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.
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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…”
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 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 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.”
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…”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
Jordan Brand Grew From $700M in 2003 to $6.6B Annually
“That year, in 2003, is doing seven hundred million dollars a year, and today it's doing 6.6 billion.”
Phil Knight's Stanford Paper Focused on Cheap Labor Arbitrage
“I mean, literally, Phil Knight's Stanford paper is about arbitraging cheap labor from imported goods and selling into markets willing to pay higher prices.”
The Viral 'Nike 10 Principles' Memo Was Written by Rob Strasser
“Here are the things that are wrong with that statement. One, Phil Knight did not write it. Rob Strasser did. Two, Nike's principles. Also incorrect. When this was written, it was actually still Blue Ribbon Sports, so that it was not yet the Nike corporation. T…”
Weber: Nike signed a 27-year marketing agreement with USATF
“Nike, ah, signs a 27 year marketing agreement with the governing body of our sport, USA Track and Field.”
Phil Knight and Insiders Retained 56% of Nike at IPO
“Phil Knight basically never took on any equity investors, and so he took no dilution. He and his management team and Bill Bowerman owned 56% at IPO, him owning 46% because he just kept betting the farm all on debt and basically had no buffer at all.”
Bill Bowerman Pitched Shoe Designs Directly to Adi Dassler in the 1950s
“Based on letters in the University of Oregon and Nike archives, Bill Bowerman corresponded directly with many footwear manufacturers in the 19 fifties, so like 15 plus years before this, including Adi Dassler, directly to Adi Dassler, trying to purchase shoes …”
Nike Priced Air Jordan 2 at $100 and Made It in Italy
“The Air Jordan twos cost a hundred dollars. The Air Jordan ones cost 65 dollars. The Air Jordan twos were made in Italy out of premium Italian leather.”
Phil Knight Owned 46% of Nike Following Its 1980 IPO
“So when they went public, after the IPO, Phil owned 46% of the company and was overnight one of the richest people in America.”
Nike Generates Over $50B in Revenue Without Directly Manufacturing Shoes
“What makes this company the single largest apparel business in the world today, outside of luxury, of course, and how is it possible to be a shoe company that does over fifty billion dollars in revenue when they technically don't make a single shoe?”
Tim Cook Joined Nike's Board in 2005, Launching Nike+ iPod
“Tim joins Nike's board. I believe in, like, late 2005 he joined the board. He immediately starts helping Nike into understanding how to use digital technology to transform their business. And in 2006, they launched the Nike Plus iPod.”
Direct-to-Consumer Sales Account for 40% of Nike's Revenue
“About 60% is still wholesale, is still sold through retailers, and impressively, 40% of this very large business, this fifty billion dollar revenue business, Is now done selling products directly to consumers, either in stores or on their website.”
Nike Acquired Converse for $309 Million in 2003
“In 2003, they acquire Converse for three hundred and nine million dollars.”
Nike Market Cap Dropped From $20B to $8B During Dot-Com Crash
“Their market cap drops from twenty billion to eight billion dollars.”
Rob Strasser and Peter Moore Left Nike to Lead Adidas America
“An item among many that is not discussed in the movie is that Rob, shortly after signing Jordan, had an enormous fight with Phil Knight, left the company with Peter Moore, who was the designer behind Jordan's, and ended up joining Adidas as CEO of Adidas Ameri…”
Nike Has 500 Million Quarterly Active Users Across Mobile Apps
“Across the four mobile apps that Nike operates today, they have five hundred million users a quarter who are now using Nike digital apps.”
Nike Signed Its First Athlete Endorsement With Ilie Năstase for $10K
“So they had already, before Rob joined, done the first official sponsorship of an athlete with Ili Nastassi, the tennis player. They paid him 10,000 dollars to wear Nike tennis shoes.”
Nike Pays Roughly $200M Annually for NFL Uniform Rights
“They're now the official uniform supplier of the MLB, the NFL, and the NBA, and they're throwing huge dollars. Like, the NFL deal alone is something like a two hundred million dollar a year deal.”
The Sneaker Industry Follows a Power Law With Adidas Half Nike's Size
“There's Nike, there's Adidas that's half their size, and then the third place player is well less than half of Adidas' size.”
Phil Knight Did Not Believe in Advertising in Nike's Early Years
“Phil Knight to this point, which is hilarious given Nike today, doesn't believe in advertising, and so he's like, Fine, I'll give in to some other people who are advising me that I should make some brochures or something.”
Bill Bowerman Rebuilt Running Shoes With Snake and Fish Skin
“He would rip shoes apart, and he would rebuild them, this is from the Nike website, with snake skin, deer hide, or fish skin.”
The Name 'Nike' Was Originally Chosen For a Football Cleat Model
“This wasn't intended to be Nike. This was intended to be the name of the model of the football cleat.”
Nike Revenue Scaled From $14M to $150M in the Late 1970s
“They go from fourteen million in sales to twenty-nine million in sales to seventy-one million in sales, finishing out in 1979 with a hundred and fifty million in sales.”
The Nike Swoosh Was Not Inspired by the Greek Goddess of Victory
“There's this myth running around forever and ever that the swoosh is inspired by one of those wings. The name Nike came after the design of the swoosh, which, by the way, also was not called a swoosh yet.”
Nike Was Likely the First Foreign Footwear Company Allowed in China
“Nike would be one of the very first companies, and I think the first footwear company that would be allowed to sell in China.”
The Cortez Shoe Debuted With Onitsuka Branding, Not the Nike Swoosh
“When they came out, it had the Onitsuka, now Asics, Design on it, not the swoosh.”
Nike Is More Than Twice the Size of Adidas
“For context, today, Nike is, what, more than twice the size of Adidas?”