After an 18-year tenure, Nike will be removed from the S&P 100 later this month. But during a panel at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York City this week, Phil McCartney, Nike’s chief innovation, design, and product officer, maintained that the company’s best days remain ahead.
The secret sauce fueling this turnaround, he said, is a renewed focus on Nike’s engagement with athletes.
What’s the rediscovered North Star for the company for the past 15 months?
“Create epic shit, make athletes better,” said McCartney, who has been in his current role for a year and half.
The first half of the motto is inspired by the late basketball superstar Kobe Bryant, who used to wander the Nike hallways saying “Show me the epic shit,” McCartney noted.
How Nike partnerships work
Athletes Sabrina Ionescu, a four-time WNBA All-Star and New York Liberty guard, and Cade Cunningham—a two-time NBA All-Star and Detroit Pistons guard—were on hand to explain how their partnerships with Nike work.
Cunningham is currently developing his signature line (he says it’s always been his dream to have a signature shoe with the company), and Ionescu released the Sabrina 4 over the summer. Her Sabrina 1 was Nike’s first unisex basketball shoe.
Nike’s partnerships with athletes are far more extensive than a typical ad campaign. Both Ionescu and Cunningham described collaborative processes with their Nike teams, where they worked to balance their vision for the product with employees’ know-how of the inner workings of the market.
The idea is that solving problems for athletes will ultimately trickle down into products that benefit all of Nike’s customers.
For instance, an innovation breakthrough focused on marathon runners is now embedded in the company’s lifestyle and streetwear shoes, McCartney said, and Air Force One sneakers, designed in the early 1980s to help with shock absorption on the basketball court, remain iconic fixtures of both sports and fashion.
Among the biggest issues Nike has to solve to improve its Wall Street status is its Converse brand, which has faced a steep decline in revenue.
When it comes to its most recognizable footwear, like the Jack Purcell racket shoes or Chuck 70 canvas high-tops, the hope is to retain the original design while improving the comfort level of the insole, said McCartney, who called the process “radical prioritization.”
As McCartney sees it, Nike just needs to “stay motivated and constantly channel the voice of the athletes.”
Ionescu and Cunningham both experienced major career losses that stoked later successes on the basketball court.
“We were the worst team in the NBA,” Cunningham said, recalling the Pistons three seasons ago. His team ended this year with the best record in the Eastern Conference.
Ionescu described the Liberty’s championship loss in 2023 as giving her team the knowledge to win it all a year later.
The question is whether Nike will similarly translate its losses into fuel for success.
