Source: Jordan Why Not? Zer0.5 Men’s Basketball Shoes. Nike.com
I utilize resale as a gauge of how well a sneaker is performing at retail. I’ve been tracking the correlation between resale and retail for over ten years. I have enough information readily available to show the decline in basketball sneaker sales and to state clearly that in the U.S. a strategy built around basketball has to implement a considerable alignment with lifestyle, limited drops and collaborations. I’ve written consistently about how poorly Nike Basketball signature sneakers have performed. Here is a rabbit hole of articles and discussions covering years to browse. Below is a video where you can listen to a discovery on basketball sneakers from 2020:
In this video, at 3:25, I discuss how kid’s basketball sales on Amazon have damaged hoops shoes for the big three. I stress an important fact that consumers buy what they can afford and private label and “knock off” styled sneakers are taking market share in an important demographic, parents buying basketball shoes for kids and adults buying basketball shoes based on cost. At 5:59 of the video I show how the different IP of brand’s basketball sneakers are being taken. At 7:20 I show the feedback on Amazon for these cheaper shoes. Amazon’s cheaper no name brand basketball sneakers are disruptive.
The disruption of basketball sneaker retail by Amazon is only one aspect of the issues with basketball sneakers. To really get to the core of why the kicks aren’t selling anymore in the U.S. I would have to write another 50 posts. Instead of focusing on that aspect, I’ll move back to the original topic here. Why would the Westbrook Why Not sneaker line, which has continuously ended up in the Nike Clearance Store and on promo at sneaker retail receive a 20-dollar price increase from 130 to 150? The previous version of the Why Not, Zer0.4 was readily available to me at 40-50% off and while I sold 4,956 pair of sneakers on StockX in 2021, I didn’t sell one Jordan Why Not.
I sold Jordan Delta, MA and other Jordan Brand styles, but there wasn’t enough room in the Why Not Zer0.4 at 60 dollars plus tax for me to garner a return as small as 3%. The Why Not, Paul George and Zoom Freak are staples in the Clearance Store at 39.99 to 79.99 and you can visit stores across the country and find the models there. To raise the price of the Why Not Zer0.5 is absurd. Factor in recent reports about Nike’s issues in China, “The decline in China is certainly alarming,” BTIG analyst Camilo Lyon told Yahoo Finance this week. “It was far steeper than what we had anticipated, a negative 24% decline on a constant currency basis,” (Yahoo Finance) and this price increase on a model that consistently hits clearance racks seems like a serious misstep by Jordan Brand.
I hope this is a limited edition and the price increase is due to this fact, because if the Why Not line has moved to the same price as the Kevin Durant, that places at the high end of sneaker SRPs at a time where Westbrook is looking like the fall guy for the Los Angeles Lakers’ unexpectedly poor performance this season.