I have, once again, neglected my goal of writing here weekly. Something is always getting in the way or
making it harder. I say I'll do it later, but I don't. I have two subjects on my mind I can write about;
both were posts by me on fedi, so this is less a new idea, and more me trying to get through a block by
writing about familiar content. So, this one will be a look at the strange voyeurism that has set in when it
comes to Nike on the sneakerhead community in particular.
For starters, because you are not obligated to know about finances, Nike has had a stock problem for a few
years now. It has been down quite a lot compared to its great times. There are a myriad of reasons for it:
their aggressive shift to Direct-To-Consumer models that alienated partner stores, over-reliance on retro
sneakers, a failure to capitalize on some trends like terrace culture, and so on. Problems Nike is painfully
aware of; I'm sure their executives who get paid a lot of money have some sleepless nights over it. None of
that is a lie, and it coincides with another aspect: the crash of the sneaker resale market. There was a
nonsensical high during the pandemic about sneakers that, for about a year, has crashed hard. On large
markets like the USA and Europe, new releases are often on resale for less than retail, for some reason.
This is not Nike's fault, or Adidas' fault. At least not directly.
Then, you have the recent news: Kylian Mbappé, who, if you don't know, is a French football player, one of
the biggest in the world right now, you may know him for playing for France, losing to Spain, then almost
ending the World Cup on a 4-0 against England, which they saved to a 6-4. Or for those rather tasteless
dictator memes. Still, he left Nike, which he had been signed to since he was 8 years old, for On. On is
creating a football division, and convinced Mbappé to sign with them. The reading is that Nike is old,
failing, and lost one of its biggest stars. The boring reality is that the guy is so rich his
great-grandchildren and sons will never have to work; a few more million on a contract wasn't really paying.
He probably left for the prize of being the entire football division and create his own "thing", an
attention Nike could not give him. Plus, equity, a deal Nike does not make; they learned that with Michael
Jordan.
If you look at the comments for a new Nike release or news, the comments arealwaysjoking
about the stock, all the time. Oh, how much Nike has fallen, they lost their way, everything sucks, they are
going out of business. Not to be the person defending the company worth billions of dollars, but that is
just not the case. First, Nike is not nearly going bankrupt. We may see them with other companies and forget
about how big they are. For example, On had revenue of about 2.82 billion dollars in 2024. Lots of money:
the Jordan division, a part of Nike, made 7 billion in 2024, and has gone up in 2025. Nike's revenue, in one
of its worst years, is over 46 billion in 2025. Adidas, which is on a crazy high right now, makes 28.5
billion. These are not numbers of failing companies; these are the numbers of giants that Wall Street has
ideas about. All of them are giants, so why do we seem to crave calling Nike a fallen giant? A
"has-been"?
There is a lot, first, good old engagement; you'll probably get more attention to say "Nike is done!"
instead of a detailed market analysis, especially because it's boring as heck. Second, Nike has been
ubiquitous for so long, we kind of enjoy seeing the weather shift, even if by a little. Third, there is a
lot of feeling for revenge. Jordans used to resell for a lot of money, and now they do, Nike never made a
dime out of it, but we can blame them, I suppose. And, well, it's a trend in sneaker culture to call things
"dead", like we want to be so ahead of the trends, we declare them ead so we can dictate the next one; I
find that one particularly annoying.
So, this is the strange voyeurism. I admit I am rather new to sneaker culture, so I did not live through a
lot; maybe that's why I find it so bizarre. Maybe I am being driven by emotion and defending the big,
soulless corpo because I like some shoes. Maybe everyone is rage baiting me and its working. It sometimes be
like that.
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