Nike Stock Drops 75% Over Five Years as Turnaround Drags On

Nike's share price has fallen 75% over the past five years, a decline steep enough to knock the sportswear giant out of the S&P 100 index of leading U.S. blue-chip stocks last month, according to BBC News. The drop coincides with the departure of striker Kylian Mbappé, who ended a 20-year association with Nike last week to sign with Swiss rival On, the outlet reported.

The numbers frame a company that remains the largest sportswear brand on the planet by scale but has spent half a decade losing sales, customers and shelf space to faster-moving competitors, per BBC News.

How far has Nike's stock actually fallen?

The 75% five-year decline cited by BBC News is the headline figure, and the S&P 100 removal last month is the clearest institutional signal of that slide: Nike no longer ranks among the 100 largest, most liquid U.S. companies tracked by the index. Current chief executive Elliott Hill, who BBC News reports was brought out of retirement two years ago to run the company, inherited that trajectory rather than caused it.

Why did Nike lose Kylian Mbappé to On?

Mbappé's move to On after two decades with Nike is the most visible recent defection, but BBC News frames it as a symptom rather than the disease. The Real Madrid forward's switch raises what the outlet calls a central question for Nike: whether the brand can remain the top logo not just for elite athletes but for the fans who copy them. On is described in the reporting as a "fast-growing" rival, part of a cohort — alongside Hoka — that has taken shelf space retailers once reserved for Nike.

What strategic errors does Nike's own analyst community point to?

Matt Powell, a veteran sports-retail analyst and adviser quoted by BBC News, says Nike made "several strategic errors" that have proven difficult to reverse. Chief among them: cutting ties with third-party retailers to push direct-to-consumer online sales, and making limited-edition sneakers too widely available. "The more broadly available those shoes became, the fewer people were interested," Powell told the outlet.

Powell also points to research-and-development spending diverted toward digital operations instead of new product. "They really shut down their innovation on product," he said, adding, "someone jokingly said they were trying to turn Nike into eBay." That line targets John Donahoe, the former eBay chief executive who led Nike's direct-to-consumer pivot before Hill took over, per BBC News.

Did the direct-to-consumer strategy work while it lasted?

BBC News reports Donahoe's four-year tenure initially saw sales rise, lifted by pandemic-era online shopping, before cost-of-living pressure curbed consumer spending and demand weakened in key overseas markets including China. Nike responded with cost cuts and layoffs, the outlet reported, even as the digital pivot left an opening for On and Hoka to take over shelf space Nike had previously occupied in stores.

Can Elliott Hill's turnaround actually fix this?

BBC News says Nike's latest financial results show signs that Hill's turnaround plan is working, but the pace of change is "more of a marathon than a sprint." The Mbappé exit complicates that narrative by removing one of the brand's most prominent athlete endorsements at the same moment Nike is trying to rebuild retailer relationships and reinvest in product innovation — the two levers Powell identifies as having been neglected.

The company's history of betting on athletes before they become stars — signing a then-rookie Michael Jordan in the mid-1980s when Nike was not yet a major basketball player, per BBC News — is the kind of product and talent risk-taking Hill's plan is reportedly trying to revive. Whether that formula can be rebuilt fast enough to offset a 75% stock decline and an S&P 100 exit is the open question investors are now pricing.

What should investors watch next?

The near-term signals are straightforward: whether Nike's retailer relationships continue to normalize after the direct-to-consumer retreat, whether product launches regain the cultural pull that limited-edition scarcity once generated, and whether rivals On and Hoka keep gaining shelf space in the wake of Mbappé's switch. BBC News frames Hill's tenure as still early — two years in — with the financial results offering tentative evidence of a turn, not proof of one.

Read the original reporting at BBC News.

Artiglio is A coming-soon iPhone chief of staff for briefings and drafts. Not on the App Store yet.