Everyone's Hating on Nike. But Everyone Still Wants to Be Nike.
Nike's detractors are louder than ever. But the Swoosh is still the gold standard for many of its competitors across the sportswear industry, Adidas included. Even the Pope rocks Nike kicks.
Hi everyone, welcome back to SportsVerse, my twice-weekly newsletter that tells stories you can’t find anywhere else about the intersection of sports, fashion, business, and culture.
There are three truths in this world: death, taxes and people having a hot take on the so-called downfall of Nike. LinkedIn is now a breeding ground for engagement-baiting thinkpieces full of largely unsubstantiated assertions that X campaign or Y strategy is the reason why Nike is no longer the brand it once was.
There was a surge in optimism — both inside the brand and across the market in general — about the brand’s future when Nike lifer Elliott Hill took the top job towards the end of 2024, and set out an ambitious “Sport Offence” turnaround plan based on re-centring athletes and bringing the company back closer to what it does best: sports.
There were even some big early wins in Hill’s tenure, which suggested to some that Nike was quickly getting back to its old ways and reclaiming its position as the dominant voice in the sportswear market.
But the goodwill afforded to Hill, a charismatic sports fanatic and true Nike man, is beginning to wear thin among influential groups, including investors, market analysts and general fans of the brand.
It’s not that Hill’s turnaround plan for the business is flawed — quite the opposite. It’s simply the case that it takes a long time to steady a $46.3 billion company which has lost its way, especially given how entrenched some of the core problems that set in during the Donahoe era had become. Nike is also battling myriad external factors and is attempting to underscore the appeal of its own clothing and footwear in the midst of an unprecedented commercial and cultural winning streak for its largest rival, Adidas, along with the continued progress of smaller but increasingly influential brands in this space, like On.
But there’s an interesting contrast at play: while many individuals (especially those seemingly outside the sportswear industry) seem to be enjoying bashing Nike at every possible opportunity, the industry itself seems still as enamoured with the Swoosh as it always has been. Everybody still wants to be Nike, even if Nike itself is in a prolonged rough patch.
Here are some examples of everyone wanting to be like Nike:
Lululemon, which is going through its own very complicated struggles, turned to veteran Nike executive Heidi O’Neil, who recently left the Swoosh after 26-year tenure during which she presided over the company’s most successful years. O’Neil was appointed as CEO of Lululemon last month, at which point the internet decided to lay much of the blame for Nike’s recent struggles at her feet, citing her role as a proponent of the brand’s now-abandoned direct-to-consumer push (which was lauded by analysts and investors at the time as revolutionary) as the reason why she was a bad pick for her new employers. Yet Lululemon, which sits up there with the Swoosh as one of the sportswear market’s greatest success stories, deemed O’Neil’s expertise and her proximity to the Nike secret sauce as a fundamental asset to the brand, entrusting her at the driver’s seat of the Canadian brand’s turnaround.
Adidas got widespread plaudits for its Backyard Legends short film, which was the crowning moment of a near-flawless product and marketing rollout ahead of the World Cup next month. That praise was entirely warranted. However, it would be remiss of us not to acknowledge that the scrappy, energetic, rousing nature of the campaign — which didn’t take itself too seriously — harked back to the classic Nike football commercials in the 90s, 2000s and early 2010s, like this or this.
All the independent cool kid brands want to be like Nike. Whether that’s emerging running and callisthenics adjacent start-up groups/brands like PNP Fitness, NSLB, Energy (profiled in SportsVerse here), or streetwear labels like London’s Corteiz or Paris’ Baara, there’s only one brand on the founders’ vision boards for a dream collaboration: there’s no co-sign like a Nike Swoosh on your product. The way these brands speak to consumers, design, market and release products and collaborate with others is all rooted in the Nike way.
The actual Pope rocks Nikes. That’s right, the pontiff Leo XIV was seen in a niche vintage pair of Nike sneakers. Not Adidas Sambas. Not Salomon XT-6s. Not Puma Speedcats. The only sneaker brand that is Vatican-certified is Nike. That has to count for something.
So while it’s certainly the case that right now, Nike is not on a winning streak, it’s also true that almost every brand in sportswear that is performing well right now is doing so by borrowing at least some of the core strategies first laid out in the Nike playbook.
The Road Ahead for Nike
The next few weeks and months will be pivotal.
The brand has a major World Cup marketing push planned for June 3, and it will report earnings for its full 2026 fiscal year at the end of the month. It also has an investor day slated for the fall, when the brand’s leadership will once again be in the hot seat.
The year-end earnings will certainly not paint a pretty picture, but Hill will be hoping he will be able to point to some growth in the green shoots that have been nestling their way out of the rubble of Nike’s collapse of late: namely, the strong growth of its running footwear and apparel business, and the positive direction in which North America sales are trending. Ultimately, investors will need to see more than that to be appeased. To avoid another pile-on, there will need to be some concrete indication that next year’s outlook will point to some signs of a turnaround. Nike stock is trading perilously low, $42 per share at the time of writing, down 33 per cent since the beginning of the year. On April 13, Nike stock hit its lowest point since 2014.
To end on an optimistic note, Nike folk can take solace in three things:
Elliott Hill bought $2 million of Nike stock when the company’s shares hit historic lows in April. His messaging has remained resolute: that the brand is in cleanup mode and he and his leadership team are not interested in quick fixes — they are readying Nike for the next 40 years. That is what leading from the front looks like.
Even with the forecast low single-digit revenue decline expected for its fiscal 2026, Nike will likely report sales of $44 billion to $45 billion, dwarfing the entirety of its competitors (Adidas included) in the sportswear market.
Even the Pope is rocking Nike still. It could be worse.
That’s all for today, friends. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
See you next time,
DYM
Nike will always be the gold standard brand for athletes. I really can’t stand the pile-on of keyboard warriors with no real knowledge or reflection. Coming out of the “covid” years has been a challenge for large and small brands alike in this industry. Just Do It.
Funny how people are so quick to call Nike “washed,” while most brands are still trying to recreate the emotional connection Nike built decades ago. What’s interesting is that Nike’s recent struggles are still being measured against standards no other sportswear brand has consistently reached. Most brands would dream of a “poor year” doing $44B+ in revenue.
Feels less like a collapse and more like the inevitable correction that happens when a brand spends too long optimising for scale over emotional connection.