Good morning, friends! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for reading today. Appreciate you giving me a bit of your time.
Have a good weekend? I certainly did. My dad’s birthday was on Saturday — you can probably guess what I gifted him. Yes, it was sneakers.
I also got a chance to hit the Washington Spirit game on Sunday. Domo Wells’ Dead Dirt brand did a merch collaboration with the team again. I got my hands on a couple of pieces. Fantastic stuff. Team merch can be so hit or miss, but the Spirit get it right every single time. Shoutout to Wells — a DMV native, btw!
Anyway, enough about my weekend. Let’s dive in.
A Push and Pull
The positive vibes from Nike’s earnings was like a bat signal for the rest of its competitors in sportswear. For the first time in more than a year, the sportswear leader made gains. Maybe not significant gains, but gains nonetheless.
Nike isn’t quite out of the woods yet, but it certainly seems to have the edge of the forest in view.
Why that matters: The sportswear marketplace has been a drastically different place while Nike has been off its game.
- Challenger brands like On, Hoka, Asics and New Balance have made significant gains in niche performance spaces like running and training.
- Adidas has rebounded from its post-Yeezy woes with some of the coolest and most unique footwear products on the market.
- Consumers have turned to brands like Alo Yoga for their activewear products instead of Nike.
So the question becomes, if Nike’s comeback is the start of the brand returning to form in these different areas, what does that mean for the brands that took its place in all these different spaces?
The answer: It probably won’t mean much — especially not in the immediate future. While Nike’s comeback might be underway, it certainly isn’t in a position where the brand can boot anyone off a shelf.
- For example, Nike’s new running silhouettes in the Pegasus Premium and Vomero Premium are certainly interesting and have gained the brand popularity in running circles.
- But, realistically, many new runners who’ve picked up brands like On and Hoka over the last few years will probably just stick to the models they have — especially considering the $200+ price point. At least for casual runners, anyway. Serious runners might consider swapping if they continue to hear good things about Nike’s new models or they need quick replacements.
That goes for other brands, too. Nike doesn’t (yet) have a viable product that can compete with the Adidas Samba as the go-to casual shoe across generations. The brand isn’t as strong in global football as Adidas is right now. It might have the biggest cultural collaborator in the business in Travis Scott, but its collaborations don’t have the range that a brand like New Balance does.
Be smart: Slowing down on the things that got these brands to where they are today would be the worst thing they could do. Instead, they should double down. Investors see it that way, too.
For example, investment bank UBS gave On Holdings a “Buy” rating on Monday, saying the brand still had plenty of room to grow despite market concerns of potential wholesale channel growth.
- UBS says it still believes On can increase its footwear shelf space in places like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Foot locker and JD Sports, given how the brand resonates across categories for men and women consumers.
The other side: It’s worth noting that Nike is doing incredibly well in wholesale these days — sales are up by seven percent in the quarter ending on Aug. 31. Even if the brands that have claimed the space Nike once abandoned don’t exactly cede it back again, Nike might just be able to take it back anyway if things continue to trend the way they have.
The big picture: Nike was never going to stay down. The brand is too big and too many people rely on it for products across several categories. But the competitors that have taken the ground that Nike has ceded should fight as hard as things where they’re at.
That’s what’s best for those brands and, more importantly for us, it’s also what’s best for the marketplace.
The NBA Invests in Skincare
Basketball and skincare go hand in hand these days, it seems. The NBA announced CeraVe as its new official skincare and haircare partner, which is a sentence I’m not sure I ever thought I’d have typed. But here we are!
The details: CeraVe and the NBA will launch original content across the league’s social and digital channels throughout this season as part of the partnership. CeraVe will also be featured prominently at multiple NBA events, including the NBA Cup, All-Star Game and NBA Summer League. The brand is even supposed to be featured in the NBA 2k video game. How? No idea. How on earth is this still a basketball video game?
The backdrop: The roots of this partnership are actually months in the making.
- CeraVe first appeared in the NBA sphere in February when the brand appointed Dallas Mavericks forward Anthony Davis as the “head of CeraVe.”
