Nike is on a mission to reduce its presence at undifferentiated wholesale partners and expand its own DTC sales, and that means even some big retailers are getting burned.
For this latest round of cuts, the exact date of the cutoff is unknown, but Poser noted that February or March 2021 was when the last shipments were made to the nine wholesale accounts dropped in August. “We would expect the last shipments to the 7 companies listed above will be around October 2021,” Poser said.
It’s the latest move in Nike’s strategy to focus more on its own DTC sales and limit wholesale to only certain “strategic partners.” The Consumer Direct Acceleration strategy also hinges on investing more in digital and the rollout of up to 200 small-format stores in the model of its digitally enabled Nike Live concept.
Source: Retail Dive