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Local Mall Scouting | Sneaker Shops | Retail Report & Observations- The Nike Problem
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Feb 20, 2025
I wrote a post yesterday with the purpose of investigating whether Nike had valid reasons to price the 2019 Air Jordan 4 IV cool Grey at $190, you can read it by clicking the link below https://housakicks.com/business/can-the-190-for-the-2019-air-jordan-4-iv-cool-grey-be-justified/ I made some claims about Nike's reasons for inflating their sneaker prices that I wanted to back up with verifiable proofs. So I took to my local mall two hours later and visited three different retailers- Finishline, DTLR and Champs. Even though my sample is small, these three stores are the ideal representative of the current problem with most retailers in sneaker market. I'll invite you to watch the video below in its entirety and leave your feedback afterwards Subscribe to Housakicks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZPK... Visit Housakicks: https://www.housakicks.com Visit ARCH: https://www.arch-usa.com
View Video Transcript
0:00
Good morning, guys. This is Typh from Asa Kix
0:02
And my goal this morning was to go to my local mall and just make like some quick stops at DTR, Chames and finish line because full lock has been shut down
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So, and the reason why I did it is because this morning I wrote an article in which I was talking about the Cool Grade 4 and its price
0:23
It was $1.90. And my whole post was about was the price and can the price be just
0:29
testified so and I said some things in it that I wanted to confirm so I came in
0:35
the mall this morning to try to see what's going on the mall at this moment
0:39
with sneakers like what is sitting on the wall and why are they sitting on the wall
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so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go and I'm gonna check out DTLR wall and then
0:49
finish line and champs now it may be a little bit like on uncomfortable because
0:55
every time you go into the store like that you're not buying anything you're just grabbing your camera
0:59
and then you're filming. People tend to not really like it. And I understand why, because they're doing their jobs
1:05
and you're sitting there with your camera trying to film stuff. So if it seems a little bit like awkward
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don't be worried. I'm going to give you some comments at the end of my recording
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and I'll tell you exactly why. I'll say what I said in my article, okay? So stay tuned
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I'm finished long, and I'm going to start with West Outside. All right
1:25
And then I'm going to go wall and war and show you exactly West Side
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We're still sitting here. You got a bit max, a ganga, bro
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That's just a retail wall now. You're gonna see the sale of Iraq in the minute
1:41
And you see what's up there. And this is there. And Max 270 Nike days
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In sale, we've got the 97s. You're going to sell 120. A ganga there
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You got some 95s in sale. And $100. bunch of you see we just gonna look their original price you see there the
2:03
marketings are incredible but still sitting on the wall people are just not
2:08
interested now we look like some Adidas this is the special
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ultra booth some NMDs here and we got the auto booth multi-color I tell the Chinese
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I don't think so. I don't think so. These React Elements
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sell to the original prices. Let's see this. 130. So you're talking like 20
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mark down from Rajesh multi-color. I think it's like 120 to 80
2:51
Alright, let's do on our wall. and then look at some more figure of stuff
3:02
almost zeroing on those um the don't see 75 75 150 150
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105 and then you get the total one made now they're going in sale too
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again now you get the retro 145 one 45 Let me show the stuff you saw on the wall so I'm gonna turn on this side. Look at how many of the they have left to me
4:41
We're gonna go on the woman's wall. Real quick glance, take a quick glance
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The Riyadh for 95s. Jordan, four, singles there for 120. A bunch of stuff with 4550
5:00
The fraud is incredible. I mean, this Florida is incredible. I mean, this is Florida of shoes, man
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Look at, 25, 45, 45. There's too many shoes and keep coming
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There's more, more shoes coming out. All right? No, this is 30
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The Mac 98. And this just looks like a neon green. That's just the women's
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They still got these sitting here. I don't know where the price is. Look at the kids, go and a quick
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Quick glance. A little retro, different things. Too much
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Too much. We're going to take it up now and go to detail
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I'll see what you get. leaves to heartbreak in some time the night
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this one never heard to you or treats your whole and kind
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and just run to the arms of the one who loves you
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just one to his arms and feel like to one who loves you
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The champs down, there's a lot of feet, that's in sale
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The disruptor was brought early on last year, and then they flooded them off with a bunch of colorways
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and that's now you see the results. They're just sitting here. We go and then look at some of the stuff on the other side
6:57
All the dog, them one sitting here, now they kept the price, they kept the price, they know. They kept the price intact. They haven't changed it yet. So this is still the same
7:05
You don't have that much sale items or the US AMX1. Some nice good, but it's just too much stuff. So the options are limitless
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People have options so they don't, they're not compelled. They don't feel the need to like
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buy the shoes now. A lot of their rest of them are going to sell again They got their RTV system Good how you doing Just recording a couple of things here real quick How you been Good
7:31
Look at this. Look at this. That's it for James
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Alright guys, as you saw me this morning, I went out. I did some kind of scouting, went to finish line, and then I went to downtown locker room
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and the last place was champs. I only chose like three locations and one more just to represent my bigger population
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So it's a small sample. And then I told you at the end I was going to draw some conclusions, and this is what I'm going to talk about
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I want to put it on the board so you can actually see what I'm saying, if you're a retailer. All right
8:16
Now, the first thing we saw was that this. Like, there's a lot of shoes that are sitting on the wall, a lot of good stuff, like good retros
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like the Jordan Nostager 6, a lot of the cap and gown, like all the Jordan one meets
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and a bunch of different models, right? And then you're going to ask yourself, if you're a retailer, how do you survive this market
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Guess what? You can't. And I give you the reasons why Nike has a purpose in all these things
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Like, number one thing is the greed that I wanted to mention, right? Greed
