nike is picking up all theses dudes, just for the simple fact that no one else can gain any market share against them. Does it really make sense for them to pick up someone like Ben Raybourn? No, but they do it so that someone like Emerica or whoever, can't pick them up. It's two fold. One, they increase their team/following, etc. Second, an (admittedly hurting) company possibly loses a shoe sale.
**the raybourn thing may not be the best example, but the point is that Nike is picking people up, just so that other companies DON'T.
(you can substitute Asta for Raybourn or Piscopo, or Colden or whoever....they just picked up a bunch of dudes. The team is like 30 people.)