The Kicks You Wear: Nike’s Real Innovation Is in Its Marketing

Good morning, friends! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for reading today. Appreciate you giving me a bit of your time. Happy Tuesday!

The Business of Fashion’s upcoming BoF VOICES conference is coming up next month. Looks like we’ve got a banger on our hands, folks. The speaker slate is chock-full of the biggest movers and shakers from in and around the fashion industry. Personally, I’ve got my eyes on JD Sports CEO Régis Schultz chat. Footwear retail is in such an interesting space after the Dick’s Sporting Goods and Foot Locker merger. He’s had thoughts on it before, and I’m curious whether he’ll elaborate further at the conference about the changing landscape.

He’s just one of many interesting folks who you’ll see at VOICES this year. If you’re interested in attending, sign up here for a chance to cop a ticket! If not, no worries. You’ll be able to watch via livestream, too.

Alright. Let’s dive into the newsletter.

An Innovative Flex

The knock on Nike over the last few years has been that the brand isn’t innovative enough. It relied too heavily on retro styles and didn’t give consumers anything new or interesting.

Say what you want about Nike today, but you can’t make that complaint anymore.

What’s new: Nike introduced four new products on Thursday that feel like they’re just as — if not more — rooted in science than sport or fashion. The list includes:

• Nike Mind 001 and 002: A new footwear line for the brand that Nike says calms the wearer by hitting pressure points in the foot that stimulate the brain.
• Aero-Fit fabric: A new mesh fabric material Nike created to help regulate body heat.
• Air Milano jacket: A jacket set to debut at the Winter Olympics in Italy that can inflate and deflate to regulate body temperature.
• Project Amplify: A footwear product created alongside robotics company, Dephy, that uses a propulsion system to spring the wearer forward with each step while running or walking.

Why these matter: Consumers asked for innovation. This is Nike’s way of delivering it. These projects are ambitious and seem to solve very specific problems in sports in interesting, boundary-pushing ways.

Zoom out: This is the sort of innovative push that CEO Elliott Hill has worked over the last year to get off the ground. It’s part of the purpose of Nike’s “sport offense.”

• Nike hired Phil McCartney as its innovation chief in May to push the brand’s research and development department.
• More than 4,000 employees are on McCartney’s innovation staff, according to Bloomberg.

The other side: While I appreciate how far some of these products push boundaries for Nike as a brand, I also can’t help but wonder if this is the sort of innovation consumers were asking for.

If I’m being honest, I think the answer is no.

Be smart: Innovation is a buzzword. It means many things to many people. For the typical sportswear consumer out there, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re asking for robot shoes. It simply means something new or different.

• That’s why consumers gravitated toward challenger brands who just had something different to bring to the table.
• Brands like Hoka and On didn’t necessarily build anything novel. It was just different from what they’d been offered previously, both functionally and aesthetically.

While what Nike is presenting to people here is scientifically innovative, these products probably won’t have a widespread appeal for consumers.

What that means: That leaves questions about what this all means. What was Nike’s big tech showcase really for? The answer is that it’s for you — the average, everyday consumer. But it’s not to get you to buy these things that they’re offering. If it was, these products would’ve been pushed with price points and release dates that the brand doesn’t have just yet.

What Nike really wants to do here is leave you in awe. At its core, Nike is a marketing company. Years ago, Phil Knight once called Nike’s product its most powerful marketing tool. That’s still the brand’s playbook today.

• The brand is trying to prove to you that it still has the best research and development team in the business.
• If you believe that based on the products pushed on Thursday, you’ll probably believe Nike can build a better runner than New Balance or Hoka, too.

Whether that strategy is as powerful today when consumers are as smart and cynical as ever remains to be seen. We’ll find out soon enough.

Adidas Might Be Tariff-Proof

Three years ago, if you’d asked me to rank which footwear brands I thought would be in the best shape come 2025, Adidas would probably have been at the bottom of that list. Today, it’s at the very top.

What’s new: Adidas released its preliminary results for the quarter ending on Sept. 30. Despite the wary tones of CEO Bjorn Gulden at the end of the company’s second quarter, it’s third-quarter numbers are stellar.

• Adidas’ third-quarter revenue reached €6.63 billion ($7.6 billion), a 12 percent currency-neutral increase.
• The company raised its full-year guidance for 2025, expecting operating profit to reach €2 billion ($2.3 billion), up from the €1.7–1.8 billion ($2 billion) range.