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Because guess what? when these shoes drop, they are super expensive, like maybe $190 for the Mello Jordan 13th or the cap and gun was like $200
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So when the shoe drops, the first destination of a lot of people is Nike.com or Nike in online store or Nike locations, right
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So Nike is going to try to capitalize on it because they know people want these shoes
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We whine, we complain about the most, the number one brain that everybody wants is a Nike shoe
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So they're going to go out and get it. So Nike gets away with just inflating their prices
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The inflation doesn't reflect the changes in the price. So Nike can get away with it
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That's the first thing is green. Now, the second thing is the most important portion that I wanted to talk about is the DTC
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And DTC stands for direct to consumer or Chris calls it consumer and direct offerings
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So basically, why is Nike inflating their prices? There's an agenda. All right
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That's an agenda, which I don't think. I think I'm qualified to talk about it
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All right? So here's the thing. Nike is trying to get rid of the distribution channel. And when I say distribution channel
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I'm talking about foot locker, finish line, champs, all the retailers, minor, major, on all these people
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So what are they going to do? They're going to try to put these prices so high
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that when you go into a store, the shoes like 190. And now the consumer has understood
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one thing, that shoe is going to go to the outlet. So guess what? You're not willing to buy the shoe
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now because you know in like six months that shoe's going to go to the outlet so the shoe and the shoe
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store serves just as a closet basically you go in there you see what you want and you say okay you know
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what i'm going to wait till you hit the outlet and i'm going to get it now here's the thing
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Nike knows one thing let's say let's talk about the metal 13 it was 190 when he came out right
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guess what i picked it up for the Nike outlet next to my house for 99 plus 20% of that's like
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almost $80 plus tax. All right? Now, you tell me, how did the shoe go for $190 to $80
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Nike sold it for $80 to me. And guess what? The brand is still making money
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All right? But guess what? Before it went down to $80, it was at $1.29
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So let say the shoe in retail store is Now the wholesaler which is in this case like finish line is probably paying like maybe for it maybe half of the price All right or 95 let say 95 so they are hoping to sell
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for $1.90 and make like a $80 or $90 profit. So you go into a store you go $190 too much. I'm not
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going to pay that much for it. So they take it down to maybe $149 and you still think it's too much
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So guess what happened? There's one thing that we call the RTV
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return to vendor. So Nike and places like finish line foot locker, champs
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eblins, they have that luxury so they can return that shoe to Nike and guess what
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Nike is gonna throw that shoe to the outlet and then you go into the outlet you find
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that shoe for 129 and you're happy because it's cheap. You see what I mean
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But in the same process, Nike is selling that shoe to you for 129 and I'm gonna show you
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something here. I'm going to show you something interesting. There's a thing. Outlet price
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Outlet price is 129 maybe, right? Now wholesale price, let's see that's 95. Nike can sell
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us to footlock a finish line or champ for 95. They're not making as much profit because what? They're going to
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They know that if they can take it to the outlet and sell it for $1.29, that's much more money because they are not making an extra, what, $5.29, that's $34
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Right? And guess what? As a consumer, you're happy. You're going to post it on your social media outlet and say, hey, guys, I saw this show at the Nike outlet for $1.29
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Go get it. And guess who's making that much money? Nike is making much money
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And guess who's losing? Retail. Because retail can get rid of it because they paid $95
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And they're not willing to sell it for $1.29 because it's minimum. the profit is minimal, so they're going to try to send it back to Nike and get the credit
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towards their next purchase. So basically, the biggest winner here is always going to be Nike
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And guess what? That's the reason why you're seeing all these shoes sitting at retail because they're not going to be
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able to sell it. Because people know at some point in the near future, that shoe is going to go up to the outlet
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and then you're going to be able to get it for a lot less than what you're playing for
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in a retail store. So guess who's in trouble? retail. And now retail has another problem. Now you have places like Stark X where a shoe that's not
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even out on a Saturday yet can be fetched on Stark X for $10 less than retail. Like one of the
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shoes that I was talking about last week or two weeks ago was the Ray Allen. The shoe's supposed
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with 190. You could buy that shoe on Stark Egg for 180 before Saturday. You see what I mean
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So how do you think retail is going to make any money if people know that they can buy that shoe for 180 on Stark X
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And then my question is this, where is StarkX buyers getting these shoes from
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That's the problem. Now they're buying it for like from account holders
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Maybe. Because if an account holder, no, look, I'm only paying, I only pay 95 for the shoe and I know that this is going to sit
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So guess what? Let me send it to Stark X so I can get rid of it right away so I can get my money because I don't want to
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RTV the shoe because if you're a downtown locker room or Jimmy Jaws or Shoe City you're
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going to have to sell that shoe because you can't do the RTV so you're stuck you see
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what I mean so this is a lot more than people think now I just give you a quick breakdown
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on it and I might talk about it maybe later on so stay tuned for my stuff all right thanks
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for watching this is type of master kicks
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