Taking Ls has become a common experience for anyone shopping on Nike's SNKRS app. Although, according to recent Complex story, Nike CEO John Donahoe claims to enjoy the experience of hitting on a SNKRS draw (albeit his explanation and timeline sounds like he might be confusing the experience with the barista at Starbucks calling his name when his pumpkin spice latte is ready). Donahoe also said recently that, “The Off-White Dunk ended up in the hands of hundreds of thousands of our most deserving members, creating what we call ‘exclusivity at scale.’ And this improved consumer experience has a positive impact on the entire business. We’ve seen that those who benefit from exclusive access on SNKRS spend more, fueled by the energy of their win.” Despite what the Nike CEO says, the company still seems to be struggling to make SNKRS actually work for their customers.

On a recent investors call, the SNKRS app was once again a hot topic. The presentation that was "leaked" to Complex and covers a wide range of concerns for Nike. SNKRS global VP Ron Faris said, “Our community is becoming disenfranchised by our low fairness numbers,” he said. “Our fairness numbers are not where they should be. They’re at, like, the mid-20s; they need to be in the 80s.” Loosely interpreted from the corporate jargon, Nike thinks your should "feel" like you have about an 80% chance of hitting on a SNKRS drop but in reality, you probably feel like it's around the 20-25% range. Faris' global fairness mandate is intended to “ensure 80 percent perceived member fairness through the lens of access, bot mitigation, inclusion, clarity, and accountability.” Essentially, Nike sees the world of sneaker collecting going from subcultural to mainstream, even using gentrification in their anaology. That change has pushed out many of the people who shaped the culture of sneakers. “We’re gonna shape the marketplace to reflect the community we serve,” Faris said. “Especially in Black and brown communities and Asian communities, so that we actually show and we actually give equity and inclusion to the communities that have been gentrified out and alienated by the resale market.”

The presentation also revealed that the number of active SNKRS users has increased 57% in the last year. In some cases that means 300,000 users trying to buy a shoe a year ago, is now more like 750,000 people trying to buy a shoe. On top of that, demand has gone up over 70% in the past year, to a whopping dollar amount of $1.69 billion. Yet somehow, Nike only met 7% of that demand. I'm not a mathmatician but somehow the scale of these numbers don't seem to align with the "20-25% perceived win" rate mentioned above. Faris doubled down on Nike's belief that bots are not a significant part of problem, claiming that they do a good job of defending against them but saying that the level of available product offered in the app now hasn’t caught up to meet the current level of demand.

Nike CEO John Donahoe describes the strategy for modern-day releases as "exclusivity at scale." Meaning, they want to keep the hype high, while at least meeting some of the demand. Will that be enough to keep the "sneaker-obsessed" consumers that they feel they are losing to the competition? That is where you come in. At the end of the day, you as the consumer will ultimately decide if Nike is doing their best and what pairs will sit in your Sneaker Throne.