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Jordan Brand President Larry Miller reiterated several problems facing the brand that industry experts have raised recently.
At a #StumptownTalks event Wednesday night, Miller gave a broad overview of his career, from his first job selling Jet Magazine door-to-door to starting the Jordan Brand and running the Trail Blazers. But it was his comments about the current state of Jordan that will likely most entice sneakerheads.
The brand's biggest problems at the moment, according to Miller: maintaining its relevance and pulling back the number of shoes on the market.
“We have to figure out how to keep the brand connected to young consumers as well as consumers that have been with the brand for a while,” Miller said. “That is the biggest issue that we have – is how do we continue to make the brand relevant with today’s consumers. The further Michael gets from the basketball court, the more challenging it is.”
Miller has been president of Jordan since its inception in 1997, as Michael Jordan was preparing to retire, from the Chicago Bulls, for the second time. He took a brief hiatus from running Jordan to work as president of the Trail Blazers from 2007 to 2012 before returning to the brand he’d helped develop into a company worth more than $1 billion.
With Jordan retiring for good early last decade, the brand is grappling with selling to consumers who have never seen him play. This year, analyst firm the NPD Group reported that the Jordan Brand lost its No. 2 spot to Adidas in terms of footwear market share.
Miller said while the movie "Space Jam" helps with brand recognition, the brand is also working to connect more with consumers online as part of Nike’s larger turnaround strategy. At the company's Investor Day last month, Nike executives said the company would aim to convert casual customers to “members” of its apps or websites. Miller said an exclusive Jordan membership program is in the works, with features similar to other Nike membership programs like on-demand customer service and member-only product releases
Jordan is also working to better serve female customers, another growth area identified by Nike at Investor Day and an area where industry analysts say most brands fall short.
“Frankly, all of the brands have talked for years about making inroads into servicing the women’s business and they continue to fail, which has allowed brands like Lululemon to come in and steal market share,” NPD’s Matt Powell told the Business Journal.
Miller said Jordan is working on a “women’s-only” model of the Air Jordan, that will only be made up to women’s size 12 (a men’s 10.5).
“Over the years we’ve got a lot of girls and women who love our brand and we’ve shown them no love in return,” Miller said. “Now we have realized that we’ve got to really focus on doing products specifically for girls and women and we’ve got some really cool stuff coming out. We’ve got a shoe coming that I’m sure a lot of guys are going to want but it doesn’t go up to their size.”
Related to this demand-creation, too, is the speed at which Jordan can design and put new models to market. Current industry wisdom suggests that given today’s fast-moving consumer, the longer the lag time between when a shoe is designed and when it hits the shelf, the less likely it is to be on-trend. This has driven all of the brands, including Nike, into a race to speed up production times.
But Miller said creating the annual Air Jordan – and most other shoes – still takes the traditional 18 months.
“The main cycle for making a new shoe takes about a year and a half, actually,” Miller said. “So right now, we’re in the process of finalizing the (Air Jordan) 33, which doesn’t come out until October of next year. We work pretty well in advance when it comes to designing shoes, and it’s pretty much that way with all of the shoes.”
Miller also acknowledged that the Jordan Brand has lost its exclusivity, and it’s hoping to get it back.
Industry analysts have long criticized the flood of Nike shoes in the U.S. retail market. The “stack them high and let them fly” credo no longer applies to athletic footwear, they contend.
Instead, the limited release model – customers used to sleep overnight in front of their local sneaker stores, fueling massive, but now-dying, after-market sales – will still drive business.
Those after-market sales, Miller said, used to help the brand gauge whether a shoe was hot. Models that sold out on day one and went for several thousand dollars over retail price that night on eBay were deemed successful, for instance
But now that the market has been over-saturated, that after-market is “not as robust as it was maybe a year ago,” Miller said.
“Once of the issues we’re dealing with right now is we’ve put a few too many shoes to market,” Miller said. “We’re actually in the process of making sure that we get back to that market where it’s a pull market, where people are looking for product and there’s scarcity because that’s how we built our brand.”
