THE DEATH OF NIKE NZ ONLINE
A YEAR ON WITH NO SIGNS OF LIFE
“As of 3rd October 2023, 00:00 NZDT, Nike.com online shopping and the Nike App are no longer available in New Zealand.” This final bolded message from Nike about serving New Zealand (NZ), left a nation of sneaker collectors confused.
This move from Nike was rather odd with no information about why they made this decision. As a result of this decision, New Zealanders suddenly had limited access to Nike products and lost all access to “SNKRS” leading to the collaborative pairs rapidly becoming finite. Nike products are still accessible through retailers such as big box sneaker stores like Foot Locker, Sterling Sports, and Accent Group subsidiaries (HYPE DC, Platypus, and Subtype), independent “mum-and-pop stores” such as Loaded NZ, and skate shops across the country. There are also a total of 8 Nike stores in NZ which can be located on the remnants of the nike.com/nz page.
At the time this decision was made, many people in the sneaker realm in NZ thought that due to the death of SNKRS in NZ, the allocation of exclusive SKUs (such as collabs) that were divided for SNKRS NZ (even though very small) will end up at Nike NZ retail stores. Going a year on, it feels like NZ has just lost all allocation for collab SKUs. The only outlier here is Loaded NZ which seems to have soaked allocation for exclusive Nike/Jordan exclusive. There is a fundamental issue here. Nike has 8 branded retail stores but is pushing GRs and leaning towards the athlete aspect (running/fitness footwear/apparel). Then use a mum-and-pop store to push these collabs rather than their own retail stores.
Nike tried to execute surrounding leaning towards direct-to-consumer (DTC) and pulling a percentage of stock away from retail brands such as Foot Locker. With wanting to lean towards DTC and deciding to stop all online sales in NZ, NZ should then turn to the perfect playground to test how the market responds to hosting these more exclusive SKUs being dropped DTC through Nike NZ retail fronts and utilising mum-and-pop stores like Loaded NZ or big box retail stores like Foot Locker NZ to have an online aspect which provides a nation access.
With the flat line with no signs of life for the future of Nike NZ shopping, it seems that a nation's access to exclusive sneakers has forever been stripped away and access to Nike products itself has become more and more difficult to obtain. Here is my personal call to the void;
New Zealand is a nation where you originally had a small allocation for exclusive SKUs which was predominantly stripped away when you shut down the NZ division of Nike.com. With your brand goals of leaning towards DTC, NZ can become your perfect playground to see how a market reacts to exclusive SKUs and drops being hosted through your branded retail fronts.
Let me know your thoughts.
Sincerely,
[ SILHOUETTE ]
