Earlier this week, a former Nike branding executive named Massimo Giunco published a viral article that tells the story of the Swoosh’s recent Wall Street woes. Ugly stuff, for shareholders. But what’s interesting is how much of Giunco’s detailed analysis seems to sync up with a different conversation many people are having lately: Is Nike still cool?
In 2020, Nike’s new CEO, John Donahue, made a few decisions about the business that seem to have had significant implications for not just the company’s bottom line, but for the culture. First, he eliminated categories. This meant that products were no longer organized by sport, but by gender (“like Zara, GAP, H&M or any other generic fashion brand,” Giunco notes). If you’ve wondered why Nike seems to be lagging when it comes to design heat lately—what Giunco calls a “lack of innovation and energy in product creation”—it’s likely due in part to this reorg.
I …