In the midst of all of these *think pieces* about the great Nike and their tanked stock price and all these comments from newbs on my posts saying ‘Nike is done’….I had a thought the other day…because it reminded me of eBay and their history in the sneaker world.
If you’re relatively new year (ie: been into sneakers for less than 10 years), it’d be hard for me to convince you of the stranglehold that @ebay used to have on our beloved hobby. eBay was, quite literally, the ONLY place you could buy sneakers (online). Sure, in store, thrift stores, Craigslist (sort of), yahoo auctions (sometimes), ISS or NT classifieds (sometimes)…but eBay had cornered 99% of the marketing through an absolute lack of effort and a stroke of luck in providing the only platform most of us could use or understand. Which is *also* why StockX was BUILT using most of its ‘sales’ data directly FROM eBay - because it was the most vibrant and liquid marketplace.
I read an article a few years into eBay’s decline that basically summarized the whole proposition…it said that the only way to actually beat eBay was to create a a *niche* marketplace in its place. So that’s what StockX and GOAT did - likely taking over quite a bit of market share from the bay. eBay was in the (sneaker) dumps for a good 5+ years. Obviously, at this point, eBay has clawed back from the bring of irrelevance and is a force to be reckoned with..
And that made me think of Nikes place at this moment in time: is it possible that these niche brands are going to for Nike to recalibrate itself against a host of these smaller companies that are finding their own footing using Nikes formulas? IMO, I’m excited to see what comes…because…it seems…winter is coming.