{"id":11515,"date":"2026-04-14T20:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T20:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/11515\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T20:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T20:04:10","slug":"analysts-wonder-whether-nikes-superpower-status-is-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/11515\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysts Wonder Whether Nike’s ‘Superpower’ Status Is at Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAnalysts are taking a deep dive on Nike<\/a> Inc. and wondering where the Swoosh goes from here in its turnaround<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tUBS softlines analyst Jay Sole raised the question of whether Nike<\/a> has lost its \u201csuperpower\u201d status. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe believe Nike\u2019s \u201csuperpower\u201d over most of its history has been its ability to be all things to all people,\u201d Sole wrote in a research note, adding that the brand has been admired by all age, gender, race and geographic groups. And while it could sell \u201cbillions of dollars worth of lower-priced products and still be recognized as the best, more prestigious, most high-end sport brand in the world,\u201d Sole says that with a \u201cmeaningful portion of growth\u201d coming from lower-end channels, the brand may be eroding its reputation as a high-end brand. And that could result in Nike losing its ability to connect with high-income customers, he concluded.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis \u2018all things to all people\u2019 characteristic explains Nike\u2019s very large total addressable market (TAM) and why it dwarfs almost all other brands in terms of revenue and market share,\u201d Sole wrote, adding that there are now reasons to question whether this reach is even still feasible.<\/p>\n

\n\tSole rationalizes that Nike faces a much tougher competitive landscape. The emergence of brands such as On and Hoka, and the renaissance of brands like Asics and New Balance, have made it harder for Nike to be viewed by consumers as the most premium sports brand that it was 10 years ago. \u201cThese rival brands have carved out high-end niches that could be pushing Nike downmarket in the minds of consumers, the UBS analyst reasoned. <\/p>\n

\n\tHe also said that Nike\u2019s distribution appears to be skewing toward lower-end channels, such as reverting back to Kohl\u2019s, DSW, Academy Sports<\/a> and Amazon<\/a>. And Sole even questioned whether Nike has, in fact, regained its position in the U.S. run specialty channel.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThus, the question is where are the places to buy premium Nike product and what percentage of its distribution do these channels represent,\u201d he pondered. Other than Nordstrom, Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods, Nike.com and a few other places, Sole said the majority of Nike\u2019s U.S. revenues seem to be from mid-tier department stores, mid-market sporting goods stores, off-price and the company\u2019s own outlet stores. <\/p>\n

\n\tHe emphasized that this doesn\u2019t mean that Nike can\u2019t sell higher-end product, only that investors can\u2019t be sure that Nike isn\u2019t training its customers to \u201cexpect to pay only mid-range to low-end prices\u201d for its merchandise.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother issue Sole noted is that Nike historical strength in basketball<\/a> appears less relevant today. \u201cNike\u2019s superpower is based, in part, on being able to maintain an image of being the best sports brand despite selling a lot of commodity products,\u201d Sole said. \u201cBasketball was a vehicle for being able to do that. It\u2019s unclear whether Nike can use basketball in the same way today. Plus, it\u2019s not clear what other method Nike has to regularly refresh its image with US consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSole also mulled how big Nike\u2019s fashion-driven sportswear<\/a> business should be moving forward.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA decade or so ago, Nike said sportswear<\/a> should never become more than 30 percent of its mix, otherwise the brand risks compromising its integrity as a sports performance<\/a> brand,\u201d Sole recalled. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe UBS analyst said that Nike noted in its last earnings call that sportswear is now more than 50 percent of total sales. \u201cFor Nike, its \u2018sportswear\u2019 category is essentially its fashion business. All other categories, such as running, basketball, soccer, training, tennis, etc. are \u2018performance<\/a>\u2019 categories,\u201d he said. Sole also raised the question of using sportswear as a category to drive short-term growth, which he said might have been a misstep in retrospect.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut he also said Nike\u2019s ability to sell fashion products has a direct correlation to its strength in sports \u2014 because when \u201cNike satisfies an athlete\u2019s need for performance products, the athlete is happy with Nike and then wants more of the brand as part of his or her daily life.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThis perspective \u201cgives Nike an ability to credibly and authentically sell fashion product to a loyal performance product customer who isn\u2019t confused about what the Nike brand stands for,\u201d Sole concluded. \u201cWe believe Nike\u2019s commitment to sport and investment in performance product innovation and sports marketing is how it built its brand equity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo what might have gone wrong? Sole said over the past five years or so, Nike led with fashion instead of sports, meaning it was selling to a customer who was buying fashion trends and fashion trends shift quickly. \u201cWe believe that for Nike, the fashion trend has moved away from them and now many customers have moved on to other brands because they were never consumers of\u00a0Nike sports products,\u201d Sole said. In short, they \u201cdidn\u2019t have the loyalty to the brand that sports help Nike create,\u201d making Nike another fashion brand competing with others in the marketplace. Sole said Nike should consider returning its sportswear business to a level closer to 30 percent.<\/p>\n

\n\tSole isn\u2019t the only analyst who raised questions around Nike\u2019s two main categories of business. <\/p>\n

\n\tBNP Paribas Equity Research\u2019s senior analyst Laurent Vasilescu queried whether Andy Caine was the right person to replace Tony Bignell as chief innovation officer. He noted Caine\u2019s background as creative designer of sportswear, and said that his experience is on the lifestyle piece of the business. <\/p>\n

\n\tVasilescu also noted issues with the brand\u2019s performance offerings, noting how Nike at one point received pushback with the Major League Baseball uniform designs as players complained that spectators could see through to the undergarments.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs recently as last week, new global soccer jerseys appear to have puckering around the shoulders. The BNP analyst concluded that instead of offering soccer team kits ahead of the World Cup, Nike needs to do is \u201cfix its performance innovation mishaps.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Analysts are taking a deep dive on Nike Inc. and wondering where the Swoosh goes from here in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,7863,7864,7865,7866],"class_list":["post-11515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-nike","tag-nike-sportswear","tag-performance","tag-sportswear"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116404857511111215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}