NIKE CEO GONE - John Donahue steps down

TCU alumnus Elliott Hill takes over. Go Frogs!!

NKE is exactly where it was 5 years ago.

The Dow Jones is up 50% from 5 years ago.

Nasdaq has more than doubled from 5 years ago.

S&P is up over 80% from 5 years ago.

Made too much money off cheat-shoes that don’t work.

Im at a golf course here in Portland and the range is packed with Nike guys (celebrating). I just heard a dude say “so yesterday around midday did you hear the roar - it was like a sporting event or when we signed Lebron”. Classic stuff.

Runners seem to really like the 41, but 42 and 43 will suck before the 44 is good again. So it goes.

The model doesn’t matter, runners are always looking for a better shoe.

Yeah if you don't look at their stock...

Beat me to it. Oops.

Nobody runs any more, ON is killing the lifestyle angle, Brooks has shoes people can actually wear, and even Puma is a thing even though there's not a single store on planet Earth where you can see them.

Al, Lance, and Tiger are gone. Maybe Mary Decker can win Masters at NYC or something.

I’m with you, and feel the same way about big time sports coaches. Like when Belichick left the Patriots after more than two decades of unprecedented success on top of nearly two more decades in the coaching game generally, and he immediately was trying to get the Falcons job. Why?! But they all keep trying to go, go, go until they die or end up in prison.

There was a long interesting story about Donahue's failings by Bloomberg last week-

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-09-13/nike-nke-stock-upheaval-defines-ceo-john-donahoe-s-tenure

Really, it was the classic corporate America story- he's a former Bain consultant, came in and juiced Nike's income and stock price in way that made people think he was a genius but he was doing it in an unsustainable way and eating Nike's seed corn. Once the short-term benefits are over, Nike starts declining and his solution is to slash costs and employees., which makes things worse. So he gets fired and takes his millions with him.

It's another case of the short-term mindset required in publicly traded American companies.

Was listening to a Bill Simmons podcast a few months ago he had Derek Thompson on where they discussed this concept in depth - basically that the world on so many levels has been f-ed because nobody can step away when it's time and simply need to stick around for selfish reasons (either money or ego). Best example - Biden - he was only ever supposed to serve a term before handing over the reigns and nearly cost the Democrats the entire election by selfishly wanting to do a second term even though he is clearly totally unfit to do so (which came to an apex during that comical debate performance).

Basically this concept has contributed to the erosion of the middle class in this country as job progression and compensation was essentially halted and the same guys just get disproportionately richer year after year and they also run people out of jobs because who wants to feel like whatever they do they will be stuck forever in the same title and compensation. Sports is a great example too - you mentioned the NFL and that's the best example. There is a lot of chatter about the state of coaching in the NFL now and how bad it is - well that is because the NFL needed to make an overcorrection because all of it's coaches were historically old white dinosaurs and so that's why you have this hurried and forced rush of "young hotshots" that aren't even close to being ready to lead and inspire NFL teams. Sure some pan out (like McVay, Shanahan) - but they are the exception and not the rules.

it seems like sponsoring Pros is not the way to go anymore

Under Armour is probably losing a lot of money with Steph Curry

people have spoken, and they want comfy clothes and shoes

and to think milennials used to wear jordans... grim

This firing has nothing to do with inflation. It is accountability for a job poorly done. Of course, Jon is getting unjust desserts on his way out the door, but such is life in America's C-suite.

Can’t be Woke!!!!!!

I guess they tried to go that route with Invincible 3 by making it look more casual. But somehow while removing the moon-shoe look they also changed the way they feel when running and they're not that fun to run in anymore – with price and weight well above the average. I have no idea if Nike sold a lot of Invincible 3, but there hasn't been a 2024 update, so possible it wasn't successful. Too bad, the first two are my all-time favorite trainers, went through 5 pairs.

I wish him the WORST:

yahoo.com

Nike To Start Firing Unvaccinated Employees

Nike is taking a stance. The footwear manufacturing company is reportedly going to start firing...

Open link

Amazed how many continue to fail upwards