Nike sees gold rush with summer Olympics driven website visits, sales

By Ananya Mariam Rajesh

(Reuters) - The summer Olympics is turning out to be a rare win for Nike as the global sporting event has helped boost demand for the sportswear giant's new launches and edge out competition, website searches from research firm Similarweb showed.

In the opening week of the Olympics, from July 26 to August 1, Nike and Puma managed to increase visits to their direct-to-consumer sites, while Adidas, Hoka and On all saw their visits decline compared to the week before, according to Similarweb.

The visits peaked on July 31 to 2 million, following U.S. gymnast Simone Biles clinching her seventh Olympic gold medal after the United States earned their third gold in the women's team event.

Out of those visits to Nike.com, 86,900 included a sale, while Adidas had a total of 532,500 visits with only 3,600 likely converted into product purchases, the data showed.

"If the athletes and teams sponsored by Nike carry on winning, that's likely going to boost their popularity and therefore they'll probably still see those conversions remain strong through the rest of the Olympics," Similarweb's Senior Insights Analyst Daniel Reid said.

Nike had said it was spending more on this Olympics than any previous games, as it hopes to revive sales and compete with upstart rivals. CFO Matthew Friend said in June that Nike was reinvesting nearly $1 billion in consumer-facing activities in fiscal 2025, which includes product launches and deepening its sports marketing portfolio through campaigns during the Paris Olympics.

The world's largest sportswear maker and official sponsor for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic team, launched a slew of products ranging from Jordan 4 Retro SE shoes to an Olympic Electric Pack consisting of 55 shoes, including new designs of Alphafly 3 and Pegasus that have intrigued consumers.

On the resale platform StockX, the Jordan 4 Retro SE Paris Olympics Wet Cement, which retails for $225, were traded over 8,373 times as of July end, making it the highest-selling Olympic product on its site.

Still Nike's performance so far this year has lagged brands such as Roger Federer-backed On, Deckers Outdoor's Hoka and Adidas in the running, performance and casual shoe category with the sportswear giant struggling to bring innovative designs and some strategy missteps.

"(Nike is) still a struggling brand overall. But the Olympics, it definitely drives interest in these things ... Nike is the one that's really winning there," said Drew Haines, the merchandising director at StockX.

(Reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)