Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Target, Lulu, & Nike: It’s Hard to Stay on Top 5-21-25
Wed, 21 May 2025
In this episode, Scott Becker explores how once-dominant brands like Target, Lululemon, Peloton, and Nike struggle to maintain their edge.
Chapter 1: What brands are discussed in this episode?
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. Today's discussion is Target, Lululemon, Nike. It's hard to stay on top. So here's the discussion today. There are these different companies that go through periods of time where they're just so hot and they are it. Target's a great example of this. It was just a few years ago where Target was the place to be.
Chapter 2: Why is it hard for brands to maintain their edge?
That red Target thing was every place, and it looked like it was just on the rise. Similarly, Lululemon went through a period of time for years where it was sort of the it store. Another one, Peloton, so hot during COVID. Again, the thing to have for doing your own fitness when you couldn't get to clubs.
Chapter 3: What challenges do brands like Target and Lululemon face?
Nike, similar, enjoyed years and years and years where it was the absolute hit brand on a lot of levels. What's fascinating to me, and Andrew Grove of Intel said this, I think, as well as anybody, only the paranoid survive. This concept, this ability to stay on top for a very long period of time is so hard and so challenging.
Chapter 4: How did Peloton succeed during COVID?
Chapter 5: What does Andrew Grove mean by 'only the paranoid survive'?
And, of course, so much constant creativity in developing the team and working with the team to do so and bringing in smart, driven people and taking chances. It's amazing to me how Amazon has built this company around an ecosystem where they're constantly seeding new initiatives. And to do that, you constantly need to bring in great people to do that. But amazing to me to watch Amazon.
So the bloom off the rose at some of these companies, but really it's not really a knock on them. It's more a reflection of how hard it is to stay creative, to stay vibrant, to keep on moving in the right direction. So hats off to Target. Good luck in getting that vibe back. They're not that far away right now getting taken to the woodshed by the people at Walmart.
Thank you for listening to the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. And thank you as always to Chanel, our great, great producer. Thank you very much.