Remember last year's stinky trainers? And our stinky trainers update?
Watchdog is hearing from people who say they have very recently bought T90 Mercurial trainers and are having exactly the same stinky problem. Have you had the same experience?
Nike response
"The quality of our products and consumer satisfaction are of utmost importance to us and we continue to monitor this situation very closely. After the problem was first brought to our attention we changed our production process so that new-season football footwear product delivered to retailers from May 2009 onwards would not suffer from this problem*.
"We also notified our retail partners to accept returns with or without proof of purchase. We are confident that the production changes put in place have solved the issue and will continue to accept returns as per our original communication. The small number of customers who are experiencing the issue with their 'new' boots have most likely purchased old-season product that have been sitting in retailer inventories.
"We are still only seeing a very small number of cases where our football footwear products are affected by this problem. However, it is very important to recognise that any football shoe is a performance product and may therefore be affected by general footwear smells associated with sport and exercise.
"We also encourage people to care for their boots properly by cleaning them and ensuring they don't remain damp in sports bags after use. Nike stores and other retailers will continue to use discretion in assessing whether boots that are returned suffer from this problem, or are just old boots with the smells naturally associated over time with any shoe used for sport."
* To clarify, new-season product delivered to retailers from May onwards translates as footwear manufactured to launch at the start of the 2009/2010 football season.
Nike T90 Mercurials update
Watchdog is hearing from people who say they have very recently bought T90 Mercurial trainers and are having exactly the same stinky problem. Have you had the same experience?
Nike response
"The quality of our products and consumer satisfaction are of utmost importance to us and we continue to monitor this situation very closely. After the problem was first brought to our attention we changed our production process so that new-season football footwear product delivered to retailers from May 2009 onwards would not suffer from this problem*.
"We also notified our retail partners to accept returns with or without proof of purchase. We are confident that the production changes put in place have solved the issue and will continue to accept returns as per our original communication. The small number of customers who are experiencing the issue with their 'new' boots have most likely purchased old-season product that have been sitting in retailer inventories.
"We are still only seeing a very small number of cases where our football footwear products are affected by this problem. However, it is very important to recognise that any football shoe is a performance product and may therefore be affected by general footwear smells associated with sport and exercise.
"We also encourage people to care for their boots properly by cleaning them and ensuring they don't remain damp in sports bags after use. Nike stores and other retailers will continue to use discretion in assessing whether boots that are returned suffer from this problem, or are just old boots with the smells naturally associated over time with any shoe used for sport."
* To clarify, new-season product delivered to retailers from May onwards translates as footwear manufactured to launch at the start of the 2009/2010 football season.
Nike T90 Mercurials update