Nike have suffered a huge blow after being overtaken in the race to design the fastest running trainers by rivals Adidas.
Once the market leaders, Nike ploughed millions of dollars into their state-of-the-art Breaking2 project beginning in 2016.
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The crowning achievement of the venture was helping Eliud Kipchoge break the 2-hour mark at the Vienna marathon in 2019, but he did so with the assistance of pacesetters so his time was not officially recognised.
Now two men have officially gone under two hours – Sabastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelch – and they did so wearing Adidas.
In fact, four of the five fastest finishes at the London Marathon on Sunday evening (AEST), wore trainers made by the German brand.
The Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, which retail at $850, were worn by both Sawe and Kejelch.
Stunning technology advancements mean the shoes weigh just 97 grams, making it the lightest legal race shoe ever.
Adidas cut the weight from their previous leading trainer by 30 per cent, with Nike’s best – the Alphafly 4 – weighing double at 200g.
They did so using a carbon fibre plate and Lightstrike Pro foam, which injects nitrogen into the trainers to make them ultralight and bouncy.
Sawe was able to cut his previous best time by two minutes and 35 seconds, etching Adidas into marathon history.
Nike could only watch on but in an unprecedented move in the notoriously heated rivalry the company applauded the Kenyan’s feat in the Adidas shoe.
A graphic Nike published read: “The clock has been reset. There is no finish line.”
It is the latest blow for Nike, whose stock continues to plummet amid a crisis at the company.
Trading at $45.70, the stock has tanked from the peak of five years ago when shares were worth $165.
At the time it was leading the way in new technology and had created the fastest ever marathon runner in Kipchoge.
That equals good advertising and with it increase revenue – now instead consumers will turn to Adidas and the Adizero if they want to shave time off their PBs.
Nike is already experiencing a decline in revenue, from $72 billion in 2024 to $65 bn last year.
The company has also seen over $187 bn in market capitalisation wiped since its 2021 peak, falling from roughly $264 bn to approximately $76 bn.
Nike’s profits have plunged 35 per cent year-on-year as margins shrank under pressure from higher tariffs and discounting.
Nike’s decline comes at a time when the sportswear scene has become more competitive than ever, with New Balance, Adidas, On Running, HOKA and Amer Sports (Salomon and Arc’teryx) taking a larger share of the consumer market.
And not only is Nike losing out at the elite athletics level, but for normal consumers as it is not regarded as cool as it once was.
“Nike and the perception around Nike has moved more away from that edginess to where they are more associated with being a conventional brand,” Brand Finance Australia’s Mark Crowe told news.com.au.
“When Nike did well, its positioning was very much as an edgy brand, but it can be hard to be an edgy brand when you’re also the biggest brand. That can nearly eat itself.”
