Yahoo Finance Nike launches subscription service for kid’s shoes
It’s not just Netflix and your gym that you can subscribe to: now, it’s anything from makeup, stationery, tea, vinyls – and now kids’ shoes.
Nike has launched a monthly subscription for kids’ shoes, dubbed Nike Adventure Club, in a bid to help parents keep up with their child’s rapidly growing foot size.
The subscription service serves kids from roughly age two to 10, with three tiers to choose from depending on whether you want new shoes every quarter (US$20 or A$29.50), every two months (US$30 or A$44.25), or every month (US$50 or A$73.80).
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Parents are able to choose and place their order from more than 100 styles. Once their child outgrows the shoes, or they simply want to replace it for another pair, parents can send it back and the Nike Adventure Cub will donate or recycle the worn shoes.
“It removes a friction point for parents who are shopping on their behalf,” said Nike Adventure Club general manager Dave Cobban.
Barefoot Investor weighs in
But the move has raised eyebrows with Australian finance guru, Barefoot Investor Scott Pape.
“What kid needs a new pair of Nike sneakers each month?” Pape wrote in a note to subscribers.
Recalling a personal anecdote, Pape said as a boy he had inherited his older cousin’s Dunlop Volleys about four sizes too big that would fly off whenever he would kick the footy.
“When I protested to Dad, he got on his knees and pressed down on the empty toes of my shoes: ‘Plenty of room to grow into these’, he cheerfully announced.”
“Marketers are following the lead of tech companies and moving to subscription-based payments.”
You can get a monthly subscription for Amazon books as well as for your bookshelf with furniture-renting services.
“Businesses are clearly attracted to subscriptions for the lucrative recurring revenue: why bother going through the costly exercise of selling to the same customers over and over again, when you can charge them a small monthly fee?”
Pape pointed out the business advantage of a subscription-based model.
“The final reason businesses like subscriptions is that they build a deeper relationship with the consumer,” he said.
The proof? Pape quoted Nike Adventure Club’s Cobban: “‘One of the things [Nike CFO] Andy Campion gets excited about, is that we are now building relationships with kids from two years old’.”
“Okay, so that’s next level corporate creepy (hello, Dollarmites),” Pape said.
He also slammed Nike for their poor reputation for manufacturing practices that exploited workers in Asian countries working in sweatshop conditions.
“Then again, these guys really do ‘Just Do it’: their $60 kiddie shoes really only cost about $2, and are probably sewn together by Nike’s other youth-based stakeholders … dirt-poor Bangladeshi kids working in sweatshops.”
“Whatever the motivation, one thing is clear: subscriptions are here to stay.”
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