Nike will be removed from the S&P 100 index before trading opens on Sept. 21, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced Friday, ending an 18-year run in the blue-chip benchmark. The decision follows a collapse in the company’s market value from roughly $281 billion near its November 2021 peak to about $56.5 billion as of Tuesday’s close, when shares finished at $38.10.
That price is roughly 79% below Nike’s Nov. 5, 2021 intraday record of $179.10, meaning more than $220 billion in market value has evaporated in less than four years.
The removal from the index does not threaten Nike’s survival. The company still sells billions of dollars in shoes and sponsors many of the world’s top athletes. But it marks a sharp reversal for a brand that once ranked among America’s most valuable, and it comes after a decade in which Nike waded repeatedly into domestic political and social debates.
A Decade of Political Branding
Nike’s activism dates back at least to 2018, when it made Colin Kaepernick the face of its 30th-anniversary “Just Do It” campaign after he began kneeling during the national anthem, saying he would not show pride in a country that “oppresses Black people and people of color.”
In 2019, Nike pulled a Fourth of July-themed Air Max sneaker featuring the Betsy Ross flag, saying the design could “unintentionally offend.” In 2020 it launched a racial-justice campaign, “For Once, Don’t Do It,” and publicly aligned itself with Black Lives Matter. In 2023, Nike paid transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote its women’s leggings and sports bras. OutKick also reported that researchers and a Boston Children’s Hospital publication had described Nike as supporting a proposed study involving transgender youth athletes; a Nike executive later told OutKick on background that the study “was never initialized” and was “not moving forward,” and researcher Joanna Harper said Nike withdrew after critics learned of the plan.
A Different Message in China
Nike’s public posture looked different when its business in China came under strain. In 2021, the company faced backlash from Chinese consumers after expressing concern over reports of forced labor involving Uyghurs in Xinjiang. On an earnings call months later, then-CEO John Donahoe sought to reassure Chinese consumers of the company’s commitment.
“We’re a brand of China and for China,” Donahoe said.
The company’s revenue in Greater China has fallen anyway. Nike generated $8.29 billion there when Donahoe made that comment; five years later that figure has dropped to $5.85 billion, a decline of nearly 30%, including an 11% drop over the past year alone.
The North Carolina Connection
The tension between political branding and broad-based sales has a history tied to Nike’s most famous endorser. During the 1990 U.S. Senate race in North Carolina, Michael Jordan declined to publicly back Democratic candidate Harvey Gantt, reportedly joking to teammates on a bus, “Republicans buy sneakers, too.” Jordan confirmed making the remark in ESPN’s documentary “The Last Dance,” saying it was said in jest.
Whatever Jordan’s intent, the line has endured as a reminder that companies built on mass consumer appeal generally do best serving the widest possible customer base rather than one political faction.
Nike’s stock decline cannot be attributed to political messaging alone; the company has also faced broader competitive and operational challenges. But its removal from the S&P 100 marks a formal acknowledgment of how far its market standing has fallen from the heights it reached less than four years ago.
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