Lewis: Nike blew its dominance by ditching wholesale retail for direct-to-consumer
Michael Lewis · 10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) · Acquired · Dec 15, 2025 · at 2:38:32
Author Michael Lewis discusses running shoe brands during the podcast's Carveouts segment, critiquing Nike's retail distribution shift.
0:00 / 0:08exact quote · 8.1s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Nike basically blew it, right? They let these, they let, they got rid of their stores. They thought it's all going to be online and on and Hoka roll in”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis argues private companies are much better run than public ones
“I think there's an argument to be made that in any industry where they're both private and public companies, the private companies end up being much better run. And I mean like that mostly bad things happen when companies go public and certainly less pleasant.”
Lewis lacked an ending for his SBF book until FTX collapsed
“With Sam Beckman-Fried, I was a year into it, and I did not know what I was gonna do with it until it blew up”
Michael Lewis: Book writing does not compound audiences across topics
“The books have a kind of, Market, and it's a big market, biggish market, but it doesn't, I see no evidence that I'm dragging people along with me. I feel like each book feels like another startup, and then I've got to go out and make it happen almost as if I'v…”
Michael Lewis: Improvisational risk engages audiences far more than scripted speeches
“Do you know how your heart sinks when someone gets up at a podium with a script, with a speech, and they're gonna read their speech? The audience is waiting for you to get through this thing, because they know nothing's going to happen. Like, whatever's on tha…”
Michael Lewis: Acquired will eventually evolve into doing standalone biographies
“At some point you're gonna wake up and say, you know, we should be doing more biography. We should be doing more people, and if that person is not, you know, is not naturally a huge corporation, you may still, I have a feeling there's more, there's an evolutio…”