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November 13, 2019Nike announced that it will no longer sell its products on Amazon, interrupting a collaboration that began in 2017. "As part of Nike's efforts to improve the consumer experience through direct and personal relationships, we have decided to end our pilot experience with Amazon Retail, "said a Nike executive.

Counterfeit in the viewfinder
After years of denial, Nike agreed in June 2017 to offer its products directly on Amazon.com to cope with the drop in sales and competition of Adidas and Under Armor. The partnership provided that the e-commerce giant would have banned the counterfeit products on its platform and would no longer accept the sales of the group's products through intermediaries.

Nike does however know that it will continue to use the cloud hosting of Amazon Web Services (the real source of revenue in Seattle), to power its apps and services of Nike.com. An Amazon spokesman declined to comment on the news.

The hand of the former rival
The sports equipment manufacturer's announcement comes less than a month after the appointment of John Donahoe, who should replace Mark Parker in early 2020 as CEO of Nike. The nomination of John Donahoe has a special meaning: ex number one of eBay, he knows about online sales and behind the break there would seem to be just his hand.

Nike's decision could influence other brands to distance themselves from Amazon, but it is not clear - according to analysts - whether this will be the effect. Not everyone in fact has the strength and the numbers to be able to decide to separate from the giant, a luxury reserved only for well established brands.