Michael Girdley had a good video on the rise and fall of Nike not long ago. About a decade ago, Nike made an organizational shift de-emphasizing retail in favor of online sales, severing relationships with a large percentages of their retailers. This made a certain amount of sense because online sales were growing rapidly and online buyers spent more money. But this allowed competitors access to retail shelf space once controlled by Nike.

I remember is well. There was a local and quite well regarded running shop here, and they went out of business. I bought out all th Slatwall and some fixtures from the store and talked to the owner. She said “Nike won’t sell to us anymore. And without Nike on the shelves we can’t stay in business.”

So while they may have gotten replacement sales online, they lost a crap-ton of in-person expertise that no online or big box store could replicate. As you mention, it also handed over shelf-space in department stores or elsewhere that once showcased Nike, and which went to competitors.

So Nike shot itself in the foot, excuse the obvious cliche. They lost shelf space, they lost local area expertise and “watering hole” running places, they lost some sales channels permanently, but got out of the messy “little guy” retail arena ... all in favor of “efficiency” and temporary margin.

Little decisions can come back at you in a big way, eh?