How Nike Lost $27 Billion in One Day: A Direct-to-Consumer Strategy Failure?

Nike is in trouble.
While Adidas stock is up 19%, Nike is down 21%. Its inventory? A massive $8.9 billion in unsold products.

And all of this ties back to one major mistake: Nike’s shift to a Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) strategy.

What was meant to boost margins and brand control is now hurting sales, inflating inventory, and tanking stock value. And guess what? While Nike is pulling back, everyone in India wants to start a D2C brand.

So today, we break down:

What exactly is the D2C model?

Why did Nike go all in on it?

What went wrong — and why is Nike returning to wholesale?

And what can founder, and investors learn from Nike’s billion-dollar mistake?