How to Appreciate NIKE’s cyclical stump: Ten Deep Thoughts

A story to read on NIKE having a cyclical slump and
cutting $2 billion in costs, plus rumored layoffs. Want to depress a workforce? Get word out about layoffs during Holiday! Great planning there! https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2023/12/nike-seeks-2-billion-in-cost-savings-over-3-years-confirms-significant-layoffs.html

Cyclical?

This writer has observed and interacted with NIKE since 1983. Way back in about 1998, I was flying from Portland to NYC and sat next to this lawyer who was a personal lawyer for “Buck Knight.” Fascinating six hours. That my liver ever recovered from that six hours of liquid refreshment is a moment of pride. I learned how Knight and Bowerman struggled to keep the business going, and that always gave me some solace.

What I learned was that Mr. Knight and Mr. Bowerman were human, even when Bowerman threw shoes across a room and terrified a designer, then gently talked the designer down from running out of the room. Bowerman could be a major prick, and he could be thoughtful, he was a man of some complication, which is the highest compliment I could give a fellow human being.

Some deep thoughts;

1. NIKE running has not been given the respect it is due. When NIKE stops innovating in running, where all its innovation comes from, the other footwear product lines get hurt.

2. NIKE has lost many of its running products and marketing superstars. There is not a running brand, I believe, that has not been influenced by some of the great NIKE innovators. The brand tends to spit many of the best eccentrics out into the running world.

3. Running is complicated, yet simple, get what I mean?
Twenty years ago, a NIKE VP called me to chastise me over the fact that Pegasus was not winning our RunningNetwork award each year. I told them it was impossible, as NIKE was making a different shoe each year. You need to keep the fans of an iconic shoe from the year before and build on them.

4. NIKE has focused on NIKE Indoor, NIKE Outdoor, and NIKE NXN, speaking to the top athletes in the sport, the 20-30,000 who compete there. What about the other 1.5 million 14-18-year-olds who run, jump and throw. They are the future of running. This has been an achilles heel for NIKE for decades.

5. Listen to Women. NIKE truly needs to listen to women athletes, women designers, women marketers, and women of color. They need to listen to women. It just has not happened.

6. NIKE has nearly gotten out of running retail. It needs to return….