IMAGES: CARLOS SERRAO STYLING: RUSSELL WESTBROOK To Russell Westbrook, style has never been purely about the way you dress. According to the reigning MVP, style…
Source: Russell Westbrook ‘Why Nor?’ Spring 18 Look Book
I’m trying to recall if there has been a time where another sports brand allowed one of their athletes to create the line and lookbook for an apparel collection that is streetwear influenced. I don’t think there is one. In the last year I’ve done articles on the shortcomings of particular brands looking to expand their reach to the market that actually buys apparel as well as footwear. The sport brands have all basically utilized the same strategy of locating a modeling agency and grabbing stoic, lean models that look absolutely nothing like the people who are being targeted. This has led to missed opportunities for brands.
I’m not completely enamored by the line up presented in this collection, but what I do like is that Nike, while limiting the locations they are selling their gear, is making sure to keep some items exclusively away from Foot Locker and Finish Line who are the more dominant distribution outlets for the Swoosh and Jumpman. Tayib discussed this in his article on the CNY Retro 6:
http://housakicks.com/air-jordan/air-jordan-retro-6-cny-chinese-new-year-market-value-per-size/
The Stockists for the Why Not Collection are listed below:
Niketown
Flight 23
House of Hoops
Jimmy Jazz
Kicks USA
Villa
Shoe Palace
Jump
City Gear
Thunder Team Store
If you exclude Niketown and Flight 23 which are basically extensions of Nike you can see clearly that Nike is attempting to make smaller chains happy with ‘exclusive’ product.
This is a solid strategy if Nike is also including merchandising. The one thing that I’ve noticed lately in stores is the lack of promotional items accompanying collections and footwear. Every brand, including Nike, are no longer building displays for the presentation of shoes. Merchandising has become tertiary and that’s a serious issue at a time when people need a reason to pull their cards out insert them into the chip readers. Take a few minutes to use the source link at the top of the page to check out the Why Not Lookbook. Take special care to see the pre-order on available on Jordan.com. When the brand is leading the way in digital strategy it may not matter that they have made the collection exclusive if you aren’t following suit and offering the collection via pre-order also.