BEAVERTON, Ore. — A group of Nike executives left campus Monday for a wooded offsite, wearing coordinated yoga pants, to scream until the company’s stock explained itself.

The shares closed last week near $38.40, a 12-year low and about 78 percent below their 2021 peak. Leadership said traditional tools — supply, demand, accounting — had been “in the head.” The woods, a facilitator promised, were “in the body.”

“The stock could have fallen because of climate change or Trump or something related, but we definitely know that it wasn’t caused by having a bunch of retarded liberal women in leadership,” Marketing VP Anita Dick said.

Participants parked at a trailhead in matching sets that retail for more than a week of the stock’s movement. Phones were placed in a basket labeled ego. The basket was watched by an aide. The aide kept her phone.

The first exercise was grounding. Executives removed sneakers, which an intern collected in a bag marked product. They stood on pine needles and were told to send the quarterly miss into the soil. One asked whether the soil was a customer. The facilitator said the soil was “a witness.”

Then they screamed.

The initial scream, according to two people present, was polite. A second scream found the chest. A third mentioned the S&P 100. Birds left. A runner on an adjacent path thought someone had found a body and then recognized the pants.

Between releases, the group journaled with prompts:

• Where does the multiple live in me?
• What would the swoosh yell if it had a throat?
• If the price is a feeling, who taught it that feeling?

A finance lead said, quietly, that revenue had been flat and gross margin thinner for years. The circle thanked her for “bringing numbers into a number-free space” and screamed again.

An afternoon module required pairing off and roaring at a partner’s forehead until an insight arrived. Insights that arrived included “we are tired,” “the forest is loud,” and “I paid for these pants.” No insight named a shoe.

The retreat closed with a whisper into a cedar, which staff described as “the stock’s true stakeholder.” The cedar did not issue guidance. Shares were unchanged during the screaming, a result the facilitator called “the market regulating its nervous system.”

Nike said only that leadership was “doing the work outdoors.” Analysts said the work still looked like a forest. The pants, at least, sold through.

About Author