JUST DO SOMETHING!
There was a time when Nike could put a Swoosh on damn near anything and we wanted it.
Jordan. Agassi. Bo Jackson. Tiger. Kobe. Serena. Nike didn’t participate in sports culture. Nike owned it.
Today, the Swoosh looks less like a symbol of athletic dominance and more like something hanging over the clearance rack at an outlet mall.
So what the hell happened? Let’s Start with the stock.
Nike shares have collapsed roughly 80% from their pandemic-era peak and have fallen more than 40% during 2026. That isn’t a correction. That’s Wall Street standing outside Nike headquarters screaming, “JUST DO SOMETHING!”
Nike’s response? Restructure. Then restructure the restructuring. Then announce another restructuring.
Brilliant.
Nike just reported quarterly revenue down 4% to $11.2 billion. Nike Direct dropped 8%. Digital sales fell 13%. Converse ( just wading through the courts) cratered another 28%.
Then there’s China, once one of Nike’s great growth stories and now another headache.
But perhaps Nike’s biggest mistake was believing it was smarter than everybody who helped make Nike successful. Under former CEO John Donahoe, Nike went charging into direct-to-consumer like it had discovered electricity. Retail relationships were deemphasized because apparently customers were all going to happily purchase everything through Nike’s apps and website forever.
It failed miserably. Turns out Foot Locker, Dick’s and other retailers actually served a purpose: they put the damn shoes in front of people.
Veteran Elliott Hill is now back running the company, rebuilding wholesale relationships, refocusing Nike around sports and attempting to clean up the corporate garage.
Meanwhile, employees keep disappearing. Nike eliminated more than 1,600 jobs in 2024, followed with additional corporate reductions, announced 775 U.S. distribution-center cuts earlier this year and has this week signaled more reductions as it reorganizes yet again. Nothing screams “We’ve got this!” quite like repeatedly rearranging the organizational chart.
But Nike’s real problem isn't the organizational chart. It’s the shoes.
How many Dunk colorways does civilization require? How many Jordan's can you repaint before consumers realize they already own essentially the same sneaker? While Nike has been rummaging through its archives, competitors have been busy stealing the future.
Hoka built an empire selling sneakers resembling orthopedic moon boots. On became the uniform of affluent people walking through airports. New Balance somehow convinced twenty-somethings that their father’s lawn-mowing sneakers are cool. ASICS rediscovered fashion. Adidas found its pulse, and suddenly Nike isn’t automatically the coolest kid at the table.
Make no mistake, Nike remains enormous, generating $46.4 billion in fiscal 2026 revenue. Nobody should confuse broken with dead, but Nike once sold something much more valuable than sneakers.
Desire.
You saw the shoe. You wanted the shoe. You figured out how to afford the shoe.
Today? Wait three weeks and it’ll probably be 30% off.
Nike doesn't need another strategy presentation, management retreat or 137-page consultant report explaining how to “reconnect with the consumer.”
Here’s some free consulting:
Make great shit people can't wait to buy.
Is it broken beyond repair? Probably not, but when the company that once told the entire world to Just Do It suddenly looks like it has absolutely no idea what to do…
That’s a problem.
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