Why Nike Can't "Just Do It": The Slow Comeback of a Fallen Sportswear King

The video opens with a market report noting Nike shares down around 10% that morning. It follows with a clip of a speaker on Nike's side explaining that whenever the company introduces "a new strategy, new approach, and a new leadership" and works on "dimensionalizing the brand," it has to reconsider where it repositions resources. The video presents this as part of Nike's explanation for why results have been slow to improve.

Central to the story is CEO Elliott Hill. A reporter describes him as someone who had been a Nike executive for decades and was "completely beloved by employees." Hill was supposed to be the insider who could bring Nike back to itself. Yet even under a leader with that much experience inside the company, the reporter says, Nike is "still really struggling."

According to the reporters, many of Nike's current problems date back to John Donahoe, who ran the company before Hill. Under Donahoe, Nike prioritized its direct-to-consumer channels and pulled out of many retailers, which strained those relationships. When Nike left, shelf space opened up in those stores. Newcomers such as On and Hoka filled it and took over some of the running market share.

Donahoe also prioritized lifestyle shoes, the video says. Air Force Ones and Dunks "really flooded the market," lost their cachet, and Nike fell behind in categories like running that were key to the business. The video notes that after years of fairly steady dominance, all three of Nike's flagship brands, including Jordan and Converse, have lost market share since 2023.

Under Hill, the reporters say, Nike has refocused on regaining its dominance in sports and has rebuilt relationships with many retailers. The running business is growing again, and Nike is "getting back on track in North America."

Other parts of the business are still struggling, though. The video reports that Nike's China business keeps declining and that Converse has fallen to a decade low.

Hill's stated plans, as summarized in the video, have three parts:

• halting heavy discounting to restore premium pricing
• repairing relationships with wholesale retailers
• focusing on sports rather than fashion

Beyond sales, the video argues that big moments in sport that Nike used to own are going to other brands. A reporter points to Adidas, whose two runners broke the two-hour marathon record. The reporter calls it a "huge moment" that, together with On, "really left Nike behind."

Nike also stumbled on marketing. At the Boston Marathon it ran an ad reading "Runners welcome, walkers tolerated," which the reporter describes as quite controversial. Nike eventually took the ad down.

The video also says Nike needs to win back athletes and build "a deep bench." One reporter calls succession a structural challenge: after a large talent exodus, Nike is missing the middle layer of people who have spent years at the company.

Shareholders have been "really disappointed" with Nike's results, the reporter says, and investors are getting "really impatient" to see Hill's plan show more progress.

The video presents the World Cup, "arguably the world's biggest sporting event," as another chance for Nike to prove itself. It adds that the first attempts have gone "wide of the goal." After Nike released its World Cup jerseys, people noticed a major flaw: the shoulders puckered up, both on players and on fans.

The video ends by calling June a huge month for Nike, with the World Cup beginning in North America and the company reporting its next quarterly results. It leaves open whether Hill's turnaround can show the progress investors are waiting for.