Due to the fallout from the Coronavirus, numerous businesses have shut down their stores and have shifted everything to online purchases only. While this strategy can work for big companies like Adidas, there is no denying that spending habits have changed and that now, people are keeping their money for more essential reasons like food, shelter, and utilities.

As a result, Adidas saw a massive decline in net income in the first quarter of 2020. In fact, they only pulled in €20 million as opposed to the €631 million they did in 2019. Essentially, that is a 97 percent decrease that can be chalked up to the fact that around 70 percent of the company’s stores are closed.

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“Our results for the first quarter speak to the serious challenges that the global outbreak of the coronavirus poses even for healthy companies,” Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted explained per Sole Collector. “I am proud of how our Adidas family has been working together to support both our company and our communities. At the moment, we are focused on managing the current challenges and doubling down on the recovery in China and the opportunities we see in e-com. While we prepare for the return to a more normalized state of the business, we also remain realistic: Over 70 percent of our stores worldwide are currently closed.”

Adidas has also admitted that these numbers could be reflected in Q2 as well, especially if stores don’t open in the near future.

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Stores all over the world are shutting down in light of the fears surrounding the Coronavirus. The pandemic has cross borders and officials are expecting it to get a lot worse in the coming weeks and months. With this in mind, Adidas decided to issue a statement yesterday in which they noted that stores will not be closing and that staying open requires great strength.

“We have to keep the company going and open for business to ensure that we can pay our monthly bills and salaries to everyone,” Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted wrote. “Closing down is easy, staying open in a healthy environment requires courage, persistence and focus."

According to CNBC, Nike is closing all of its stores in the U.S., along with other parts of the world, to try to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, the company said Sunday morning.

Stores across the U.S., Canada, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand will all close starting Monday, March 16th through March 27th, but thankfully workers will still be paid in full during their time off a CNBC spokesperson confirmed. However, Nike is still keeping open its stores in South Korea, Japan, most of China and in “many other countries,” based on daily assessments of the pandemic.

Copping sneakers can be incredibly difficult these days, especially when you’re going after rare/hyped up shoes. These days, stores use raffles instead of relying on first come first serve. This means you have to sign up for a chance to win the right to buy the shoe. It’s a rough process that is hard to explain to anyone who isn’t into sneakers. With stock levels decreasing, sneakerheads in North America have resorted to signing up for overseas raffles to see if they can have a better chance at winning.

Now, it appears as though Nike and Jordan Brand are putting a kibosh to this strategy. According to Sole Collector, on the Sneakersnstuff website, it now says that “From January 2020, Nike and Jordan products may no longer be delivered from Europe to your region.” Simply put, if you want to buy shoes, you’ll have to buy them from stores on your continent. 

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“Retail partners are a key part of Nike’s Consumer Direct Offense,” a Nike spokesperson said in response to this recent decision. “Similar to other premium brands, we have Terms & Conditions of Sale in place with individual retail partners to better serve consumers in each territory with the right assortment, based on local demand.”

This is good news for European shoppers who have had their stock scooped up by Americans. Nike has plans to increase their direct-to-consumer efforts heading into 2021 so don’t be surprised if we see even more policy changes in the future.