Nike launches subscription for kids sneakers

Dive Brief:

• Nike launched a sneaker subscription for kids on Monday, the brand said in a blog post. Shoppers can currently join a waitlist for the service.
• The service, dubbed the Nike Adventure Club, is aimed at children aged roughly from two to 10-years-old (sizes 4C to 7Y) and features more than 100 different sneaker styles.
• The subscription comes in three tiers: four pairs each year for $20 per month, six annual pairs for $30 per month and 12 pairs for $50 per month. Customers can keep the pairs they like. When it comes time to replace pairs, they can send them back to Nike, which will donate or recycle them, the company said.

Dive Insight:

Nike joins Target, Gap and plenty of others in focusing on a box subscription service for kids as retailers try to target busy parents with a convenience offering.

The shoe brand noted in its post that shoe shopping for children is often a moving target. “Kids’ feet are continually growing, and many kids can’t articulate what they want, even after shoebox after shoebox comes out of the backroom,” the brand said.

Target has aimed even younger, with a $40 box service for its Cat & Jack infant clothing. The mass merchant launched the service early in 2018, adding to its beauty box service.

Gap’s Old Navy launched a kids clothes subscription in late 2017, as well as a Baby Gap subscription, both of which the company later discontinued. Meanwhile, Stitch Fix, one of the pioneers of box and try-before-you-buy services, last year launched a kids offering as part of its ongoing push to expand its user base. In April, Rent the Runway also got into the market, launching a service with a kids apparel initially catering to girls’ sizes 3Y to 12Y.

Brands and retailers have piled into subscription services and box offerings as they try to make the slog of the e-commerce shopping and return process more convenient and seamless, and also offer customers the home-shopping equivalent of a changing room to try items on before committing to them.

But the services are not automatic wins. In a 2018 study, McKinsey found that nearly 40% of subscribers — who tend to be young, urban and middle class — canceled their services. Magid found in a study last year that a fifth or so of subscription purchasers feel rewarded by them, while a quarter were “guilty followers” drawn in by a trial but struggling to find value. Around 40% were “triers” who felt guilty about how many subscriptions they had.

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