00:00:00
Nike stock is surging following the news late last week that CEO John donaho is stepping down donoho's four-year tenure
00:00:06
was a Rocky one with Nike losing market share breaking off relations with key retailers and according to some critics
00:00:11
losing its cool Factor Elliot Hill a Nike veteran is coming out of retirement who you apparently know Scott Galloway
00:00:17
to be the new CEO you had talked about Nike's woses back in July you predicted that Dono had 12 months to figur it out
00:00:24
or he'd be removed that's a lot sooner uh what he Nike shares Rose 8% and after hours trading on Thursday following the
00:00:31
news he also predicted that an activist investor was going to come in and make some moves um Bill amman's persing
00:00:37
Square uh PCH purchased three million shares of Nike back in the second quarter according recent filings um what
00:00:44
do you think let me let me hear your thoughts on him Elliot Hill he's a career Nike man um started as an intern
00:00:50
Nike was one of my biggest clients at L2 and I love this company I mean it's super smart people I love the brand I
00:00:58
love the unapology the apologetic brand positioning of you didn't win silver you
00:01:02
lost gold I think of Nike is intrinsic to an American ideal of individual performance and running so hard you
00:01:10
throw up I just I just love the I love the brand they've done an amazing job now bringing in a guy who didn't have a
00:01:19
background in merchandising didn't have a background in apparel didn't have a background in sports he was basically a
00:01:23
consultant very impressive guy and then ran a tech platform was a decision for them to go all in on Tech and I want to
00:01:30
be clear I would have made the same decision and I basically advocated when I was working with Nike for them to go
00:01:36
more direct to Consumer what they weren't expecting and I wouldn't have predicted and it's easy to Monday
00:01:41
Morning Quarterback so let me say I would have gotten this wrong is that retail came surging back much faster
00:01:47
post pandemic than people had expected and their enormous bet on direct to Consumer at the cost of managing and
00:01:57
supporting their third- party retail back fired on them in addition we talked about this the China chill has affected
00:02:04
infected a lot of these companies uh including Nike and then what people will say that he has to take responsibility
00:02:11
for is their product development hasn't been nearly as Innovative as Adidas with
00:02:17
their vintage line or Hoka or responded to Hoka or on running that they've basically been out merchandised this guy
00:02:25
I didn't spend a lot of time with him but he's hugely respected and it just feels like the right move from a morale
00:02:32
standpoint he's a product guy he just he kind of he's out a Central Casting he's
00:02:38
one of these guys when I was in meeting with him he was just sort of would was a
00:02:42
great listener and then when he spoke everybody sort of waited to hear what this guy would say so I think it's great
00:02:48
they brought back somebody from Nike and Nike alumni but the Nike brand and the relationships they have and the
00:02:54
resonance they have and the distribution I mean you just do not not want to bet against this company I think
00:03:01
it's a I think it's actually a really good buy right now right interesting you had talked about that and you know the
00:03:06
the um Phil Knight is the player here like he liked John I think he was that's what I understand I like John I've know
00:03:15
him over the years but you know I think he had an audience of one which was Phil
00:03:18
Knight which was keeping him in power but at at some point you have to you know there's a lot more competition in
00:03:23
the space there's a lot more innovation in the space um and you you know to just
00:03:28
like Intel it's like wow this company sort of lost a step um and it's certainly still I think the most
00:03:35
important brand in sports it just is right it's not you know Intel's got a lot of competition Nike does too and
00:03:42
there's all kind like whether like air like all the people who bought Nikes are now wearing hokas right because they're
00:03:47
back hurts um or or some there's a bunch of other brands that younger people on stock is like D I mean honestly it is
00:03:55
that's the one zindia is is advertising with um you know there's a lot of people
00:04:00
moving into the space but you know to unseat Nike it's it's a mistake on Nike's part right not to continue to be
00:04:06
cool I think it all kind of reverse Engineers to a 17-year-old is spending more time on Tik Tok than watching
00:04:12
broadcast television Nike's weapon uh their sword if you will for for for fighting their Wars was broadcast they
00:04:21
were the best broadcast Advertiser in history but now you have the majority of the customer is now learning about
00:04:28
brands from more longtail sour forces influencers Instagram and Sport they're still really strong in sport but I think
00:04:34
their product uh just got a little a little bit stale I think this is more a product
00:04:40
story and maybe supply chain around being faster to Market with new product ideas and maybe reinvesting and showing
00:04:45
some more love for their Retail Partners I don't think it's a they wandered around with the with the watch stuff
00:04:52
remember the exercise the fuel band yeah they wandered around over in digital for
00:04:58
a while which makes sense but they wander a little too bad they didn't do a good job but my kids yeah I'm sorry go
00:05:04
ahead but I'm just saying I I think they wandered in areas that weren't didn't weren't really big and made a big deal
00:05:09
of them and the stores they you know they're huge stores but they've closed a bunch of them actually they have a big
00:05:15
one in San Francisco big couple big ones in New York but they closed the DC one here for example um but the thing is you
00:05:21
know what I'm wearing right now like at least four pieces of Nike right now shoes well that's the problem with the
00:05:26
brand car I mean no offense but when 62-year-old podcast there weing Nike that means it's all over Alex liked it
00:05:32
for a while but now he's you know he's he's a he still loves Nike I have to say he was a Nike man and he still is I have
00:05:39
a lot my kids I have two teenage boys who are basically their market and one wears New Balance and the other wears uh
00:05:46
the other where is Nike and adidos and it used to be just all Nike all the time and New Balance has made a come back
00:05:52
which no one was predicting yeah um but this is a it's almost like a bit of a fashion Market if you will yeah yeah
00:06:00
absolutely but you know what I am cool Scott so I don't know what you understand that that's what you focused
00:06:05
on right I'm super that's what you focused on I'm I love I do like Nike clothes I they were better but um
00:06:10
although I just bought unicow some some joggers that were fantastic in shirts they were fantastic unigo makes really
00:06:18
great stuff I'm wearing unigo underwear right now just in case you're interested
00:06:22
um and they're they're lovely they're very refreshing I like them and there goes our uniglow sponsorship