For us sneakerheads and resellers, Nike’s SNKRS app provides unprecedented access to order the latest, the greatest, and the most coveted from the Swoosh without needing to fall in line. But the ratio of Ws to Ls for would-be buyers has become meme status within the community, with many buyers rueing their bad luck (or perhaps“bots”) in their quest to cop the greatest grails.
In an internal meeting at Nike last week, the company addressed the current state of the SNKRS app, the digital home of its most coveted product. While the app has been successful for Nike and is a key part of the company’s push toward more online sneaker sales, it’s also been a great source of frustration for a portion of its user base. SNKRS shoppers have grown accustomed to frequent failure due to the limited nature of the items available on the app.
The app came under new scrutiny from the public this year following the scandal around Ann Hebert, a former Nike VP who resigned after Bloomberg Businessweek published a report about her son’s sneaker reselling business. That Hebert’s purview at Nike included the SNKRS app fueled conspiracy theories that the company’s release systems were unfair and that its most coveted product was being funneled to a privileged few.
Following her resignation, Donahoe said in an internal Nike meeting in March that the brand would audit its launch processes and work to regain consumer trust. Nike Direct, the company’s division concerned with selling directly to consumers, has since instated a global fairness mandate to “ensure 80 percent perceived member fairness through the lens of access, bot mitigation, inclusion, clarity, and accountability.” The mandate was mentioned in an August meeting at Nike.
Slides from a presentation accompanying the meeting, which were viewed by Complex, show that
Nike is wary of alienating sneaker collectors through its launch tactics. During the meeting, SNKRS global VP Ron Faris attributed some of the fatigue from the app to the low perception of fairness among its users.
“Our community is becoming disenfranchised by our low fairness numbers,” he said.
“Our fairness numbers are not where they should be. They’re at, like, the mid-20s; they need to be in the 80s.”
Instilling a sense of fairness in app users is a priority for Nike. A slide from an internal meeting in August included a global fairness mandate meant to “ensure 80 percent perceived member fairness through the lens of access, bot mitigation, inclusion, clarity, and accountability.” Faris, speaking last week, used an analogy of gentrification to describe the trajectory of sneaker
collecting going from a subcultural activity to something more mainstream. That path, the SNKRS VP explained, has disaffected the groups who originally shaped the culture. Now, he plans to correct the course.
“We’re gonna shape the marketplace to reflect the community we serve,” Faris said.
“Especially in Black and brown communities and Asian communities, so that we actually show and we actually give equity and inclusion to the communities that have been gentrified out and alienated by the resale market.”
Faris said during the meeting that Nike plans to recalibrate demand by “redefining scarcity.” In illustrating this he gave the example of the Off-White x Nike Dunk Low release from this summer, a collection of 50 colorways that were released only on SNKRS via its exclusive access program. Through exclusive access, Nike sends users a push notification giving them the opportunity to buy a specific shoe, rather than asking them to enter a draw for the chance to buy.
Faris said Nike released 500,000 pairs of the shoes via exclusive access.
Nike president and CEO John Donahoe gave new insight into the machinations behind the brand’s SNKRS app. The executive recapped the rollout of the Off-White x Nike Dunk Low. “This approach sends personalized purchase offers to members based on their engagement with SNKRS, past purchase attempts, and other criteria, using data science to drive digital member targeting,” Donahoe said.“For example, 90 percent of the invites for the Off-White Dunk went to members who had lost out on a prior Off-White collaboration over the past two years. The Off-White Dunk ended up in the hands of hundreds of thousands of our most deserving members, creating what we call ‘exclusivity at scale.’ And this improved consumer experience has a positive impact on the entire business,” the Nike CEO said. “We’ve seen that those who benefit from exclusive access on SNKRS spend more, fueled by the energy of their win.”
Nike’s plan to recalibrate demand is one of a handful of strategic priorities it has that are aimed at changing how it does business around SNKRS and neighborhood retailers. It also wants to create better content to engage with its audience, build more fair and fun experiences around launches, and work to include people who feel like they’ve been pushed out of sneaker culture.
We do not have SNKRS App here in The Philippines, the official Nike app only arrived in
the Philippines last July. However, we do have access to the Nike SNKRS site at nike.com/ph/launch. Using the Nike app, you can also get access to key drops if you’re a member. Sneakerheads also have Park Access, a site operated by local Nike store/retail partner Green Tee Inc where you can access Nike and Jordan Brands. The Park Access Instagram account often announces, to great fanfare, that it is opening up reservations for many grails, exclusive to Nike Park members. Retailers like Titan, Sole Academy and Commonwealth also run their own
reservation draws for cops. Titan even used a different strategy on raffling the Travis Scott x Jordan 1 Low Fragment collab by creating a Zoom Waiting Room and randomly choosing the winners by allowing them to enter the Zoom meeting room and getting the details to secure the W.
Even Zalora recently joined the carousel of sneaker releases with shock drops we always missed HAHA! And more recently, WeLegendary Store made a comeback with a release of the Nike x Gundam collab.
As for me, I have previous success on the SNKRS App as I won a couple of Jordan 11 Concords and Breds but this year, the last W I got on the SNKRS App release is last January 7 for the Nike Dunk Low "Neutral Grey" and ever since that W, I didn't win again in the SNKRS App after everyday tries LOL! 
What are your thoughts on this new issue regarding Nike and the SNKRS app?
Did you recently copped a hype pair on the SNKRS app?
Share your stories below.