The backdrop: This is quite a surprising development given how cautious Gulden was about the company’s second half. There were expectations that $231 million in additional costs, thanks to tariffs, would’ve weighed the company down.

Yet, here we are. Adidas has found its stride despite the tariffs. And it’s done it in a way that its competitors in the industry haven’t.

The why: For once, Adidas not relying on North America as its biggest marketplace is a positive. Europe is the company’s largest marketplace by far. Plus, there’s a hype around some of the brand’s retro styles right now that is insulating it a bit from any significant impact from tariffs.

Whether that lasts remains to be seen. But that doesn’t matter right now. For today, this is a huge win for a brand that no one could’ve imagined it would have just a few years ago.

Dead Dirt Takes Over NWSL

The NWSL is officially diving into the fashion world. LA-based sports apparel brand Dead Dirt signed a multi-year licensing deal with the league to become its official merchandise partner. The two sides announced the deal on Thursday.

Details: The brand, led by founder and creative director Dominique “Domo” Wells, will create and launch merchandise for all 16 of the league’s teams, including the league’s two new expansion teams in Boston and Denver, starting next season.

• The collection will debut over the weekend at ComplexCon on Oct. 25, where fans will have the chance to view and pre-purchase select pieces from the first collection.
• The collection will release in full in Nov. 2025

The backdrop: There’s a familiarity here. Before this partnership with the league at large, Wells was named the Washington Spirit’s creative director in January 2024. Dead Dirt has launched several Spirit capsule collections since the partnership began almost two years ago.

Dead Dirt has also been involved in other spaces around sports, too. Wells’ designs were seen on the runway in San Francisco when the Golden State Valkyries hosted a team fashion show in August.

Why this matters: As sports and fashion cozy up, we’ll see more teams and leagues bring on official fashion and merch partners. We saw it with the NFL and Abercrombie & Fitch in August, when the two sides jumped from a licensing deal to an official fashion partnership. What we’re seeing here is along those same lines. The NWSL is getting ahead of the curve with a brand and creative that it trusts.

Be smart: This will be a bit of a challenge for Dead Dirt. The brand has really made its name with the merch it produced for the Spirit. It’s very specific in speaking to that team and community. This new deal takes that and spreads it across 16 teams. That’s a lot.

What she’s saying: That’s something Wells is embracing.

• “Each club has its own story to tell,” Wells said in a press release. “Through design, we’re celebrating that energy while giving something that feels elevated, cool and collectible.”

The bottom line: Wells is someone the NWSL trusts. The league has already seen her work and how it’s resonated with one team. It’s clear it believes she can do that across the board.

As someone who has been to Spirit games and seen that up close, I totally get it.

The Return of The Boardflip

My nostalgia meter is going crazy right now. I went from not feeling an ounce of FOMO for ComplexCon to “WOW. WHAT? EVERYTHING IS DROPPING” levels in the blink of an eye.

The why: Reebok and Don Toliver are teaming up to bring back the BBC Ice Cream Boardflip. For those of you who don’t know, this is a classic Pharrell sneaker that was released in the early 2000s.

• It was a skate shoe co-created by Pharrell and Nigo — the founder of the streetwear brand, Human Made.
• Speaking of Human Made, the company has ambitions for an IPO. It’s application was approved by the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market on Thursday.
• The two created the boardflip for their Billionaire Boys Club Ice Cream skate team that included folks like Jimmy Gorcecki.

We’ve been getting hints for a while that they’d be coming back. Now, it appears, the day has finally come. And — unfortunately for my inner 15-year-old — I will not be in the building.

Zoom out: Don’t look now, but ComplexCon is actually shaping up to be pretty solid, even outside of Toliver and the Boardflip.

If you’re going to Las Vegas this weekend, have a blast in my honour.

#TheKicksWeWear

LET’S GET RIGHT TO IT.

First, the homie Rohan got us going with these shiny Jordans. These are going CRAZY.

Then the homie Kali Rhe kept the party going with these Air Jordan 2s. We absolutely love to see a shoe with character like this.

The homie Rell cooked with these Black Ferrari 14s. What a shoe, man. Those details. Chef’s kiss.

Then the homie Blairyposa cleaned up at the Pacers game with this combo. Double OT was tough last night.

Then the homie Floyd sent us home with these Candy Corn Dunks. Tis the season!

Great stuff, gang! Great stuff.

Thanks for reading, gang! Hope you enjoyed the newsletter.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, reach out to me via email at michael.sykes@businessoffashion.com or shoot me a message @MikeDSykes via socials.

Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.

-Sykes 💯