Malls: The Future of Malls
Ann Herbert was forced to resign from Nike because of the truth of her success, being promoted to lead North American operations due to leading the Direct to Consumer Offensive, with a major player in that industry being none other than her own son, using her credit card. Over the last four years, Nike has nearly doubled direct to consumer sales, and is now at roughly ten times their 2012 level, turning the tables on Adidas who they once trailed. Surely selling more shoes at retail to consumers would be profitable and direct internet sales are preferable to opening stores and exposing the firm to risk, although Nike continues to open some businesses like this. What really sparked the rally in Nike stock was everything that isn’t an efficient supply chain — the explosive popularity of limited run shoes and the immense good will and energy of the brand.
The story of the fall of Herbert has a splash of Fyre fest flavor. It isn’t the double standard (Nike employees know reselling ends in termination) but the brazen claims and self-aggrandizement. It all fell apart when Herbert’s son Joe decided to give an interview to Bloomberg establishing his bootstraps story and special genius for finding these very special goods — arbitrage is an old business model, finding goods to buy low is the hard part, selling high is easy. Finding ultra-rare sneakers in a random storage locker and striking the luck to find…
