Nike consolidating the sporting goods market

It use to be Nike was an ever present fixture in the media I paid attention to. So you can imagine my shock when I realized they bought up their competitor Converse back in July.

Apparently their market has been maturing (as markets do) and they've started buying up competitors to consolidate their market share.

And with Converse helping to drive up sales, industry watchers say Nike is likely to duplicate this success by acquiring other brands.

John Horan, who publishes the trade magazine Sporting Goods Intelligence, lists youth sporting goods company Burton and outdoor clothing retailer Patagonia as two possibilities.
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To diversify its product offerings, Nike paid about $305 million for the nearly 100-year-old Converse. So far the bet has paid off.

For the quarter ended Aug. 31, sales from the company's non-Nike brands grew 64 percent to $434.5 million, with Converse making up about three-quarters of that amount. Total revenue rose 18 percent to $3.6 billion, with Converse contributing four percentage points of that increase.

Link: Latest Business News and Financial Information | Reuters.com

On a side note converse is doing a bit of participatory marketing. Yes "paticapotory marketing" that's what I said. I could call it "viral marketing" as some do, but that implies everyone involved is some kind of degenerate. One of the many reasons I don't think highly of much of the advertising industry, but that's another issue altogether. Anyway, judge for yourself.

Like Converse, this site belongs to you, it is what you make of it. Enjoy the creativity of others. If you get the itch, create something yourself. With every contribution, this site will evolve and grow. How big? That's entirely up to you.

I like the sentiment, I just wish the website wasn't one big closed flash app so I could link to the right page or some of the videos.

Link: conversegallery.com