Nike's Chief Executive Mark Parker made a public pledge that he will make its company become bigger and bolder. He predicted that Beaverton-area juggernaut's sales will explode from $30 billion to $50 billion by 2020. There are only a few who questioned it given its impregnable position when it comes to athletic footwear and apparel.
However, it seemed that Nike is a long way off since its rival Adidas has become the top story of 2016. Two years ago, Adidas was considered to be dead in the water particularly in North America, but it boomed its way to sports and pop culture that it currently sustained double digit sales.
Of course, Nike continues to grow in its athletic footwear and apparel industry. But, Adidas, not to mention, Under Armour are growing faster that they are gaining market share from The Swoosh for the first time as memory is concerned.
An analyst from Stifel Financial Corp Jim Duffy said that although Nike had a terrific run, but Adidas experienced the opposite. Adidas acted together which made it gain shares and he further said that it will gain more.
D.A. Davidson analyst Andrew Burns said that he has seen no mis-execution at Nike. According to Oregonlive, Nike's pipeline of new products has run dry. He also criticized Nike's groundbreaking footwear technology Flyknit that it has been around for four years but it cannot take credits forever.
Flyknit is said to be great but motivation is lacking. Besides, the flyknet technology was used by Nike to beat Adidas during the Olympics according to Highsnobiety. Canaccord Genuity analyst Camilo Lyon echoed those sentiments saying that the new products offered by Nike are weak and uninspiring.
Since Mark Parker became the CEO a decade ago, Wall Street noticed that the stocks of Nike have declined by 17.5 percent, which is more than $19 billion market value loss. However, the company insisted that it is even stronger and it still aims to grow bigger and bolder as declared by its CEO.
