Latest / Building Brands with Fexingo: Identity, Reputation, and Long-Term Business Equity / How Nike Built a Brand on Athlete Stories
Transcript
- Lucas: Nike is more than a shoe company. It is arguably the most culturally potent brand in the world, and it got there by selling something far bigger than footwear: it sells the idea of athletic greatness, channeled through specific human stories. Luna: And the most famous of those stories is Michael Jordan in 1984. But what makes that story so foundational to Nike's brand playbook? Lucas: Right. Before Jordan, Nike was a solid running brand. They had the waffle sole, they had Steve Prefontaine's legacy, but they were not the cultural behemoth. Jordan changed that overnight. Nike bet its entire basketball division on a rookie who had not yet played an NBA game. They offered him a five-year deal worth $250 million, an absurd number at the time. And then they did something unprecedented: they gave him his own shoe line. Luna: That was the Air Jordan. And the NBA actually banned the black and red colorway because it violated uniform rules. Nike leaned into that ban. Lucas: Exactly. They paid the $5,000 fine every game Jordan wore them. And then they ran an ad campaign that said 'The NBA banned them. Fortunately, they can't stop you from wearing them.' That single move turned a shoe into a symbol of rebellion. That is the core Nike brand DNA: align with the athlete's struggle, make the consumer feel like they're part of that story. The Air Jordan line now generates over $3 billion a year for Nike. Luna: So the lesson there is: build the brand around the person, not the product. The product becomes the artifact of the story. Lucas: Exactly. And Nike has applied that formula again and again. Think of the 'Just Do It' campaign from 1988. That phrase came from the final words of a death row inmate named Gary Gilmore — 'Let's do it.' Nike's ad agency tweaked it. And it became a universal call to action. They paired it with real athletes, not actors. A 70-year-old Walt Stack running the San Francisco Marathon. That ad cost nearly nothing to produce and it captured the grit of everyday athleticism. Luna: And that's the genius — they elevated everyday runners to the same status as Michael Jordan. The brand was saying: you have a story too. Lucas: Which brings us to the Colin Kaepernick campaign in 2018. That was a huge risk. Kaepernick was arguably the most polarizing figure in American sports at the time — he had kneeled during the national anthem to protest police brutality, and he was effectively blackballed by the NFL. Nike made him the face of the 30th anniversary of 'Just Do It' with the tagline 'Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.' Luna: And the backlash was immediate. There were videos of people burning their Nike shoes, hashtags calling for boycotts. But Nike's stock actually hit an all-time high a week later, and sales reportedly jumped 31 percent. Lucas: Because Nike understood their core customer — younger, diverse, socially conscious — better than the vocal minority. They didn't try to please everyone. They deepened their relationship with the people who already believed in the brand. That's a powerful lesson in brand conviction. Luna: But is there a risk? If you tie your brand too tightly to individual athletes, you're vulnerable to their personal scandals or controversies. Tiger Woods' fall, Lance Armstrong's doping — Nike was exposed. Lucas: Great point. But look at how Nike handled those. With Tiger, they stood by him initially, then gradually eased away. With Lance, they dropped him entirely. The brand's relationship to the athlete is conditional on maintaining the aspirational narrative. When the story breaks, Nike pivots. They're not loyal to the person — they're loyal to the archetype of the hero. Luna: So the athlete becomes a vessel. And when the vessel cracks, they find a new one. Lucas: Yes. And increasingly, Nike is telling stories beyond individual athletes. The 'Dream Crazy' campaign featured Serena Williams, LeBron James, and a cast of everyday activists. The 'You Can't Stop Us' ad in 2020 was a montage of athletes across sports, stitched together seamlessly. Nike is moving toward collective narratives. Luna: And they're also leaning into digital. The Nike Run Club app, the SNKRS app — those create direct relationships with consumers, bypassing retailers entirely. Lucas: Right. Nike's digital transformation under CEO Mark Parker and then John Donahoe turned the brand into a platform. The SNKRS app is one of the most successful retail apps ever. It drops limited-edition sneakers in curated 'drops' that sell out in seconds. That scarcity and exclusivity reinforces the brand's cool factor. You're not just buying a shoe — you're winning access to a story. Luna: And yet, there's a tension. The exclusivity can feel manipulative. Bots and resellers grab inventory, real fans get frustrated. That has led to some backlash. Lucas: It's a balancing act. But Nike's ability to maintain brand heat over four decades is remarkable. They've stayed relevant through the running boom, the sneakerhead culture, the athleisure trend, and the social justice era. The common thread is always storytelling. Luna: It's also about consistency of vision. The Nike swoosh is simple, but it represents motion and victory. The brand has never strayed far from that core identity — they've just found new ways to express it. Lucas: And that's where the deeper lesson lies for any brand builder. You need a flexible enough narrative to evolve with culture, but a stable enough core that consumers always recognize you. Nike's core has always been: celebrate the athlete, the struggle, the triumph. Everything else — the medium, the messenger, the product — can change. Luna: If these conversations have moved your work forward in some small way, a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small gesture that makes a huge difference for us. It keeps the show ad-free and lets us dig into topics like this without worrying about the bottom line. Luna: Absolutely. So back to Nike — what's the next frontier for athlete storytelling? With social media, athletes are their own brands now. Lucas: That's the big shift. LeBron James has his own media company, SpringHill. Serena Williams has her venture capital firm. Athletes are becoming content creators and entrepreneurs. Nike's role is no longer to create their stories from scratch, but to partner with them in telling those stories. Luna: So Nike becomes more of a curator or amplifier rather than the sole author. Lucas: Exactly. The brand that once invented the narrative now has to co-author it. And that requires a new kind of humility. But if any brand can navigate that shift, it's Nike — because they've always understood that the real brand isn't the swoosh, it's the athletes and the stories they represent.