Originally posted on Housakicks
On my way to pick up a couple of orders today, I decided to swing by my local outlet. Most brands use the holiday season to unload their excess inventory; my first stop was the Nike Factory store which was very disappointing, there was nothing in there worth mentioning. I also went to the Under Armor store which needless to say was just as boring as the Nike Store. I didn’t want to stop by the Adidas store due time constraints so I decided to do just quickly take a glance inside but what I came about was astonishing.
Astonishing because it basically proved what Chris from ARCH and I have been talking about all along. The Adidas NMD’s were on sale in their local outlet store; this is the very first time I come across discounted NMD’s in an Adidas factory store. Many other retailers have been marking them down but I had yet to actually see them in an Adidas location. This is an indication of the beginning of the end of the NMD. Adidas has been releasing countless iterations of the shoes and with the market being flooded, the shoes have lost the cool factor analysts often talk about. not only is the brand releasing too many styles of the NMD but the shoes have been overpriced. They went from $ 109 to $170 within a two year span which is absolutely ridiculous. In the video below, Chris and I were talking about how the NMD might become the next Nike Roshe. Take the time to watch it in its entirety and let us know what your thoughts are on this subject.
I saw this coming. I think we all did, at least those of us that understand the exclusivity heuristic. Adidas broke some core rules of engagement and went from a star in the making to over producing many of the shoes that catapulted them into the spotlight.
Hard to believe some people still think there is a debate to be had around whether Kanye propelled the brand in a major way even when faced with the data showing the sell through rates of this shoes and even those don’t resell for what they used to.
The huge red flag this year beyond the obviousness of almost all models being more accessible was in April when the trace cargo sat. That shoe should have never sat but it did and guess what? It’s still available and there are sites with a full size run after all these months.
From that point onwards it seemed like over 74% of UB’s released sat. NMD’s were pretty much already dead at this point and the allure of even their collabs started to drop.
Was at one of my local malls on 12/17/17. I went to the Adidas outlet, not to correlate this article or any previous ones but to simply get my Xmas shopping vibe on.
They had almost every wmns NMD and a few mens but all at retail. I double checked with a nearby associate that all the prices were correct, there were no promos and I just walked out. Went to Nike and got major heat on the low low and I mean low.
One of the things that killed Adidas and slowed their growth are the prices of their shoes. I specifically told them on Twitter that the recently released Adidas CS1 Goretex was one if not the most expensive Gore-Tex bearing shoe I can remember. Not boots. There are plenty of Gore-Tex boots somewhat deserving of those higher prices but they had leather or a DSW suede or nubuck upper. Adidas wanted $230 for a knit shoe with Gore-Tex.
The shoe is sitting globally and SNS in one of their sales dropped it to $171.00 shipped which helped move the model.
You nailed it. While this post was done in November we did the video in May. Which means that adidas had almost one year of success with the NMD before they undercut their own success.I don’t know if you remember this: http://arch-usa.com/how-pricing-will-kill-the-knit-sneaker-trend/ I wrote it in May. Last year in October I got so irritated by the pricing of knit shoes I wrote this one: http://arch-usa.com/insider-ties-quiz-son-wisdom-simplification-kicks/ So I could take the time and explain how the design of a shoe and materials factor in the actual price and why knit shoes are a rip off for the most part (this doesn’t include Battle Knit for the Lebron).