So ditch the Nike account if it isn’t working out financially?
I’m saying it’s not down to Nike that Forty Two has decided to call it a day, but I’m sad to see it go. Same goes for any SOS.
Genuine question (I wouldn’t put it past them) are shops with a Nike account locked in to a multi year commitment to take whatever Nike decide to ship?
Or is it if you want the hype new Dunk colour way you need to take a load of other shit along with it?
Won’t be long before you can only buy from the brand websites and the distro sends it out.
Or like direct from HLC, you pick a shape and size, choose your graphic and they slap on a transfer and ship out.
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This Nike thing is so tiring. Every big footwear brand requires committing a certain spend to continue stocking it.
Look at Welcome or Note’s online stores – stores I know have done/do a lot of swoosh trade – and their ranges of Nike shoes are no more offensive (and seemingly unsellable) than any other big footwear brands they carry.
The idea of shops being force fed Dunks/Nike is an overplayed scapegoat. They’re niche stores in a bad economy selling a whole inventory of brands which got more expensive.
Guys, read between the lines. I am not talking generally here or trying to resurrect some tired debate.
Nike see Dunks are selling extremely well and put pressure on a shop to continue to stock all their latest releases, with the implicit threat that they will downgrade the account of said shop and give the more exclusive lines to a competitor. Dunks stop selling as well, but Nike continue to flood a shop with their latest lines despite the protests of the shop. Shop is left in a bad situation where it has too much stock and not enough capital, and then has to terminate their Nike account or take on an insane amount of debt.
42 have been open since 2011, they have weathered ups and downs in the economy and skate fashions. The guys there know what they’re doing. Nike were too slow to respond/didn’t care about what the current economic and skating downturn might mean for an independent shop. Personally, I think that fucking stinks.
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Tell you what, in 10 years time we’ll let trump off for blowing the world up shall we?
“The end of of the world was soooooo 2025 guys, lets move on shall we?”
But that sentence is incoherent because those who are left have no teeth and are basically walking dead mutants eating rats for survival.
The downturn of shops is basically down to skateboarders just thinking of themselves. That’s who we are today. We all have lines and morals and they are at an all time low right now.
But you do you.
That said, I am the same, I haven’t contributed to the industry by buying product, I rarely every did. Skate fashion never appealed. So lets all walk into the sea together. We’re all twats!
Ok so, if having a Nike account is so terrible for an SOS’s finances, wouldn’t it be a good idea to stop stocking them?
The Nike account can go to another local retailer and bankrupt them instead.
If I am following your logic correctly?
Seems a bit knee-jerk to solely blame Nike when there will have been a million other factors at play to make a decision to close.
I don’t think the downturn of shops has anything to do with people being twats.
It’s cool if you have a local shop that you like and you support, but there’s no realistic way for any small shop to compete with those that have warehouses and buying power when it comes to online sales of things like decks, bearings and shoes.
There is even less chance of competing when distros start selling direct. The trade price a distro sells to a shop at still gives them margin for profit…so when it comes to discounting they can cut further than you can without taking a loss.
The only future I can imagine is one where smaller independent brands work with smaller skate shops and create unique product that isn’t in the mainstream. There’s a few brands that are down for that kind of thing. Local up and coming brands should probably also feature to keep each skate shop individual. It isn’t a very scalable business model, but the alternative is that smaller shops just stock a more expensive and less expansive selection of the same stock offered by the warehouse/distro shops.
Thoughts welcomed, it’s a problem close to my heart 
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Trouble is, lots of skaters want Nike, so shops feel they need Nike to get skaters in the door, possibly.
Nike hasn’t brought down SOS shops primarily, it’s initially the attitudes of individual skaters. The fashion twists and turns, the following of trends and making sure you keep up.
If people cared about the skateboard industry they’d support people and brands they respect (you choose whether there are any) instead of putting their money to campanies that are already massive and don’t need support, they are always going to be making their money in the general market. But… people are their own, if they like Nike and want to wear them then fair enough. We’re shouting at clouds here and there is no solution to rain when you want sunshine. The power is not ours.
Never forget.
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BRING BACK TECHNOFERRET
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There is no point trying to close the gate once the horse has bolted and all that. Do Nike or any shoe brand still give SOS exclusive shoes? If they don’t it’d be stupid not to be on the basic accounts and get what you want in (well what they’ve got left over sometimes). Even keeping big accounts if you are a small shop for a few yearly exclusives seems bad business in all honesty. A small SOS trying to complete with big chain stores in their town just isn’t sustainable if they can basically get in the same shoes too. I went into JJB Sports the other day as a non-skating friend wanted some trainers and they had Dunks for days. The really bad quality ones mind.
Is it a case of consumer quality and reinforced quality for skaters? If not i’m not sure why they would make varying qualities of the same shoe.
The SB dunks come from a different factory than the non SB ones
This is what Vans have been doing for a very long time.
I nearly mentioned that I know Vans do similar.
I can never really work out Nike’s strategy with skateshoes or shoes in general. Why don’t they keep a gamut of popular shoes in regular colours that you can buy all the time? Like an all black janoski or all white for example. If you look at other brands they keep putting out their classic shoes in decent colours. And with skateboarding the shoes always wear out so you know people will come back for more.
Conversation last night at the skate park with someone who felt he was being ‘minoritised’ by being ‘forced’ to label himself as cis male and suddenly feels incredibly strongly that the pronoun they should only be used in the plural context etc. etc.
I’ve known this person for quite a while. Really sad to see the algorithms doing their work.
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oh man i absolutely hate conversations like this and have had to walk away from a few. it’s always straight white males who feel like they’re being discriminated against because actual minorities actually have a voice and people are allowed to represent and identify themselves however they please
no one is forcing him to label himself as cis, white, heterosexual, whatever. it’s just what he is.
as you say it’s the algorithms at work. the chances of any of this stuff actually making any real world difference to his life is vanishingly small. yet he’ll crow about it at any given opportunity
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Yeah, got one of these at work. Thinks Donald Trump is great. Had some right rows with him back when we were all in the office. Thing is he used to be pretty chill, didn’t care about anything much except videogames until the whole gamergate thing happened then he just went down a rabbit hole.