Nike AIRMX Boots, Nike in MX, Good or Bad?
- Updated: March 22, 2010
It looks to me as though Nike is about to slam dunk its way into the moto market. Is this a good thing or bad? First the facts. Nike worked with Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey to design their new AIRMX Motoboot. When finished, I’m not surprised they were able to develop the lightest boot in the industry. Dungey can’t say enough about them, but according to Transworld Motocross.com Nike has no plans to bring their new high performance lightweight AIRMMX Motoboots to retail. Instead they’re just supplying them to their latest sponsored elite motocross athletes, Ryan Dungey and James Stewart. I don’t see Nike spending all the time and effort needed to develop a product, (not to mention going as far as naming it), and not bring it to retail, so I’m not believing that we wont be able to purchase a pair of AIRMX Motoboots in the near future. After all Nike is a money making machine, why would they not cash in on the moto industry, which is just about the only sport they haven’t saturated yet.
So when Nike’s AIRMX Motoboots do become available, will this be a good or bad thing for our industry? On one hand I can see Nike writing some hefty checks to deserving riders like Dustin Wimmer, Chad Wienen, Adam McGill and Chris Borich. Who wouldn’t want to be sponsored by Nike? And how cool would it be for the Nationals to sponsored by Nike. They’re sponsorship checks could go toward putting ATV racing on television. You may want to make two check marks in the Pro column for this possibility. On the other hand is it fair that Nike plops themselves into our industry? I would think they could instantly steals a lot of market share from long time moto pioneers. And I would imagine once the AIRMX Motoboots are available it wouldn’t take long before Nike offered complete head to toe riding gear for bike and quad riders. Let’s face it Nike doesn’t just dabble around. I see them going all in if indeed they do go for it. And they’re absolutely brilliant when it comes to marketing. In example Cleveland Cavalier LeBron James has been wearing two different color shoes. In this LeBron pioneers a new trend, kids eat it up and Nike moves two pair of shoes instead of one. Like I said they’re brilliant, and they know how to cash in when people want to “be like Mike”. My point is Nike can land on our scene and quickly dominate it if they want to, along the way how bad do they hurt O’neal, Fox, Sidi, Alpinestars, Troy Lee, etc. etc.? Or is their presence a good thing for everyone?
Source: www.nike6.com motocross.transworld.net