I was never a big fan of Nike shoes but there was a time I loved the socks and underwear and if I was working in LA or NYC I would usually go down with a light loadout, buy a cheap canvas bag, and load up at the Nike store.

My understanding was that any Nike stuff you found online was fake, I guess Dick's Sporting Goods in person was legit, but no way I'd buy any of it from AMZN, Ebay, any of that.

If I was getting it online I'd get it straight from Nike. So I was comfortable engaging with Nike DTC but... they changed the product and it went from great to meh so I moved on.

Those mass-market premium brands though are ground zero for fakes. If I was buying Ralph Lauren perfume I'd be worried about fakes, if it was Maison Margiela I would assume neither the scammers or the people who buy fakes had ever heard about it.

Nikes direct to consumer also wouldn't ship to PO boxes. Another self introduced market shrink.