Elliott — you don't know me, but enough Nike people do. Steven Gomez, Tom Hartge, Jesse Stollak. The short version of why I love this brand, and why this memo is worth twenty minutes.
Runner's World Associate Publisher in the 90s. Showed up to my one meeting with Phil with surgical tape on my face from a MTB crash the weekend prior. Housemates with Duke Stump, an OG EKIN. Many lunchtime rides from campus on my foldable Bike Friday. I love Nike and all it stands for.
Built Nike's first video game for the 2002 World Cup at WildTangent, with Jesse Stollak and Joaq Hidalgo. Football, gamification, Nike — a personal trifecta, twenty-four years before this memo.
Executive at Electronic Arts. The company that turned Madden, FIFA, and NBA Live into the way fans actually live with sport. Conceived and executed the adidas GMR x EA Sports FIFA Mobile smart-insole program — connecting real-world football play to in-game performance.
Founder/CEO across multiple gaming companies. Daily work: rewards, progression, creator platforms, player-friendly economies. This memo isn't a side hustle — it's exactly what I build.
Nike already has the world's deepest roster of athletes, the most certified coaches in sport, and a global community of enthusiasts who train every day in the gear. The pieces of the most valuable system in athletic life are already on the table. They just aren't connected.
Athletes, coaches, enthusiasts. Nike already owns all three layers of athletic culture — across football, basketball, running, training.
None of them are connected. The athletes post for marketing. The coaches operate in silos. The enthusiasts train alone.
Swoosh Club is the connective tissue. The flywheel that turns three separate assets into one compounding platform.
At the product level, Nike's competitors have closed the gap. The midsole on the next Adidas, the heritage of the next New Balance, the silhouette of the next Hoka — close enough. The loyalty layer is where Nike can still be uncatchable.
I added ninety minutes to my flight to stay with United. Not for the miles. For the privileges. That's what loyalty is supposed to do — make the harder choice feel like the obvious one. Nike used to do that for athletes. It can again.
Status, not discounts, is what locks people in. Bonvoy turned a hotel chain into a habit. MileagePlus turns airline choice into identity. Uber One bundled food, rides, and groceries into a single retention machine. Nike has more emotional equity than any of them — and uses less of it.
Dick's app hit #3 in the App Store this spring — ahead of Google Gemini, behind only Claude and ChatGPT. Driven by ScoreCard's "Move" feature: sync your tracker, earn points for steps. Nike's wholesale partner is running the exact loop Nike should own.
Six verbs. The same six that built Fortnite, Duolingo, and Roblox into compulsion machines. Applied to the sport brand that owns the deepest roster of athletes and coaches on Earth — and the millions of amateurs who already live in the gear.
Run, train, hoop, kick, sync from Strava, Apple Health, EAFC sessions.
Swoosh Points (XP) + sport-specific badges + status credit.
Drops, kits, race entries, athlete sessions, member-only product.
Members host challenges. Athletes drop signature programs and skills clinics.
Run clubs, watch parties, fan-fest meetups, in-store team events.
"Create" is what no competitor can structurally match. Nike has the athletes to anchor it. UGC + creator platform = the loop that compounds.
This is what no one else can structurally match. Nike already has the world's best athletes. Nike already employs and certifies the world's best coaches. And millions of amateurs already train every day in Nike. Swoosh Club connects all three — and lets value flow in every direction.
Sponsored athletes publish signature workouts, skills clinics, training plans. Pulled from their own regimens. Members earn for completing them. Athletes earn through engagement — a new line of value that scales with the platform.
Nike-certified coaches, EKINs, NRC leaders, club trainers — the layer between elite and amateur. They drop guided programs, host meetups, mentor at scale. Members earn for completion. Coaches earn for participation. Built-in compensation flywheel.
Top members earn the right to host their own challenges and runs. They post, they organize, they bring friends. They graduate into the coach tier. The amateur layer isn't an audience — it's the largest creator base in sport.
Status is annual, rolling. Balances spend, activity, and contribution — no tier is gated by purchase alone. The progress bar shows the expected share of members reaching each tier. Like a game: everyone starts at 1, very few hit 100.
The platform earns and redeems at every door — including the ones Nike doesn't own.
The rollout follows the flywheel — athletes, coaches, and the amateur base, expanding in concentric circles. Cultural moments are accelerants when they land in the window. They are not the spine.
Team in place. First wave of athlete-creators signed. Coach certification flow built. Points engine, app, and wholesale integration. Closed alpha with NRC and Nike employees.
LA, NYC, Miami. NRC + select Foot Locker + Dick's. Founding athlete cohort drops first signature programs. Top coaches publish. First wave of member-hosted challenges. Target: 4–6M members by EOY.
Full U.S. expansion. Athlete creator base doubles. Coach economy live. Member-hosted clubs in every major metro. Cross-brand partners onboarded. Target: 15–20M members.
UK, Mexico, Brazil first. Then EU, APAC. Local athletes, local coaches, local clubs — the flywheel reseeds in every market. Target: 40–50M.
Rebuilt against Nike's actual FY26 base (~$46.5B) and current China/Direct headwinds. Conservative case, with the build year (FY28) absorbing program investment before launch.
| FY29 (Y1) | FY30 (Y2) | FY31 (Y3) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Members (M) | 5 | 17 | 42 |
| Member share of revenue | ~18% | ~32% | ~48% |
| Avg. member spend lift | +8% | +15% | +22% |
| Incremental revenue | ~$0.5B | ~$1.7B | ~$3.8B |
| Run-rate program cost | $120M | $210M | $280M |
| Payback ratio | 4x | 8x | 13x |
Receipt-scanning at Dick's and Foot Locker could feel like data extraction from their floor.
Points-for-purchase devolves into 10% off, training the customer on price, not brand.
Live-service games fail when Seasons feel repetitive or rewards stop landing.
Combining purchase + biometric + location data attracts regulators and creators. One bad story sets us back two years.
Twenty minutes to walk through this with you, or whoever you trust. If we both think it's right, the next step is a Strategic Advisor role — with the seat at the table to build it.
The thesis, the gamification architecture, the creator-platform mechanics, the seasonal content rhythm. Hands-on involvement — not a deck and a goodbye.
Strategic Advisor with real involvement: shaping the platform, helping stand up the team — from GM to the first ten hires. Terms are a conversation, not a precondition.
A twenty-minute call — with you, or whoever you point me to. I'll bring three sharper scenarios. From there we shape the role together.