as #1 in US performance running four yeas ago (2-3 years before EH was brought back).

Mean Purple's right... people want to touch and feel the product. Nike started as a running company (Shoe Dog) and early on,100% of their rev. But what's wrong with nike is not running... Today running shoes / apparel at Nike is about 10% of revenue ($4.4 billion). Jordans, lifestyle, all other sports, the Converse subsidiary are 90% at $42 billion.

Like a lot of organizational hires, Donahoe was a Board appointment scheiss up. He came from Bain and eBay, never worked a day inside a sports company, and tried to run Nike like a tech company - the ebay of sports.

Conversely, EH went from assistant trainer taping ankles for the Dallas Cowboys right out of TCU, to a Nike sales intern in Memphis, and spent 32 yrs working his way up building the retail accounts Donahoe later tore down. Donahoe cut hundreds of wholesale accounts and squeezed the biggest ones like Foot Locker in exchange for chasing phantom DTC margins. And Brooks, Asics, Hoka and On grabbed Nike's shelf space and laughed all the way to the bank. On went from $330M to $1.8B and Hoka (which also has TCU alums in mgt) from $352M to $1.4B by 2025, while Nike put out 2 new running shoes in 2024 vs 11 from ASICS and 10 from Adidas. By the time Donahoe was confronted by the Board and grilled by analysts, revenue was headed for its worst drop in 20+ yrs ...and the board pulled our Horned Frog out of Italian villa retirement to clean it up (btw, the Hills donate their Italian villa to TCU art students to use for study abroad each year).

As for "woke"... the whole Kaepernick ad / situation ran in 2018 and similar marketing kept going for a few more years. However, Nike still grew revenue six straight years to a record in FY24, and the stock hit its all-time high in 2021. The decline starts with the 2020 store pullout, period. Regardless of anyone's politics "too woke" never showed up in the financials... zero impact... for every person it stopped from buying, it drove someone else to buy.

I'm biased... I'm long, and EH is as close to a young Phil Knight at the helm as shareholders and the Nike internal crew could hope for. Hope he makes a billion and is able to continue giving to TCU. Having worked indirectly with LVMH on M&A, I know Alexandre Arnault doesn't jump into dumpster fires, so his joining the board last week says a lot. Obv it'll probably get worse before it gets better... Q4 margins were juiced by a one-time / non-recurring ($1b) tariff refund after the courts killed Trump's dumbass tariffs, and so it will be flat-ish for the next year. The Covid inventory mess was a major hit... a record $9.7B pile, roughly 150M unsold units dumped through discounting until TJ Maxx was full of $15-20 Nike stuff that used to sell for 4-10x that. That kills a brand, changes who buys it, who is seen wearing it, but most of it's cleared now and inventory's back to normal.

JP Morgan (upgraded on Arnault appointment), Bernstein, Guggenheim and Barclays have it as a Buy... Goldman, Citi, UBS, Deutsche, BofA and Wells sit at Hold.

 

[SW toad]

View attachment 19453
Haven't bought nike since this. Won't purchase TCU gear with a swoosh.

I really do not think most of corporate America's calculus takes into account these decisions to go with these spokespeople.

Kapernick's over influential girlfriend probably cost him an easy 50 million in future salary and endorsements. That is a conservative estimate I believe based on his ousting from the NFL.

The Levi's executive who quit the San Francisco cult has done quite well. She basically said I am resurrecting these 8-10 product lines with demonstrated YOY revenue but your mad because of my position with Chacks with Dacks in the locker room.

I am proud to say that I have not purchased a Nike product for well over 29 years. No purchase of a Levi product for 26 years. There are plenty of others.

 

[SW toad]

widths can matter to quite a few folks. just ask DoD. There are dudes at basic who could, and sometimes do, go on to work in the footwear industry. Regardless, their kids know how to take care of their feet. lol.

It's also why Tecovas are not that great a choice. Cowboy boots fit on the instep. That's key. The "pop".

In the end, The best pair of running shoes I've seen had the white/lighter colored part of the soles and shoe tinted reddish brown. There's good running dirt in the pines of the South East.

