Are Nike The Best Or Just The Best At Marketing?

I’ve just treated myself to some new running shoes and despite my wide search, spanning many lockdown evenings, I kept being drawn back to the Nike website, like a stupid moth being drawn to a light amidst the darkness.

What about other brand though, like Asics? Tempting as I’ve owned some before. Hoka? They’re meant to be decent right? Brooks? Trusted by many runners worldwide. What about Adidas or Puma or New Balance? They’re all reputable brands who must spend a lot on research. But the only problem with all of these brand is, they’re just not Nike. This got me thinking. Have I been indoctrinated by years of Nike’s marketing spiel? Or are they genuinely setting the pace for high-tech sportswear in 2020?

Nike are one of my favourite brands. They shape culture like no other brand in recent times. You could argue they’ve done more to democratise running than any other brand with their range of sportswear and the Nike Running Club app.

They also aren’t afraid of having a point of view, particularly when it comes to taking a stance on political matters. Working in the advertising industry, I know how fearful top brands can be when it comes to offending anybody or alienating some of their consumers. So when Nike got behind Colin Kaepernick back in 2018 when he took a knee during the American National Anthem, they gained a lot of respect. Share prices even soared despite the anger of the racist far-right in America who decided to burn their Nikes in a pointless counter protest.

Nike are also renowned for their star-studded sponsored athletes with most number 1 players in their respective fields sporting the famous Swoosh. Serena Williams, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rory McIlroy, Lebron James, Simone Biles, Mo Farah &c. The list goes on. But anybody who has been absorbed by Michael Jordan’s Netflix series ‘The Last Dance’ will know that Nike were one of the first to take a sportsperson and together became such an influential part of culture way beyond just the sport. They seriously know how to talk the talk. So when it came to splashing out on some new running shoes they already had me half won over.

But what about their running shoes? Breaking2, an hour long documentary by Nike and National Geographic, was back in 2017 and was well awarded in the advertising industry. What have they done since, with newer, more high-tech shoes?

Well it appears they’ve taken a leaf or two out of Apples book. When the original iPhone was launched in 2007, Apple had one stroke of genius that often goes unnoticed. To show how popular the first iPhone was becoming they needed to overcome the fact that mobile phones spend a huge chunk of time in ones pocket. The solution was beautifully simple and to this day is just as affective.

White headphones.

When white headphones started appearing in ears of people worldwide during a time where headphones tended to be black, others knew instantly that in each and every persons pocket was the revolutionary new iPhone. This still rings true today with Apple’s tusk like AirPods.

So over the last couple of years where Nike have lead the carbon plate arms race with their Vaporfly NEXT% shoes, they released two colourways as iconic or at least, as noticeable, as the white headphones of Apple. The shoes launched first in ‘Volt’ - an electric green colour, or ‘Pink Blast’.

Come every race day across the globe, from mid-2019 onwards, while you couldn’t tell the exact shoes many were wearing, herds of runners would move, awash with the vibrant colours of Nike’s game-changing shoes and serious case of FOMO for those wearing something else. With the hype clearly driving sales, results started to follow.

In an article by The New York Times, research on race results from about 577,000 marathons and 496,000 half marathons, in dozens of countries, showed that those athletes switching to the NEXT% saw a 4-5% improvement in race times compared to the same races in previous shoes. The data also showed the likelihood of achieving a PR at over 70% when switching to the Nikes.

Those stats aren’t bad and were mirrored in elite competition too. All of Eliud Kipchoges pacers wore NEXT% in the historic Ineos 1:59 Challenge last year in Vienna, Kipchoge wearing some AlphFly prototypes. Fellow Kenyan Brigid Kosgei broke Paula Radcliffe’s longstanding marathon record and many more records were broken. With almost every other brand scrambling to make a carbon plated shoe you have to think that maybe there is merit in their marketing.

With all this in mind, having had a Nike tab open for weeks, there was only really one outcome. Despite being tempted by the Hoka One One Carbon X, or banking on Asics making a huge push in anticipation of the Tokyo games, or sitting it out waiting for other brands such as Adidas to release a carbon plated shoe, I yet again caved in to the Nike ecosystem and bought some Vaporfly Next% and they’re really quite good! After all I wouldn’t dare mix the stripes of Adidas with the Swoosh of Nike. I’m not a savage. Well done Nike, you got me again.