As one of the biggest names in the sporting industry, Nike is naturally a company with massive sway. Their rising product ranges and their introduction to new markets all the time helps their brand to keep developing. However, there is more to Nike than just new markets: they have their primary homes, like basketball, NFL and soccer.
However, the company knows that as it continues to grow, it has to keep up with major competitors. Losing one of the sporting worlds upcoming star faces in Zion Williamson to injury, though, might hit the brand in the short-term.
Indeed, it was reported that Nike endured a whopping $1.12bn drop-off in share price after the injury. With the knee injury likely to keep them out for some time, it’s also not looking good for Nike. Why? Because his Nike shoe managed to more or less come apart just 36-seconds into the match.
He fell to the floor, holding his right knee, after the sole of his left shoe came apart from the rest of the shoe, leaving him badly imbalanced.
Though he might yet avoid a serious injury, it’s not a good look for Nike whatsoever. It’s a bad PR move and has managed to hit the company with a 1% drop-off on the NYSE. This meant that the company had lost something like $1.12bn from its figures, an incredible drop-off.
Though it has to be said that it wasn’t just down to this one incident, it’s not a good look whatsoever for a brand built on stability.
Bad news gets better
More worryingly, though, was the fact that major rivals Puma and Adidas had enjoyed 1.96% and 0.64% rises. For Nike, though, an average growth of 27% in the last year alone might just do something to help absorb some of the impact from this loss. No company enjoys losing money, obviously, but the fact they lost money due to injury on a star player is pretty worrying.
However, the fact that the injury does not look to be serious, alongside 12-month results, should help to avoid alarm bells from ringing too much. The fact it happened in one of the biggest games, and to one of the biggest stars, in college basketball, though, certainly would have raised some pulses.
If they had been the root cause of a major injury to a talent like Williamson, though, the damage could have been much worse. Thankfully, for both parties, they seem to have mostly avoided this carnage from taking place. Nike, too, were pretty classy in their statement, saying: “We are obviously concerned and want to wish Zion a speedy recovery.
“The quality and performance of our products are of utmost importance. While this is an isolated occurrence, we are working to identify the issue.”
It sounds like, then, that both parties have managed to avoid any excessive or needless damage – just as well for all involved.
