A billion-dollar sneaker company just watched its stock drop 70% from its peak while the rest of the market gained 150% — and the CEO’s big announcement is that he’s tired of talking about it.
Somebody get this man a participation trophy. Maybe a pair of limited-edition Kaepernick Nikes to cry into.
Elliott Hill, Nike’s chief executive, told employees at an all-hands meeting on Tuesday that he’s “so tired, and I know you are too, of talking about fixing this business.” He wants to focus on “inspiring and driving growth and having fun.” Fun! The stock is at $52. It peaked at $165 in 2021. The S&P 500 has risen 150% in seven years. Nike has cratered. But sure — let’s have fun.
The company’s own projections tell the story. Nike expects revenue to decline 2% to 4% this quarter. Wall Street had forecast a 1.9% increase. And in China — a market Nike has spent years kowtowing to — sales are expected to drop 20% in the current quarter. Twenty percent. In one quarter. In a country Nike bent the knee to.
That’s the part worth remembering. This is the same company that slapped Colin Kaepernick’s face on every billboard in America and told us to “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” Nike wanted us to believe they were brave. Social justice warriors in running shoes. Champions of the oppressed.
Then China’s Communist Youth League raised an eyebrow about Xinjiang sanctions in 2021, and Nike’s then-CEO John Donahoe said the company takes a “long-term view” on China. A long-term view. Not “we stand against forced labor.” Not “we believe in human rights.” A long-term view. Which is corporate-speak for “please keep buying our shoes and we’ll pretend the Uyghur concentration camps don’t exist.”
So Nike will lecture Americans about racial justice from the comfort of a Super Bowl ad, but when the Chinese Communist Party — which is running actual forced labor camps — clears its throat, Nike discovers the virtue of quiet diplomacy. Profiles in courage, every last one of them.
CFO Matthew Friend piled on the good news this week, admitting “the trajectory for the business was stepping down” and that cost-cutting is creating internal tension “because our business is not moving in the right direction.” You don’t say. A company that alienated half its customer base to make a political statement and then groveled to a communist dictatorship isn’t moving in the right direction? Stunning.
Here’s the thing nobody in Nike’s boardroom wants to say out loud. The Kaepernick bet worked — for about two years. The stock briefly hit an all-time high. MSNBC pundits applauded. Twitter (as it was then) celebrated. And then real customers — the ones who actually buy sneakers for their kids and don’t live on social media — started walking. Not marching. Not protesting. Just quietly spending their money somewhere else. Turns out you can survive a boycott hashtag. You can’t survive a customer base that simply stops showing up.
You — the person who used to buy Nikes for your kids without thinking about it, the way your parents bought them for you — you’re the one they forgot about. They were too busy winning awards at Cannes and getting standing ovations from people who don’t own running shoes. And now the stock is down 70% from its peak, the CEO is tired, and the company is projecting revenue declines in every major market on earth.
Nike took a brand that stood for athletic excellence — for Michael Jordan and “Just Do It” and the idea that greatness is earned, not assigned — and turned it into a vehicle for whatever cause got the most applause at a dinner party in Portland. They sacrificed the brand. And now the brand is sacrificing them back.
Elliott Hill is tired. We believe him. Running a company into the ground is exhausting work.