Nike taking heat for Zion Williamson shoe malfunction

After Zion Williamson’s shoe malfunction Wednesday night, Nike will have to deal with the ramifications.

Turns out “it’s gotta be the shoes,” as the famous Nike commercial once told us.

With the NBA on All-Star break, one of college basketball’s great rivalries, Duke-North Carolina, took center stage Wednesday night. The star attraction was Duke freshman forward Zion Williamson, the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.

But Williamson only lasted 36 seconds in the game. On the Blue Devils’ first possession he moved toward the paint and his left shoe gave way, leading to what has been reported as a mild right knee sprain as he slipped to the floor. Full clarity on the severity of the injury should come Thursday.

At 6-foot-7 and 285 pounds Williamson’s sheer power as an athlete is practically unmatched, but the equipment malfunction halted him against North Carolina on the biggest stage he’ll have before March Madness.

After Williamson’s shoe blowout, Nike offered the expected statement.

One of Nike’s competitors, Puma, posted and quickly deleted a tweet saying “Wouldn’t have happened in the pumas.” But the heat did not stop there, from all corners.

Somehow Darren Rovell, now of Action Network, started a tweet suggesting the Williamson shoe malfunction is “not a material loss to Nike’s business.”

To be fair, the impact on Nike’s broader business may prove to be insignificant. But having another high-profile NBA player as an endorser is significant to the brand, and Williamson’s first pro shoe deal is surely now open to bidders.

As expected Nike’s stock was down a bit in pre-market action Thursday morning, and was down a little more than 1.25 percent at the opening bell from a closing price of $84.84 per share Wednesday. Within the first 15-20 minutes of the trading day, as of this writing, the price got as low as $83.42 before stabilizing around $84.00 (approximately one percent down). You can track the price through the day here.

Rovell has given us some sense of the on-paper impact of a drop in stock price for Nike.

Even if it won’t necessarily torpedo Nike’s stock price, Williamson’s blowout is sure to have some short-term impact on their retail shoe sales. Beyond that, it’s a bad look and a publicity hit that will be impossible to recover from quickly.