The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 90 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Rosenthal: Studying non-tech giants is more valuable than tech case studies
“Is that those stories and studying the LVMHs, the Costcos, the Nikes of the world, if anything, that's like even more important than studying the great technology companies for building a great technology company.”
Nike Over-Supplied Retailers to Reach $126M in Air Jordan Sales
“Nike needed that first year of the Jordan deal to be a huge hit. So they stuffed the channel. They pushed so much product on retailers and through the futures program and whatnot that that's how they hit the hundred and twenty six million dollars in sales. The…”
Phil Knight Essentially Invented Modern Sports Marketing With Steve Prefontaine
“It's Phil, like, basically inventing sports marketing. I mean, there was a sort of nascent idea of athlete sponsorship at the time, but it really, this is the invention of it as we know it today. And all athletic brands are defined by athletes, and this is rea…”
Nike Scrapped Pre-Planned 2018 Campaigns to Run Colin Kaepernick Ads
“And in fact, I know that when they launched this, they actually scrapped their plans for the whole rest of the year for a whole bunch of ad campaigns that were already ready for a different way that they were gonna do the 30th anniversary relaunch of Just Do I…”
Product Is Merely Nike's Monetization Method for Athlete Marketing
“I think the athletes are your most important marketing tool. I think the product is a monetization method for the marketing that you do through athletes.”
Lewis: Nike blew its dominance by ditching wholesale retail for direct-to-consumer
“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”
Costco's Kirkland Signature generates more revenue than all of Nike
“Their store brand, Kirkland Signature, does more revenue alone, not including anything else in the store than all of Nike.”
Nike's Social Issue Campaigns Stem From Gut Feel Over Demographic Calculation
“I actually don't think that's the way that it operates. I think it is like an executive and creative gut feel. This is a set of values we feel are right, and we're gonna continue to bet the company on the people that identify with that set of values are a grea…”
Nike Mistakenly Treated Cyclical Running as a Secular Fitness Boom
“Early Nike did so many things right, but they made one critical mistake. They mistook the running and the jogging boom for the broader fitness boom. The broader fitness boom was a massive secular trend that continues through to this day. The running boom was a…”
The NFL Captures More Value, but the NBA Creates More Value
“The NFL is a better business as a league than the NBA. No question in my mind. But the amount of value created out of the leagues, I think more value is created out of the NBA. The NFL just captures way more value, and thus is the more valuable league.”
Under Armour Cannot Win Running a Mini-Nike Playbook
“Right, but don't be Under Armour, who's not a platform brand. They don't have the size and scale and everything that accrues to a Nike, but they're trying to run a mini Nike playbook, and they need to run a completely different playbook.”
Nike Improperly Used Nissho Inventory Financing to Secretly Purchase a Factory
“They use Nisho's money Which was supposed to be to buy inventory, instead to plow it into capex of buying and rehabbing a factory, and then they were secretly operating their own factory with money that was not supposed to be used for that purpose.”
Nike Intentionally Ignored 1990s Factory Conditions to Maximize Margins
“And in the nineties, Nike chose to sit too far on maximizing the margin side of things, and they intentionally turned a blind eye to what was going on in the factories, and they were in the wrong, because it led to exploiting people.”
Running, Basketball, and Tennis Are the Only Footwear Sports That Matter
“There are actually only three sports that matter. So Nike, Adidas, you know, Reebok, they sponsor lots of sports, but running, basketball, and tennis are the only sports that matter, because those are the only shoes that normal people can wear. Normal people d…”
Jordan Will Earn $5B to $10B Lifetime From the Jordan Brand
“Michael Jordan will make five, maybe ten billion dollars over his lifetime from the Jordan brand.”
Nike Hired Steve Prefontaine for $5,000 to Bypass Amateur Sports Rules
“So what Phil does is he decides to employ Pri as a corporate employee of Nike as the National Director of Public Affairs for 5000 dollars a year.”
Jordan Earned Royalties on All Incremental Nike Basketball Shoe Sales
“Also in the deal, the previous year, Nike had sold 400,000 pairs of Nike basketball shoes. They include a clause that Jordan gets a royalty on incremental sales in future years beyond the baseline of Everything in the Nike basketball line.”
Rosenthal: Federer-Rolex ranks just behind Jordan-Nike among athlete partnerships
“I don't think the Federer Rolex relationship is quite like a Michael Jordan Nike relationship, but it's in that next tier of great athlete partnerships”
Football Is Not an Important Sport for Nike's Shoe Sales
“Kaepernick played football. Not an important sport for Nike in terms of shoe sales.”
Nissho Iwai Financed Nike's Predecessor for a 4% Shoe Royalty
“Phil signs a deal, finally, with Nisho EY, and the core part of the deal is Nisho will, A, finance all of Blue Ribbon's financing needs, henceforth, pretty much at a scale that goes all the way up to the moon. I mean, they're a hundred billion dollar revenue c…”
No Competitor Can Match Nike's Scale Economies in Custom Shoe Personalization
“Nike, I actually think, is really at the forefront of apparel personalization with what started as Nike ID and now is, I think, called Nike by me, but anybody can make their own Nike shoes in their own colors with their own designs on them. To be able to do th…”
Reebok Was Founded in 1980 and Surpassed Nike in Sales by 1988
“I mean, in 1980, Reebok USA is founded, and by 1988, Reebok eclipses Nike in sales.”
Nike Markets Luxury Dreams but Captures Value Through Volume
“Just like a luxury brand, they have to market the dream, but their mechanism for capturing value is entirely different.”
