Nike has undoubtedly lost its way over the last five years.
Innovative shoes and viral campaigns that were once a hallmark of the company have disappeared.
It's piece of mindshare diminished for a brand that had long been among the most imaginative in sports.
Lululemon took a piece of Nike's clothing business. On Cloud and Hoka took chunks of its shoe business.
The stock price pretty much went up consistently from 1980 to 2021, but it has been downhill since. And the tariffs surely aren't going to help.
However, there's a shoe on the horizon that will bring Nike a lot of attention and be in high demand.
Around 15 years ago, Golden Goose brought the "distressed and dirty" look to the high-end sneaker game. The company took a piece of the new "worn" jeans playbook and scratched and scuffed its way to selling tons of shoes at more than $300 a pop.
Dirty shoes continued to be a high-end trend, reaching its height in 2019, when Gucci released its $900 dirty shoe. Those shoes have been successful enough you can still buy versions today. Balenciaga copied it, added dirty laces and another $200 onto the price tag.
For how long the trend has lasted, you can rest assured -- despite people making fun of them -- these dirty shoes sell.
Well, now comes Nike, offering the first affordable dirty sneaker.
Next week, Nike will unveil the Dirty Triple White Air Force One. It's on Nike's SNKRS app, and it's the most affordable dirty sneaker ever on the market at $130.
But Nike flipped the script. These shoes start dirty, but have a "wear-away" layer, that eventually reveal a clean white shoe.
The clean white sneaker is one of the lasting style trends of the COVID-19 Era. It has become the new dress shoe of choice for those wearing jeans and a blazer. And that market, as well as the shoe market at large, probably wants a fresh white pair and not a dirty one.
But this is a living shoe. It has a life like the Mayfly, a $45 Nike running shoe that was sold in 2004 that started to lose its cushion after just 60 miles. With the wear-away layer, it allows people to share what level of wear they are on, and it ultimately gets down to a clean, white shoe.
Such a sneaker likely won't make a blip on the Nike stock price, but it will give something to Nike the company hasn't had in years. It will be at the top of the conversation again.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.