I worked for Tony Lama in the summer of '85 and a good chunk of 86 87 prior to getting my TCU BBA in 88. In first year, I worked in the warehouse and 2nd year retail. We had about 6 boots that satisfied this "pop" related to freaks like me that had high insteps. I figure I paid for at least one class at TCU by directing customers to leathers that were more supple. After Justin bought Lama out, the supple less corrected hides were eliminated by 2000.

Nike totally lost customers like me who have different feet. High instep 9 3W. Nike had a revolutionary synthetic leather that was perforated and offered in 3 widths and was washable. This was in the late 80s to mid 90s. I bought 4 pairs during that half decade. I'm sure they got rid of it because it was outlasting their new highly corrected hide shoes.

 

[dawg]

Elementary and Middle school Me always had to have a new pair of Nikes every school year. Saved my allowance and lawn mowing money all summer for when the new Air Jordens dropped. Even TCU-era me (class of 01) usually had a pair of Air Max.

Fast forward. Late 40s me hasn’t owned a pair of Nikes since the late 90s and is straight Hoka4Life. Pair for running and a pair for work. They’re just much more comfortable.

 

[Mean Purple]

I worked for Tony Lama in the summer of '85 and a good chunk of 86 87 prior to getting my TCU BBA in 88. In first year, I worked in the warehouse and 2nd year retail. We had about 6 boots that satisfied this "pop" related to freaks like me that had high insteps. I figure I paid for at least one class at TCU by directing customers to leathers that were more supple. After Justin bought Lama out, the supple less corrected hides were eliminated by 2000.

Nike totally lost customers like me who have different feet. High instep 9 3W. Nike had a revolutionary synthetic leather that was perforated and offered in 3 widths and was washable. This was in the late 80s to mid 90s. I bought 4 pairs during that half decade. I'm sure they got rid of it because it was outlasting their new highly corrected hide shoes.

If you get the chance, check out Rios of Mercedes. Same company that as Anderson Bean and Olathe. All come in sizes. I've been wearing Rios in the saddle for years now. And to work. Great boots. Look and fit just as good as my Luccheses.

 

[jtgofrogs]

Runners have long regarded Nike as a fashion shoe. I boycotted Nike for a while. But they haven't pissed me off in about a decade or so. So I've bought the TCU Nike shoes (white, purple and black models) for when I'm reppin' the Frogs. I have several pairs of Brooks and they are great for my walking and outdoor work and play. But the BEST shoes I have are these Adidas Supernova Ease. Extremely cushiony/comfy and look athletic.

I have 3 pair of Nike Vomero Plus—very cushioned and bouncy. One of the best websites for reviews is solereview.com —they are very thorough. they rate them Great which is very rare for them to rate any running shoes Great.

 

[Mean Purple]

roughly 150M unsold units dumped through discounting until TJ Maxx was full of $15-20 Nike stuff that used to sell for 4-10x that. That kills a brand, changes who buys it, who is seen wearing it

Didn't even think about that angle of it. The psychology of marketing (I know, redundant). Not only did they hurt themselves by having less of it on the shelf to get into the purchase public's hands, they caused it to be dumped into a place in the market that makes a chunk of the targeted buyer think it's not something they want to pick up to begin with.

 

[Mean Purple]

MMJ, spot on about runner preference. Adidas has 11 podiums to Nike's 5 in the 2026 Marathon Majors so far, and Nike's won just 2 of 8 races... even sub-2 hour marathon, Nike's own "moonshot," finally fell with two guys racing in Adidas. For everyday runners, Brooks and Hoka each have about 23% of US running shoe sales, On's growing even faster than Hoka, and Brooks passed Nike as #1 in US performance running four yeas ago (2-3 years before EH was brought back).

Mean Purple's right... people want to touch and feel the product. Nike started as a running company (Shoe Dog) and early on,100% of their rev. But what's wrong with nike is not running... Today running shoes / apparel at Nike is about 10% of revenue ($4.4 billion). Jordans, lifestyle, all other sports, the Converse subsidiary are 90% at $42 billion.

Like a lot of organizational hires, Donahoe was a Board appointment scheiss up. He came from Bain and eBay, never worked a day inside a sports company, and tried to run Nike like a tech company - the ebay of sports.