The Miller program drew a record attendance for the #StumptownTalks event. The free program, developed by Lincoln High grad Michael Ioffe, features Portland business community leaders as speakers.
https://www.bizjournals.com/portlan...jordan-brands-larry-millers-insider-look.html
At a #StumptownTalks event Wednesday night, Miller gave a broad overview of his career, from his first job selling Jet Magazine door-to-door to starting the Jordan Brand and running the Trail Blazers. But it was his comments about the current state of Jordan that will likely most entice sneakerheads.
The brand's biggest problems at the moment, according to Miller: maintaining its relevance and pulling back the number of shoes on the market.
“We have to figure out how to keep the brand connected to young consumers as well as consumers that have been with the brand for a while,” Miller said. “That is the biggest issue that we have – is how do we continue to make the brand relevant with today’s consumers. The further Michael gets from the basketball court, the more challenging it is.”
Miller has been president of Jordan since its inception in 1997, as Michael Jordan was preparing to retire, from the Chicago Bulls, for the second time. He took a brief hiatus from running Jordan to work as president of the Trail Blazers from 2007 to 2012 before returning to the brand he’d helped develop into a company worth more than $1 billion.
With Jordan retiring for good early last decade, the brand is grappling with selling to consumers who have never seen him play. This year, analyst firm the NPD Group reported that the Jordan Brand lost its No. 2 spot to Adidas in terms of footwear market share.
Miller said while the movie "Space Jam" helps with brand recognition, the brand is also working to connect more with consumers online as part of Nike’s larger turnaround strategy. At the company's Investor Day last month, Nike executives said the company would aim to convert casual customers to “members” of its apps or websites. Miller said an exclusive Jordan membership program is in the works, with features similar to other Nike membership programs like on-demand customer service and member-only product releases
Jordan is also working to better serve female customers, another growth area identified by Nike at Investor Day and an area where industry analysts say most brands fall short.
“Frankly, all of the brands have talked for years about making inroads into servicing the women’s business and they continue to fail, which has allowed brands like Lululemon to come in and steal market share,” NPD’s Matt Powell told the Business Journal.
Miller said Jordan is working on a “women’s-only” model of the Air Jordan, that will only be made up to women’s size 12 (a men’s 10.5).
“Over the years we’ve got a lot of girls and women who love our brand and we’ve shown them no love in return,” Miller said. “Now we have realized that we’ve got to really focus on doing products specifically for girls and women and we’ve got some really cool stuff coming out. We’ve got a shoe coming that I’m sure a lot of guys are going to want but it doesn’t go up to their size.”
Related to this demand-creation, too, is the speed at which Jordan can design and put new models to market. Current industry wisdom suggests that given today’s fast-moving consumer, the longer the lag time between when a shoe is designed and when it hits the shelf, the less likely it is to be on-trend. This has driven all of the brands, including Nike, into a race to speed up production times.
But Miller said creating the annual Air Jordan – and most other shoes – still takes the traditional 18 months.
“The main cycle for making a new shoe takes about a year and a half, actually,” Miller said. “So right now, we’re in the process of finalizing the (Air Jordan) 33, which doesn’t come out until October of next year. We work pretty well in advance when it comes to designing shoes, and it’s pretty much that way with all of the shoes.”
Miller also acknowledged that the Jordan Brand has lost its exclusivity, and it’s hoping to get it back.
Industry analysts have long criticized the flood of Nike shoes in the U.S. retail market. The “stack them high and let them fly” credo no longer applies to athletic footwear, they contend.
Instead, the limited release model – customers used to sleep overnight in front of their local sneaker stores, fueling massive, but now-dying, after-market sales – will still drive business.
Those after-market sales, Miller said, used to help the brand gauge whether a shoe was hot. Models that sold out on day one and went for several thousand dollars over retail price that night on eBay were deemed successful, for instance
But now that the market has been over-saturated, that after-market is “not as robust as it was maybe a year ago,” Miller said.
“Once of the issues we’re dealing with right now is we’ve put a few too many shoes to market,” Miller said. “We’re actually in the process of making sure that we get back to that market where it’s a pull market, where people are looking for product and there’s scarcity because that’s how we built our brand.”
The Miller program drew a record attendance for the #StumptownTalks event. The free program, developed by Lincoln High grad Michael Ioffe, features Portland business community leaders as speakers.
https://www.bizjournals.com/portlan...jordan-brands-larry-millers-insider-look.html
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