Why Is Nike So Expensive And Should The Price Change?

By: Eli Lowen

Compared to a brand like H&M, Nike is generally known for being expensive. For example, Air max shoes are $190, while a pair of H&M shoes are $40? Why? Is Nike’s cost too high?

Nike’s cost for clothes is way too high compared to how much money they spend to produce their clothing and how much they make off of it. Nike spends no more than $30 on a single pair of shoes, but they can easily sell it for $150 or even more. When you compare it to brands like H&M, both can produce their clothing for generally the same price but since they use fast fashion, they could sell their product for much cheaper. For example, the average cost for mens sweatpants at Nike is $85, and the average cost for H&M sweats is $36, less than half the cost of Nike. So, is there a reason Nike is so much more expensive? 

Well, Nike and H&M have production factories in the same general places, they have a similar production cost, and they both use fast fashion. So no, there is no pressing difference between the two, but Nike knows that their customers will pay these outrageously high prices because the economy has framed Nike as a luxury; a comfortable and popular sportswear company, which is what they are.

Since Nike is so popular, people will pay these amounts without a second thought, but they don’t need to. According to my research, there is no special ingredient that makes Nike clothes so expensive except their logo.

In recent years, Nike has made tens of billions of dollars, racking up a total of over 37.7 billion in the year 2017 alone. But that's nothing compared to 2023, because so far this year, their total revenue has totaled to over 51.22 billion U.S dollars! Nike can definitely afford to lower their prices by, perhaps 10% or something in the range of that.

In conclusion, it is safe to say that Nike is overpriced and not all that different from other brands like H&M that hack cheaper products. The expensive price is unnecessary and should be lowered. It is inconvenient and doesn’t fit everyone's budget for clothes. Nike is very overpriced, but it shouldn't be this way.