Conversely, EH went from assistant trainer taping ankles for the Dallas Cowboys right out of TCU, to a Nike sales intern in Memphis, and spent 32 yrs working his way up building the retail accounts Donahoe later tore down. Donahoe cut hundreds of wholesale accounts and squeezed the biggest ones like Foot Locker in exchange for chasing phantom DTC margins. And Brooks, Asics, Hoka and On grabbed Nike's shelf space and laughed all the way to the bank. On went from $330M to $1.8B and Hoka (which also has TCU alums in mgt) from $352M to $1.4B by 2025, while Nike put out 2 new running shoes in 2024 vs 11 from ASICS and 10 from Adidas. By the time Donahoe was confronted by the Board and grilled by analysts, revenue was headed for its worst drop in 20+ yrs ...and the board pulled our Horned Frog out of Italian villa retirement to clean it up (btw, the Hills donate their Italian villa to TCU art students to use for study abroad each year).

As for "woke"... the whole Kaepernick ad / situation ran in 2018 and similar marketing kept going for a few more years. However, Nike still grew revenue six straight years to a record in FY24, and the stock hit its all-time high in 2021. The decline starts with the 2020 store pullout, period. Regardless of anyone's politics "too woke" never showed up in the financials... zero impact... for every person it stopped from buying, it drove someone else to buy.

I'm biased... I'm long, and EH is as close to a young Phil Knight at the helm as shareholders and the Nike internal crew could hope for. Hope he makes a billion and is able to continue giving to TCU. Having worked indirectly with LVMH on M&A, I know Alexandre Arnault doesn't jump into dumpster fires, so his joining the board last week says a lot. Obv it'll probably get worse before it gets better... Q4 margins were juiced by a one-time / non-recurring ($1b) tariff refund after the courts killed Trump's dumbass tariffs, and so it will be flat-ish for the next year. The Covid inventory mess was a major hit... a record $9.7B pile, roughly 150M unsold units dumped through discounting until TJ Maxx was full of $15-20 Nike stuff that used to sell for 4-10x that. That kills a brand, changes who buys it, who is seen wearing it, but most of it's cleared now and inventory's back to normal.

JP Morgan (upgraded on Arnault appointment), Bernstein, Guggenheim and Barclays have it as a Buy... Goldman, Citi, UBS, Deutsche, BofA and Wells sit at Hold.

I keep hoping we can get back to where brick and mortar retail is healthy again.
Jobs, tax base, etc. It did contribute.

At some point, and I'm willing to bet that you or Sink can think of ways to get data for it, would be interesting to see what the societal/socialogical/psychological impact is/could be of not having as much brick and mortar. The reason it comes to mind is a report I heard on a news update about younger generations not being as personable/social. I remember how bummed I felt when Lifeway did away with their store fronts. Heck, one of my favorite things about the holidays is seeing the hustle and bustle of life in shopping centers/stores/malls. Call me old fashioned, but I think it's good for folks to get out and enjoy things.

 

[An-Cap Frog]

How many 12-year-olds in China are losing their jobs RN?

 

[BrewingFrog]

If you get the chance, check out Rios of Mercedes. Same company that as Anderson Bean and Olathe. All come in sizes. I've been wearing Rios in the saddle for years now. And to work. Great boots. Look and fit just as good as my Luccheses.

There are about 8 bootmakers in Harlingen that I want to go and visit. Many years ago, I did business with an outfit just on the other side of the highway from the old Rios of Mercedes shop. I never took the time to sit down and get a pair made while I was there, unfortunately. My size 11 EEE feet need custom boots...

 

[SW toad]

If you get the chance, check out Rios of Mercedes. Same company that as Anderson Bean and Olathe. All come in sizes. I've been wearing Rios in the saddle for years now. And to work. Great boots. Look and fit just as good as my Luccheses.

I deserve a new pair of boots as I have not purchased a pair for well over 15 years. I looked up Olathe and Rios Mercedes and they have a retailer 30 miles north in Santa Fe. After your rec and viewing their promo video on "Texas Bucket List" I think I will give that Santa Fe retailer a visit and see if I can find something that fits my calves and foot. I have about 8 pairs of boots purchased over the last 30 years that I will not give up just like my Levis and Wranglers and yes Lee Jeans purchased beginning in 2000.

I have not been on a horse for more than a couple hours in the last 20 or so years.

