Nike Porters Five Forces Case Study
Key Learning Outcomes
By the end of the case, students should be able to:
- Use Porters five forces model to analyse an industry on the basis of the five competitive forces.
- Analyse the global sports apparel retailing industry and how the five forces have affected Nike and rival firms like Adidas, Reebok, Puma, Under Armour etc. and the impact on industry structure, attractiveness, and profitability.
- Understand how Nike has managed to defend against intense competition from Adidas, Under Armour and Puma and the strategies it uses to create 'blue oceans' that are defensible, helping it capture market share and maintain competitive advantage.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Nike is the largest apparel and footwear company that manufactures a wide range of products mainly athletic footwear, apparel and equipment. It was founded in 1964 as Blue-Ribbon Sports by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman with its headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. Key product categories are running, basketball, the Jordan Brand, soccer, training and sportswear. Nike has more than 1,150 retail stores in the United States and internationally, and employs approximately 76,700 workers worldwide. In 2021, Nike's global revenue amounted to about $44.54billion U.S. dollars., up from $37.4 billion in 2020 (Statista 2020c). This makes Nike the biggest retailer of athletic apparel and footwear in the world. As of 2021, its global market share of athletic footwear stood at 27.4%.
In the following sections, the author examines Nike through the lens of Porters five forces to assess how the five forces affect Nike and the sports clothing retail industry.