If I were the CEO of Nike
“Nike doesn't have a logo problem. It has a relevance problem.”
Transcript
Nike just got kicked out of the S&P 100 after 18 years. Its market value has fallen roughly 80% from its peak, and brands like On, Hoka, and Puma are coming after its customers. If I were the CEO of Nike, here's exactly what I do. First, I launched a campaign called "Everybody's an Athlete."
I bring in Kai Sinat, Druski, and Kevin Hart, and put them through actual workouts with LeBron James, Sakari Richardson, and Serena Williams, basketball, sprinting, Pilates, boxing. I turned it into a YouTube series, cut it up into thousands of clips,
and launched limited edition collections around every episode. I do this because Nike has the greatest athletes in the world, and I use them to build the greatest creator content machine in sports. Second, I completely rebuild Nike's digital business. Digital sales fell 13% last year, and I launched Nike Draft.
Imagine opening the Nike app and seeing a live draft where athletes and creators are competing to design the next Nike sneaker. Fans get to vote, and the winning design gets manufactured, and the creators earn royalties on every pair sold. I turn all of Nike's customers into his product development team.
Third, I launched Nike Clubhouse. I take massive spaces in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Chicago. Basketball courts, running clubs, Pilates studios, recovery lounges, coffee shops. I partner with Equinox, local coaches, and creators to run programming every single day,
and I make the stores the center of it all. Because Nike shouldn't just be somewhere you buy shoes, it should be somewhere you actually play sports. And fourth, I buy a sports media company. I'd probably go after overtime, because they built an audience around the next generation of basketball stars and sports culture.
I'd acquire the business, keep its editorial voice, and give it the resources to become a global sports entertainment platform. Think about what Red Bull did with media and extreme sports. Nike could do that across every sport on Earth, because Nike doesn't have a logo problem. It has a relevance problem.
And if I were running Nike, I'd stop waiting for culture to come back, and I'd go out and own it. Every business, every industry, there's a larger opportunity hiding inside of it. I'm here to help you find them. Follow me for more tech and AI news.