Nike never misses an opportunity to tell everyone it is the world’s most innovative company—a fearless champion of creativity, self-expression, and the rebellious spirit of sport.
Apparently, the latest expression of that innovative spirit is turning a $169 stock into a $39 stock.
That is a 78% collapse from its 2021 peak, roughly $200 billion in market value erased, a 12-year low, eight consecutive quarters of declining sales in China, Nike Direct revenue down 7%, digital sales down 12%, and the stock heading toward its worst annual performance since 1993.
But please, tell us more about “Win Now.”
Only Nike’s leadership could lose approximately $200 billion, fall behind younger and more innovative competitors, watch Jordan and Sportswear lose momentum, and still walk into the next all-hands meeting congratulating themselves for being courageous disruptors.
The company celebrates self-expression—as long as employees express exactly what leadership wants to hear. It celebrates risk-taking—as long as executives never risk their own jobs. It celebrates innovation—then eliminates experienced innovators, reorganizes the survivors, and expects a new corporate slogan to design the products consumers no longer see coming from Nike.
This isn’t innovation. It’s institutional arrogance wearing expensive sneakers and carrying a PowerPoint deck.
Nike’s greatest recent innovation may be discovering how to turn “Just Do It” into “Just Keep Saying Innovation Until Investors Stop Looking at the Numbers.”
They haven’t.