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Nike’s market cap peaked at $280 billion in 2021 and has lost $223 billion since. Eric walks through Trung Phan’s breakdown of how it happened: McKinsey advised Nike to eliminate its running, basketball and soccer categories, the marketing budget moved from brand advertising to programmatic retargeting, and hundreds of wholesale partners were cut for a direct-to-consumer bet that collapsed when shoppers went back to stores. Neil on why consultants who never ran a business should not be running yours, and why a kid asking for Nikes is what good brand advertising looks like. Then LeBron James’ Polymarket partnership and why both hosts call it brand eroding, and the shirtless YouTuber Eric calls the Sam Sulek of e-commerce.

Key takeaways
◾Nike cut what worked (categories, brand ads, retail partners) for what was easier to measure
◾A brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room; retargeting does not build it
◾It takes decades to build a brand and five minutes to erode it

Chapters
00:00 Nike lost $223B: McKinsey killed the categories
01:32 Consultants who never ran a business
04:06 Locked in: adapt or die
04:34 Nike swapped brand ads for retargeting
06:36 Why kids wanted Nikes
07:59 Neil’s Tesla
09:16 Nike burnt its wholesale partners
10:07 LeBron x Polymarket: a brand-eroding move
13:07 The Sam Sulek of e-commerce
15:22 What views actually matter