There is nothing like the smell of a boot factory with all of the hides and tanneries from all over the place.
The only thing that rivals the leather aroma is the 3-4 plants I've been in that make furniture like the Vermont Tubs place that made Hickory, Alder and Poplar furniture in the 90s . The Lake Whitney Bluebonnet and honeysuckle fields during the late 90s. The furniture craftsmen making case goods and tables out of mesquite near San Juan Pueblo by Santa Fe. Delancy Street.

I'm not big on the exotics, but Rios Mercedes is making a boot out of Arapaima. The wild fish Jeremy Wade pulled out of the water in S. America, I think.

 

[4 Oaks Frog]

I love these Nikes!

 

[froginaustin]

^^^^ They look faintly like house shoes.

 

[ShreveFrog]

I love these Nikes!

View attachment 19461

I have a pair like those for sale on eBay. Size 12.5

 

[Mean Purple]

There are about 8 bootmakers in Harlingen that I want to go and visit. Many years ago, I did business with an outfit just on the other side of the highway from the old Rios of Mercedes shop. I never took the time to sit down and get a pair made while I was there, unfortunately. My size 11 EEE feet need custom boots...

vast majority of people are not a D width (standard) in a boot. Wides are usually wider than an "E".
So when I see someone who says boots make their feet hurt, I ask if they had their foot measured. The little metal wonder under the bench is pretty dang accurate. Red Wing has machine in store, but their boots can fit different so I don't know if that affects what the measure.
But if you get the right width and heel, it's a solid difference. When people don't, they get pushed by bad salespeople to do a different length (shorter). Not good. The last is a measured area for a reason.

About to send a pair of Rios in for refurb. Like my Luccheses, I'll likely have the boots for years and years.

 

[Mean Purple]

I deserve a new pair of boots as I have not purchased a pair for well over 15 years. I looked up Olathe and Rios Mercedes and they have a retailer 30 miles north in Santa Fe. After your rec and viewing their promo video on "Texas Bucket List" I think I will give that Santa Fe retailer a visit and see if I can find something that fits my calves and foot. I have about 8 pairs of boots purchased over the last 30 years that I will not give up just like my Levis and Wranglers and yes Lee Jeans purchased beginning in 2000.

I have not been on a horse for more than a couple hours in the last 20 or so years.

There is nothing like the smell of a boot factory with all of the hides and tanneries from all over the place.
The only thing that rivals the leather aroma is the 3-4 plants I've been in that make furniture like the Vermont Tubs place that made Hickory, Alder and Poplar furniture in the 90s . The Lake Whitney Bluebonnet and honeysuckle fields during the late 90s. The furniture craftsmen making case goods and tables out of mesquite near San Juan Pueblo by Santa Fe. Delancy Street.

I'm not big on the exotics, but Rios Mercedes is making a boot out of Arapaima. The wild fish Jeremy Wade pulled out of the water in S. America, I think.

Rios has some wild hides/pelts. Some of pretty flashy. I'm not that bold. lol

 

[BrewingFrog]

vast majority of people are not a D width (standard) in a boot. Wides are usually wider than an "E".
So when I see someone who says boots make their feet hurt, I ask if they had their foot measured. The little metal wonder under the bench is pretty dang accurate. Red Wing has machine in store, but their boots can fit different so I don't know if that affects what the measure.
But if you get the right width and heel, it's a solid difference. When people don't, they get pushed by bad salespeople to do a different length (shorter). Not good. The last is a measured area for a reason.

About to send a pair of Rios in for refurb. Like my Luccheses, I'll likely have the boots for years and years.

Yes, indeed! While I have a wide foot, I have a standard size heel, so Generic Wide shoes have the ball of my foot comfy, but my heel flopping about in the back.

My go-to boots were made for my Dad in the late 40s/early 50s out in El Paso. They fit me wonderfully.

One of these days...

 

[4 Oaks Frog]

I have a pair like those for sale on eBay. Size 12.5

I got the pic from online. It may be pic of your shoes…

 

[ShreveFrog]

I got the pic from online. It may be pic of your shoes…

Nope. Haven’t decorated my flooring with my wife and grandkids’ useless seashell collection. Or whatever the hell that is.