Before the start of her WNBA career, sportswear giant Nike signed women’s basketball megastar Caitlin Clark to an absolutely massive record-setting $28 million shoe deal. And now, Nike has a pretty significant decision to make regarding their plans for her signature shoe.
As Nike begins designing the signature shoe for Caitlin Clark, they have to decide whether the shoe will be designed and sold exclusively in women’s sizes or if it will be genderless. While the obvious answer to this question would seem to be the latter so that Nike could maximize profits by selling to both men and women, Spurwink River’s retail expert Matt Powell thinks the shoe should be a purely women’s shoe.
“I hope Clark’s shoe is made for a woman,” Powell told MarketWatch. “Many women’s performance basketball shoes are simply a sized-down men’s product.”
As Powell explains, there is a big difference between a shoe made for men and a shoe made for women.
“Brands make very few women-specific basketball shoes,” Powell said. “A woman’s foot is more triangular, forefoot to heel, and her arch tends to be higher than a man’s foot. A man’s foot tends to be more rectangular, and consequently, a shoe built for a man’s foot is really not right for a woman’s foot.”
Obviously, Nike would want to maximize profits, but Powell doesn’t think Nike is going to make enough money off of the shoe sales alone anyway, so this provides them a chance to be a pioneer in this industry.
“Nike is never going to make any of this ($28 million) up in shoe sales. This is all about marketing and being associated with her, and sharing in her success,” Powell said. “Nike could show real leadership in women’s basketball by making a shoe properly shaped for a woman’s foot.”
We’ll have to see what Nike decides to do.
