It’s Tuesday. Yuck.

This is an emergency divorce issue.

We’re discussing Nike’s split with Tiger.

Huge shout out to Pharma bro for the tip on this story.

The Tiger-Nike divorce is the perfect encapsulation of when an immovable object (market dynamics) meets an unstoppable force (brand strategy).

Let’s get into it.

If you don’t wanna read any of this, just go to Jordan Rogers’ Instagram.

jordanrogers

View more on Instagram

Tiger and Nike’s Divorce: 4 Questions

After 25+ years, Nike and Tiger Woods are parting ways.

Tiger has been one of Nike’s tentpole athletes and they’ve singlehandedly reinforced each other as some of the prominent brands on the planet.

Let’s take a scrape at what’s happening…

1. Why would Nike part ways with such an influential athlete?

It’s a mix of different things:

1. Market Dynamics: Nike is getting out of the golf business.

   • They don’t make clubs anymore

   • The whole LIV/PGA thing with the Saudis is…unsavory

   • Nike probably wants to invest in areas with more traction/growth, maybe NIL/college athletes?
     

2. Now, this doesn’t mean that they won’t offer support to their existing golf athletes, it just means that the company is looking for growth in other categories.
   

3. Tiger is on the backend of his career. He’s won 1 major in the last 10+ years. Nike is a brand of excellence, and that has to be a contributing factor.
   

4. Paring back costs/Investing in other growth areas: Nike is cutting a lot due to projections in decreased spending. While Tiger probably commands a sliver of those overall costs, it allows Nike to double down on moving capital to categories with higher ROI. Again, maybe NIL.

2. Why might Tiger welcome this?

1. He still has pull: Tiger has become a phenomenon. Sure, as Pharma bro told us, this is huge news only to people who were kids 20 years ago. Well, Tiger still has a huge pull with those kids-now-adults who spend a crap ton of money on golf stuff.
   

2. Back up the Brinks Truck: While Nike may not be a ‘fit’ for Tiger anymore, another company would be happy to offer him an ungodly sum of money to partner with him. For anyone not named Nike, Tiger would be an amazing get, and the central figure of their brand.
   

3. See above, and add leverage: Tiger could most likely dictate terms of the deal. Could you imagine Tiger inking a 200 million deal and not have to do any endorsement crap?
   

4. He saw Roger Federer’s deal with On Running: Federer took a 3% stake in the company in exchange for his endorsement, which is about $180 million.

3. Wow this is a lot of stuff I don’t wanna read…

You’re right.

TL;DR:

• Nike is one of the few brands that understand that a company’s qualities/values/proposition dictates strategy and not the other way around. The hype around Tiger has all but faded, and it’s hard to justify aligning his brand to theirs.

• For Tiger, this is good too. Despite not being in his prime, he still carries a ton of weight in his respective sport. He’s gonna get a huge deal somewhere else, and maybe come back to Nike one day. Just like Agassi.

What AI made this week

Sick Fits by Ahmed

Daniel Day Lewis educating us on what welder chic is supposed to look like.

Have a great week!

Ahmed and Peter