A few weeks ago I wrote that I long suspected that Resku was a Nike site testing the concept of refurbished to offset the massive amount of returns the brand is experiencing due to the growth of their DTC. Nike announced their Nike Refurbished plan in April and the program has begun rolling out in Nike Clearance and Factory Stores. Today Resku updated its site with a banner stating the site would be shutting down. Now, as I stated in the article in April, the site had 700,000 visits at its highest point and still retained 500,000 unique visits a month. Why would a startup shut down a site with this type of growth in less than three years? By comparison, I began growth hacking my site last year. I was at 100 unique visits a month. Today I’m at 10,000. If arch hits 500,000 the site would have a value of over a million dollars. I state this to say, I see you Nike. Nike Resku fractures the Nike footprint and diminishes traffic to Nike.com and SNKRS. To test a concept, it made perfect sense to launch a different website. Now that the concept is proven, and you realize that the used sneaker marketplace isn’t just a fluke, but a vital aspect of the circular economy, it’s time to say good bye to Resku. Resku, we hardly knew ye.
