In Boston, GLOBE columnist Mike Barnicle wrote under the
header, "Swoosh May Be Losing Its Cool." Barnicle: "[I]t
appears Nike may have pushed the envelope a little too hard.
Kids, in addition to being more sophisticated, are smarter
than most adults. Instinctively, a lot of them know they
will not be able to run faster, play harder, field or hit a
ball better simply because of a certain product. So, Nike is
in a funny place today. It might be too big, too glitzy, too
dominant, too pricey, too universal to truly appeal to a
large segment of their most important customer base:
youngsters looking for something different" (BOSTON GLOBE,
3/29). In DC, Tom Vanderbilt, author of "The Sneaker Book:
An Anatomy of an Industry and an Icon," to be published in
August by The New Press, wrote that Nike's "I Can" slogan "is
not simply a step away from the deregulated, Reagan-esque
'Just Do It,' but an echo of New Balance's earlier
'Achieve.'" Vanderbilt also wrote that it "is appropriate
that a company so dependent on marketing should seek out a
new slogan to soften an image tarnished by allegations about
sweatshops. Yet if 'Just Do It' no longer works as an ad
slogan, Nike may eventually find it is also running out of
air as a business model" (WASHINGTON POST, 3/29).
