Nike will no sell part of its collections on Lidl's website

UPDATE 02.12.21: After the news of the sale of some Nike items in the Lidl online store, the Beaverton brand wanted to deny what emerged through an official press release: "Lidl is not a partner of the Nike sales strategy and we do not sell products to their businesses."

02.11.21: After the sneaker frenzy unleashed by Lidl sneakers last November, today the German supermarket chain has announced an agreement with Nike: several items of clothing from the Swoosh brand will in fact be available for purchase on the supermarket website, an option already available in several European countries such as Spain. The line, a selection of "low-cost" items from the American brand, includes hoodies, T-shirts and sweatpants for men and boys in a price range ranging from €12 to €40.

This is Lidl's first agreement with a giant of fashion and sportswear, a trend, that of supermarkets that open up more clearly towards the world of fashion, also common to other European realities. The British supermarket chain Sainsbury's, for example, recently announced the establishment of a team of fashion experts capable of providing ideas for the store's fashion collection, Tu Clothing.

Regarding Nike, however, the strategy is more multifaceted. Although the brand is focusing mainly on a direct-to-consumer model, thus favouring its own flagship stores and cutting the network of external distributors, the agreement with Lidl will allow the Swoosh to permeate a large segment of the public, which invests less in clothing and is looking for products at a lower price. Lidl would thus at least partially compensate for the lack of audience given by Amazon, from which Nike has withdrawn all its products. As significant as it is, however, it's a non-revolutionary commercial operation for Nike, given that most of its sales derive from direct channels and online, which grew by 30% in 2020. It is instead significant news for Lidl (and its competitors).