This is Part One of the Latticework Business Intelligence audio program on Nike, published by Latticework from MOI Global. It is the first of two audio programs that accompany our research report on Nike, Inc. (NYSE: NKE), and it is the story of the company, told for a general audience. The account is built from documented scenes, with the people named, the dates given, and the participants quoted in their own words. It assumes no background in business or finance and explains its terms, from a trading house to futures orders and gross margin, as they arrive. This episode is free.
The program runs from a business student’s term paper in 1962 to September 2026, and from Portland, Eugene and Kobe to Beaverton, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Monza, Berlin and Madrid. Its people are the founders, Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman; the early team, among them Jeff Johnson, Carolyn Davidson and Rob Strasser; the designers Tinker Hatfield and Mark Parker; the athletes, from Steve Prefontaine and Michael Jordan to Eliud Kipchoge and Kylian Mbappé; the workers in contract factories in Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam; and five chief executives, from Knight to Elliott Hill. It follows how a company that owns almost none of the factories that make its shoes, and none of the athletes who wear them, built the largest brand in sport, and what it cost each time the company drifted from sport, as its founder said in 1985 and its chief executive said again in 2024.
Part One stands on its own. It tells how Nike took its present shape, from a handshake in January 1964 to the turnaround under way in 2026, and it carries no valuation. The economics of the business, and the company as an investment, are the subject of Part Two and of the written report.
The program runs in twelve sections:
Twelve Clint Eastwoods. On August 8, 1992 the American Dream Team wins Olympic gold in Barcelona, and at the medal ceremony, in award jackets made by Reebok, every player hides the Reebok patch, three of them under American flags; 6 of the 12 players were Nike endorsers.
Blue Ribbon. In 1962 Phil Knight, a Stanford business student who had run the mile for Bill Bowerman at Oregon, calls on Onitsuka in Kobe, and in January 1964 the two men put up $500 each to sell its Tiger shoes; Blue Ribbon Sports’ first-year sales come to about $8,000.
The Goddess of Victory. In 1971 Onitsuka demands a majority stake, the trading house Nissho Iwai finances Blue Ribbon instead, Carolyn Davidson bills $35 for the Swoosh, Bowerman pours urethane into his wife’s waffle iron, and Nike’s first year under its own brand brings $1.96 million of sales.
Like or Similar. On May 23, 1980 Customs bills a little over $12 million of extra duty under the American Selling Price rule, about 4.5 percent of Nike’s sales for the year to May 1980; Nissho settles for $9.5 million in 24 installments, and Nike goes public on December 2, 1980 with two classes of stock.
Bad Eighty-Five. Nike posts the first quarterly losses in its history in late 1984 and early 1985, with about 12 million pairs more than it could sell, Knight declares that “NIKE is a sports company,” and the Air Jordan line, whose contract let Nike walk away below $4 million of sales by the third year, brings in more than $70 million of sales and orders by May 31, 1985.
Brand Frenzy. Reebok’s sales rise from about $13 million in 1983 to about $919 million in 1986 on an aerobics shoe for women, Nike’s revenue falls 18 percent in the year to May 1987, and Nike answers with the visible air of the Air Max One, the Air Jordan Three and, from July 1, 1988, “Just Do It”; by the year to May 1990 revenue reaches $2.2 billion.
Orders of Biblical Proportions. Revenue for the year to May 1997 rises 42 percent to $9.2 billion while the campaign against the conditions in Nike’s contract factories grows, and in 1998 Nike cuts about 1,600 jobs, loses $67.7 million in the quarter to May, and Knight announces a minimum age of 18 for workers making its shoes.
Operating at Eighty Percent. Nike brings in its first outside chief executive, William Perez, in December 2004 and parts with him after 13 months; Mark Parker, a designer who joined in 1979, succeeds him in January 2006, and in September 2018 Nike launches the Colin Kaepernick campaign on the thirtieth anniversary of Just Do It.
One Fifty-Nine Fifty-Nine. On September 16, 2018 Eliud Kipchoge runs 2:01:39 in Berlin in Nike’s carbon-plated shoe, taking 78 seconds off the world record, while in Beaverton a survey by women employees leads to the departure of the brand’s president, and in 2019 the Nike Oregon Project closes after its head coach’s four-year doping ban.
About Forty Partners. In October 2017 Elliott Hill tells investors that Nike, which sold through 30,000 retailers, will run its direct strategy with about 40 partners; under John Donahoe, Nike drops chains from Belk to DSW, its inventory peaks at $9.66 billion in August 2022, and its revenue passes $50 billion in the year to May 2023.
Scaffolding. Hill returns as chief executive on October 14, 2024 and tells analysts “We lost our obsession with sport,” more than $4 billion of revenue from the classic shoes is taken out from its peak, and after the Supreme Court strikes down the emergency tariffs in February 2026, Nike books a one-time benefit of $986 million.
Nothing Normal. Nike’s revenue for the year to May 2026 is level with the year before, the finance chief Matt Friend hands over to David Denton, Nike dresses 12 of the 48 teams at the 2026 World Cup and neither finalist, and on September 18, 2026 Kylian Mbappé signs with On.
The program runs 1 hour 29 minutes (1:29:11). The full research report, its companion slide deck, the Excel model and the transcript of Nike’s earnings call are on the Latticework Substack under the title Nike: The Defense Holds, the Offense Is Unproven. The companion slide deck is free; the report, the model and the transcript are available to members of Latticework. Part Two, the deep dive for investors, is a separate episode, available to members of Latticework: Nike, Part Two: The Deep Dive.
This audio program is published by MOI Global for educational purposes only. It is not investment advice, an offer, or a solicitation, and no security mentioned herein is recommended for purchase or sale. The publisher and contributors may hold positions in securities discussed. Figures are believed accurate as of the dates stated but are not warranted; listeners should verify all data against primary sources before relying on it. Nothing herein constitutes legal, tax, or accounting advice.
