Key brand: JD Sports’ Chief exec Regis Schultz has taken aim at Nike
JD Sports’ boss has taken aim at Nike for failing to produce clothes and trainers that customers want to buy.
It comes a week after Nike fiddled with the St George’s Cross on the Three Lions’ shirt, using different colours to the traditional red bars.
Chief executive Regis Schultz said many shoppers felt ‘fatigue’ towards familiar designs, adding that ‘new product, new innovation, new colour’ was needed.
He said: ‘Nike has been a little bit slow in terms of bringing innovation. Consumers get bored very quickly.’
Schultz, whose business sells pricey trainers such as Nike’s £130 Air Jordans, said the kit uproar had resulted in England away kits being more popular than home kits.
‘The future fortunes of JD remain inexplicably linked to Nike’s success,’ Guy Lawson-Johns, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said.
‘The closeness of its relationship provides the exclusive products and competitive pricing that lures punters to part with their cash, but also creates a dependency.’
It is estimated that Nike sales contribute about 50 to 55 per cent of JD’s global sales, he added.
JD sales grew just 0.1 per cent in the three months to February 3.
But Schultz was hopeful about the rest of the year, with the Euro 2024 football tournament and the Paris Olympics coming up.
JD shares rose 15.7 per cent, or 18.2p, to 134.5p.