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Is Nike Still Cool? August 06, 2024
Earlier this week, a former Nike branding executive named Massimo Giunco published a viral article that tells the story of the Swoosh’s recent Wall Street woes. Ugly stuff, for shareholders. But what’s interesting is how much of Giunco’s detailed ana...
U.S.A. Basketball Is Still an Awkward Fit August 05, 2024
Two weeks ago, just before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Nike began airing its major Olympic ad campaign. Typically, these spots are beautifully produced paeans to ambition, effort, and excellence—Olympic ideals on sale for a popular aud...
Together, Tiger Woods and Nike Did the Impossible January 11, 2024
Here’s a little piece of trivia. What score did a 21-year-old Tiger Woods shoot at the 1997 Masters, a course record that was only broken in 2020? Stumped? Okay, here’s an easier one: What did Tiger Woods wear that Sunday, the day he became the young...
Shore To Please January 08, 2024
The South of France is beautiful if you don't look at it. Keep your back to the coast, and the Mediterranean sea and sky look much the same as they did to the ancient Greeks who settled in the two best natural harbors and called them Marsilia and Nik...
The Incredible Story of How Nike Signed LeBron James April 17, 2023
It was a Monday morning in late March. Normally, LeBron James would have been in homeroom at St. Vincent, dressed in school clothes, with a backpack containing books strapped over his shoulders. Instead, he was in a locker room at a rec center in the...
'Air' Is a Deranged Corporate Folktale About a Sneaker April 14, 2023
AIr is a celebration of the people at Nike who transformed the athletic shoe market back in the 1980s with one legendary product. I’m told that audiences are bursting into applause when the newly designed Air Jordan is first presented in close-up, as...
'Air' and the Professional Sport of Marketing April 10, 2023
I was 15 when I got my first pair of Jordans in 1986. I didn’t play any kind of organized ball, though I liked to mess around on the playground. They just looked really cool. Red and black high tops? Sign me up. At least as important, posters of His ...
‘Air’ Knows Exactly What It Is April 07, 2023
History is written by the winners, and Ben Affleck’s glossy new docudrama, Air, about Nike’s unlikely and ultimately paradigm-shifting shoe deal with a lanky shooting guard named Michael Jordan, is the cinematic equivalent of a victory lap. There’s a...
