Nike’s basketball campaign and adds drove people to their brand from the 80s until the early 2000s. The tech and design of Jordans was so strong that they’re still selling them today… 30 years later.
They got lazy and stopped innovating and became reliant on retros, but the retros became popular on the court first. Before the mid 2000s retros weren’t that hard to get and in some cases, sat for weeks and months. So what was NIKE selling? Tech... Shox. Zoom. 360 Air. The last cushioning system that was kind of visually unique and innovative was the Joyride.
When a brand has nothing but its past to sell, it’s over.
