When Tinker Hatfield speaks, the sneaker community listens.
In a recent story for GQ, the legendary designer and Nike's current Vice President for Design and Special Projects was recently asked "how closely he monitors the competition." Hatfield's response, "When you're busy aggressively going into the future, you don't have to worry who's behind you. If somebody happens to pass us, it's just because they're a better..... because we didn't do the right thing. Pretty hard to pass us right now, because we train, I think, in a pretty smart way.” It sounds like Hatfield isn't stressing the competition and he's keeping his focus strictly on what Nike needs to do to maintain its top stop in the industry.
Though adidas has made considerable strides of late with recent high profile moves that include the debut of the much hyped adidas Yeezy Boosts, the $200 million signing of James Harden, and the acquisition of three former Nike designers it still lags far behind the Beaverton giant which reported its staggering first quarter earnings last week.
Head over to GQ now to read the rest of the article, "Sneaker Wars: Inside the Battle Between Nike and adidas."