Extreme Early Financing Constraints Were Critical to Nike's Success
“Two, though, ironically, I actually, as crazy as this sounds, think it was a critical element of Nike Succeeding and becoming Nike. Because if it were too easy, there would have been a flood of other competitors. Or Onitsuka and others would have just done thi…”
Nike Gave Michael Jordan a 5% Gross Sales Royalty in 1984
“So the deal is a two and a half million dollar minimum guaranteed payout over five years. But that's not actually how the economics work. The revolutionary aspect of the deal was the payouts were calculated as a five percent royalty on gross revenue from the s…”
Jordan Earned at Least $100M Over His 7-Year Nike Extension
“Jordan earns over the course of this contract easily at least a hundred million dollars.”
Nike Customer Acquisition Operates Like Netflix Acquiring Content
“The primary way that you get someone to be a twenty-year customer of Nike is to go and spend money on the biggest athletes in the world. And the whole game, just like Netflix, is Nike's acquiring content. Nike is acquiring the LeBrons of the world to be Nike a…”
Brooks, On, and Hoka Reached Billion-Dollar Run Rates by 2023
“You've got Brooks, On, and Hoka all becoming billion dollar revenue run rate companies in the last 18 months.”
Inspiring Brands Cannot Deflect Supply Chain Blame to Third-Party Suppliers
“Yeah, they sort of discovered they couldn't have their cake and eat it, too, of saying, we are the brand that inspires you. Oh, but by the way, anytime there's an issue, oh, that's one of our suppliers' problems, we simply don't make shoes. Even though it is t…”
The Dad-Style Air Monarch Has Frequently Been Nike's Best-Selling Shoe
“Someone told me that in many years, the Monarch has been their best-selling shoe, which is this crazy high-margin dad barbecue shoe that no athlete has ever worn for anything.”
Michael Jordan's 1985 Nike Payout Matched His Entire Seven-Year Bulls Contract
“That's 6.3 million dollars that Jordan got from Nike in 1985. Do you know what Jordan's contract with the Bulls was? It's too perfect. 6.3 million dollars over seven years.”
Nike Reopened Macy's and Expanded Foot Locker Inventory to Clear Stock
“Like, they, like, Reopened Macy's, and they put more inventory in Foot Locker in the last couple quarters, and that's sort of concerning because the whole narrative has been, we're going direct, but also oh, we have too much inventory, so we gotta blow it out …”
Nike's Futures Program Offered Retailers 7% Discounts for Advance Payment
“If you commit and pay for your orders six months in advance, Blue Ribbon will give you a seven percent discount, and we're gonna call this the Nike Futures Program. So he's essentially moving his financing from banks and niche UI over to his retail partners, t…”
Air Jordan 1 Generated $126 Million in First-Year Sales
“In the first year, Air Jordan Ones sell one hundred and twenty six million dollars.”
Tegus Calls Show Adidas Struggling for Brand Coolness Unlike Nike
“I mean, you listen to these Tegas calls with Adidas people, and they're like, our issue is how to figure out how to make the brand cool again, and that does not show up in any way, shape, or form in the Nike interviews.”
Nike's Annual Sales to Women Exceed Lululemon's Total Annual Revenue
“Nike's sales to women alone are bigger than all of Lululemon's revenue.”
Nike and Jordan Command Over 85% of the Basketball Shoe Market
“Nike and the Air Jordan brand's share of performance basketball was 86%, and the stats a few years old, it was right before the pandemic, but the dominance was even more prevalent in the lifestyle basketball category where they have 96% share.”
Rob Strasser Was Second Only to Phil Knight in Creating Nike
“So, Strasser, we'll get into his contributions, but he is probably second only to Phil Knight in willing Nike into existence.”
Endorsements Build Brand Perception Rather Than Driving Direct Shoe Sales
“These endorsement deals are not about the sneakers that that basketball player is going to sell or, oh, I want to buy the cleats that my favorite college football team is wearing on the field. No one else plays football other than college football students and…”
Carolyn Davidson's 500 Pre-IPO Nike Shares Are Worth $7 Million Today
“When Nike went public, they did give her 500 shares. The stock price today is around 110, and it has split seven times. So two to the seventh, times 110 dollars a share, times her 500 shares, is worth seven million dollars today.”
Nike's Jordan Brand Generated $6.6 Billion in Revenue in Fiscal 2022
“So, this past year, they just reported FYI-twenty-two. The Jordan brand did 6.6 billion dollars in revenue.”
Adidas Maintained Higher Gross Margins Than Nike for a Decade
“Nike's current rolling last four quarter gross profit margin is 44% Adidas is 46%, and Adidas every single quarter for the last 10 years has had a higher gross margin.”
Nike Sold 1.5 Million Air Jordans in Six Weeks
“In the first year, they sold 1.5 million pair in the first six weeks after releasing them.”
Nike Intentionally Leaves Secondary Resale Profits on the Table
“Nike sells these incredibly limited edition retro and otherwise sneakers, but they sell them for a 150 bucks, 200 bucks, maybe 300 bucks, like not a lot of money. The instant that they get purchased, you can turn around and sell them on the secondary market fo…”
Only Extreme-Scale Brands Can Profitably Bypass Traditional Distribution Channels
“There is this tipping point where a brand becomes the scale player. Like, think about Disney in media. They've become the scale player. They can run a different playbook and go directly to customers in a way where other places that make content need to integra…”
Regional Distribution Businesses Were Far More Defensible Before the Internet
“The idea that your core competency is just distributing someone else's product among a geographic area where you have a relationship with customers, that might have actually been a pretty good plan and much more defensible in a way that it's much harder to bui…”