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In 2017, You Can No Longer Buy Authentic Nike Products at Small Shops. Here’s Why

2016-12-20 , 8:00 pm

The end of an era

90’s kids, remember how you used to go to Queensway Shopping Centre with your friends to look for the latest Nike Air and hope it’s within your budget? It might disappear after this latest move by Nike.

Seeing as how these small shops depend on carrying big brand names in order to survive, it is entirely plausible that they won’t survive the Nike purge when it takes place.

The owner of a small sports store for over 30 years, Mr Gurbachan Singh, said that this move by Nike might just put many small shops out of business.

Nike is looking to grow its online store

Some smaller business owners are crying foul, claiming that they’ve done nothing wrong to deserve this.

“We did business with Nike for more than 20 years. We followed their rules, never defaulted on payments nor brought in fake or parallel imports. Many of us don’t understand why they are doing this to us.”

“What they are doing is wrong. I have been an account holder for over 20 years and have always supported the brand. What they are doing will destroy my livelihood.”

Others speculated the brand is looking to grow its online sales. In 2015, Nike told its investors it will increase its online sales by 600 times, from 2 percent of its total sale of $30.6 billion to 14% in the next five years.

Not the First Time Nike Did This

Nike did a similar thing in 2014 when it was unwilling to supply to shops selling less than 25,000 pounds of their products in a year in the United Kingdom, and also removed their credit terms.

Its reason was that it was no longer viable to supply to these shops, especially when they focus on cutting costs and improving consumers’ experience.

Turn to Other Brands in Order to Survive

In order for these smaller shoe stores to retain their businesses, they have to turn to other top brands such as Adidas.

For example, Mr Singh, the owner of the shoe store Salam & Sons, is working closely with Adidas by giving them more prominent spaces in the shop while pushing Nike to the back.

Seems like getting cheap Nike shoes is becoming a tougher job. Those who always shop at Queensway are going to be disappointed by this news. Maybe we all should rush to these stores before January!