It’s no secret that Jordan Brand is struggling to hold its ground in the sneaker wars lately, losing its spot as second-most popular sneaker brand to Adidas earlier in the year. It’s a move that analysts, like NPD’s Matt Powell, said he “never thought I would see in my lifetime.” Theories abound: Adidas is pushing things on the design front, it has a more relevant roster of ambassadors, and basketball sneakers have fallen out of favor. Last night, Jordan president Larry Miller jumped into the fray, offering up his own theories for the plummet at the #StumptownTalks Speaker Series near the brand’s headquarters in Portland, Oregon.
Miller explained that the brand is struggling to maintain relevance with customers who never actually got to see Michael Jordan play in the flesh. It’s a lot easier to sell the benefits of basketball shoes to a customer who gets hyped on the kicks by watching Jordan complete superhuman feats on the basketball court—which probably explains why Jordan has such a strong business selling retro signature shoes. But MJ hasn’t played for nearly 15 years—and Miller thinks that young fans know him from something besides his hoops career.
“I think Space Jam helps us a little bit because kids still watch Space Jam and Michael Jordan is still the greatest player on the planet in Space Jam and that helps us out,” Miller says in a clip recorded by PDX Biz Journal’s sneaker reporter Clare Duffy. It’s hard to tell how much of a wink Miller is saying this with—the crowd laughs mid-sentence, but Miller just keeps on rocking with the theory.
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While the theory might be a joke, Miller cites other reasons that Jordan Brand is struggling right now. “One of the issues right now is that we put a few too many shoes to market,” Miller said, according to Duffy. This theory is a lot less fun but Space Jam still mattters, but it’s a little more likely.
Flooding the market is something that Nike, which owns Jordan, is dealing with company-wide. The Swoosh announced plans to reshape its current retail strategy earlier this year. Nike currently works with 30,000 different partners but plans to shrink that number over the next five years and give special treatment to only 40 of those. Those favored retailers might have space set aside for Nike, or host in-store experiences around the brand. It’s an effort to make a brand that’s lost its luster feel special again and rediscover those customers who bought out every shoe once upon a time.
Until then, Nike and Jordan Brand might benefit from pushing ahead on another long-rumored project: Space Jam 2.