- Obviously, Davis wasn’t actually the head. It was just a sponsorship deal. He was promoting CeraVe’s haircare line.
Fast forward to today and here we are. The NBA has an official skincare and haircare partner.
What they’re saying: For most people, this will probably feel like it’s coming out of nowhere. That’s a reasonable feeling to have. I’ve covered the NBA for over a decade now in various capacities. This is not a deal anyone would ever have thought about even just five years ago. A skincare brand in the NBA? Beauty in men’s sports? That’s uncharted territory.
I had a chance to chat with Esther Garcia, the US general manager for CeraVe. She gave her explanation on why this deal makes sense. The brand sees this as an opportunity to tap into a new, male audience and show the value in skin care.
“It’s not only men taking more care of their appearances, it’s also the health and the well being,” Garcia said. “I think that is becoming more and more important as the sport is growing.”
Sports are where everyone is at. They bring “culture and passion,” Garcia said, which is what CeraVe believes makes the NBA a good space to play in.
The big picture: We’ve watched skincare and beauty brands slowly creep into the NBA and other leagues like it through smaller partnerships and brand deals with players. This deal with CeraVe for the NBA feels like a watershed moment. This isn’t just a collaboration — it’s a full-fledged partnership that will be around for years to come.
It’s important to watch how this all works. If things go welll, this certainly won’t be the last one we see.
StockX Taps Former Chanel Exec for Anti-Counterfeiting Work
After StockX’s long and drawn out legal battle with Nike, the company seems to be taking steps forward in making sure something like that doesn’t happen again.
The latest: StockX announced the hire of Pilar Toro as the new director of brand integrity on Monday.
Between the lines: Toro has a long history of working in brand protection with major companies. She has more than two decades of experience in the space.
- She worked as the manager of global brand protection and enforcement for Chanel from 2002 to 2011.
- She’s also previously worked as a brand protection manager for Burberry, Tiffany & Co., Red Wing Shoes and Sony.
For those of you who don’t know, brand protection is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Her jobs for the last 20 years have entailed protecting the intellectual property of longstanding brands and preventing trademark abuse. That’s certainly the sort of person you’d want working at StockX, considering that verification is the entire value prop for the platform.
This job is a bit different, though. She’s not just monitoring the IP of one company here — she’ll be working with the many StockX sells on its platform.
And, from what it sounds like, she’ll actually be forging relationships and working directly with them on this. The company says Toro’s role will focus on “strengthening StockX’s partnerships with leading brands,” on top of working on anti-counterfeit initiatives and product verification strategies.
Why that matters: StockX’s drawn out legal battle with Nike certainly brought questions for consumers to the forefront on how the company’s verification process works and how counterfeit pieces slipped through the cracks.
There’s no one thing that will fix that perception immediately — just one miss is a miss too many in the eyes of a consumer. But involving the companies themselves through the work Toro does might be one step forward in reassuring people on their process again.
What’s The Move?
Nike is on the move, folks.
What’s new: Nike’s five floor, 55,000 square foot retail space has been a lynchpin of the sneaker scene for New York City’s lower east side since it opened in 2016, but that’ll be changing soon with the building under new ownership.
- The 529 Broadway was purchased by the Ingka Group — which owns Ikea — for $213 million, per The Real Deal.
- The plan is to open up a smaller furniture retail space in one of the city’s buzzier locations.
So then: The question is where does that leave Nike? While we don’t know exact details yet, a source close to the brand tells me that the brand is planning on moving to a new location for 2026. Where that location will be is unclear, but it would be smart for Nike to maintain a presence in SoHo.
- New York City’s lower east side — and particularly SoHo — is premium real estate for the city’s sneaker and fashion scene.
No idea when any big decisions will be made on this, but as things develop, you’ll know as soon as we do.
What’s Droppin’, bruh?
This is a dedicated section detailing upcoming sneaker releases for the week, and sometimes other interesting drops I think you might care about.
Thanks for reading, gang! Hope you enjoyed the newsletter.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, reach out to me via email at michael.sykes@businessoffashion.com or shoot me a message @MikeDSykes via socials.
Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