This has been happening for a while now and I'm pretty sure I've said this a couple of times on here already, but...
Nike has a bit of a scheme to all of this, they make specifice shoes for each market they target, the funny thing about it all now however, its the lower cut margin shoes that are making Nike SB the most amount of money.
The scheme goes as follows;
Nike SB Pro - Nike SB Signature - Nike SB
Nike SB Pro is the top of the line, selling the likes of GT Blazers, Janoski Premiers, Dunks and Team Editions..
Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but the only places that seem to get these accounts are the big Skate store franchises or shops with team members affiliated with them.
Nike Signature is what most skate shops get offered, its a mix of Janoskies, P-rods, Kostons and all the Air Max affiliation, but also gets access to the standard Nike SB stuff.
Nike SB is the the range that is making Nike's name grow amongst the general populations, this range is sold everywhere! This holds all the 'ripoff' shoes at the lessor prices, but also is the place for Nike to sell off all the shoes that the two above ranges couldn't sell, which is why sometimes you'll walk into a surf shop and see a random Koston 1 floating about...
The whole ripoff stuff however, is just to give these shops the impression they're getting the core stuff, but not really, the problem however is these models sell more than the pro shoes do now, so nike is laughing to the bank because there's less royalties involved.
These models in particular are the most obvious.
Project Ba > Ghost
Kostons > Rabona
Janoski's > Satires & now the Portmore
Despite all the bullshit, this isn't new to the shoe and further more the skate shoe industry, Cons, Adidas, Vans, Globe, DC & Etnies have all been doing it for years and taking turns at when each shoes has been popular.
Topic: Nike making knock offs of their own pro models (Read 6435 times)