The event was closed to the public, with just a handful of selected fans and an army of support staff on site, but was shown online. Given the rise of social networks experts say it’s not clear how effective that is anymore. Traditionally, Nike has spent lavishly on deals with the world’s most popular athletes and on print and television advertising.
Nike is also trying to find a new marketing strategy. The company’s revenue growth has averaged 15% over the past two years - double Nike’s rate. Meanwhile, Adidas - traditionally a soccer company - has found new success with its Boost running shoe.
The sport is still its largest moneymaker at $5 billion in annual wholesale sales, but sales growth has been slowing, in running and across the board. Running is central to Nike, which was founded by legendary University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman and one of his athletes, Phil Knight. The two companies are in an increasingly tight race for runners. The company hasn’t said when its sponsored runners will try again for an under 2-hour race, but its shoes will reach stores later this year. While the runners wore customized versions on Saturday, a retail version of the shoe will be available to the general public in June, for $250.Īdidas announced its “Sub2" program in February, attached to its own Adizero Sub2 shoe. Nike debuted the Breaking2 project in December, along with the Vaporfly.
Nike - and rival Adidas - both think it’s possible to eventually break the 2-hour mark. Irish oddsmaker Paddy Power had put the chances for one of the runners to beat 2 hours at about 28%. The record time in the marathon has been continuously dropping, but slowly - the last three-minute improvement in the world record took 16 years. “When this finally happens, we’ll all look back and say man, it started today, in 2017," Lewis said, referring to the breaking of the 2-hour mark. “Today was history," former world record sprinter Carl Lewis said after the event in northern Italy.
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