Nike Under John Donahoe: A Bumpy Run

After nearly five years at the helm of the world’s largest sportswear company, John Donahoe stepped down from his role as President and CEO of Nike on Sunday. After taking over from his predecessor Mark Parker in January 2020, Donahoe successfully guided the sportswear giant through the Covid-19 pandemic. He oversaw the shift in focus from wholesale partners to Nike’s own sales channels – a strategy that helped the company thrive during the pandemic, when e-commerce sales shot through the roof and Nike was at the forefront of an industry-wide push towards direct-to-consumer sales.

In recent years, Nike ran into some problems, however, as some say its stubborn focus on where to sell made the company lose sight of what to sell. Amid an overreliance on its legacy footwear models, the brand once known for innovation and successful storytelling lost some of its competitive edge, suddenly finding itself play catch up with long-time rival Adidas and smaller upstarts such as Swiss running shoe company On or Hoka, a U.S. brand owned by Deckers Brands.

As our chart shows, Nike's share price initially surged under Donahoe’s leadership, as the company quickly recovered from the initial Covid shock, reporting stellar results for the fiscal year that ended May 31, 2021. The company’s market cap climbed from $160 billion when Donahoe took over to around $280 billion in November 2021, when Nike was at the peak of its powers. In light of lackluster growth and growing competition in the booming lifestyle sneaker segment, investors gradually turned sour on Nike, with the negativity boiling over in June 2024 after the company had reported disappointing results for fiscal 2024 and predicted a “mid-single digit” sales decline for 2025. Nike's share price dropped nearly 20 percent the day after and hasn’t recovered since. On Friday, the last trading day with Donahoe in charge, Nike shares closed at $82.15, down 19.6 percent since the day he had taken over in January 2020.

"I would like to thank John for his contributions to Nike as President and CEO, and as a board member. I would particularly like to recognize the role he played in leading the company during the COVID pandemic and his unwavering support for the investments Nike has made in our communities around the world," Mark Parker, Nike's executive chairman, said in a statement announcing the CEO transition.