Nike Got Outrun by "Dad Shoes" 👟💨

Biz Analyst Club Newsletter

by The Business Model Analyst

Hello, Biz Enthusiasts!
Plot twist of the year: A fintech founder turned down $1.2 billion from Stripe in 2018 and now his company is worth $8 billion. (Your career decisions are looking pretty modest right about now, right?) Meanwhile, Apple is apparently tired of waiting for March 4 and might start the product blitz on Monday. New Balance just dethroned Nike with 19% sales growth while the swoosh fumbles. And yes, your dog is getting better TV recommendations than you are. The business world just keeps getting weirder — let's dive in! 🚀

Hot Takes 🚀

1. New Balance Is Winning the Sneaker Wars While Nike Stumbles 👟📈
Nike's strategy: cut off wholesalers, go direct-to-consumer, dominate. What actually happened? New Balance, Brooks, and On quietly filled the shelves Nike abandoned. New Balance is now at $9.2B in revenue with 19% growth, while Nike fumbled innovation. The moral? Sometimes the best strategy beats the fanciest business model.
👉 Find out how "dad shoes" became a $9.2B empire

2. Airwallex Said "No Thanks" to Stripe's $1.2B Offer — Now Worth $8B 💸🚀
2018: Stripe offers $1.2 billion. Jack Zhang says no. Fast forward to 2026, and Airwallex is worth $8 billion doing $1B+ in annual recurring revenue. Sometimes the best business decision is walking away from a life-changing offer because you believe in something bigger.
👉 See how Airwallex's bet on itself paid off massively

3. Apple Is Starting Its Product Blitz Early — Get Ready for Monday 🍎📅
Apple's March 4 event isn't typical: it's on a Wednesday (Apple never does that), the invite says "experience" not "event," and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says products might drop Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday instead of one big presentation. Cheap MacBook, iPhone 17e, and more coming faster than expected. Get your calendars ready.
👉 See what Apple might announce before March 4

4. PayPal Had a Bug That Exposed Millions of Customers' Data for 6 Months 🔓😬PayPal's loan app had a coding bug that leaked SSNs, emails, phone numbers, and home addresses for six months (July-December 2025). Some customers even had unauthorized transactions. The good news? PayPal caught it, reimbursed victims, and reset passwords. Check if your data was exposed.
👉 Get the full scoop on what PayPal exposed

5. Trade Secrets Are Being Stolen by AI-Armed Thieves — And It's Getting Worse ⚠️🤖 Google just indicted a former engineer for stealing Pixel trade secrets. Another was convicted for stealing AI chip secrets for China. Here's the scary part: AI is making this worse by giving thieves new tools to steal and weaponize sensitive tech data faster. Companies are racing to protect their crown jewels, but the stakes just got higher.
👉 Learn how companies are fighting back against tech espionage

Quick Hits 📰

• 🎬 Creator Economy Under Siege: AI, Saturation, and the Product Pivot — The big question? Will the pool of successful creators just get smaller, or will something new emerge?
  👉 Dive into the creator economy crisis

• 💊 Eli Lilly Makes Zepbound Even More Convenient — The obesity drug just launched a multi-dose pen starting at $299/month. Zepbound brought in $4.2B in Q4 revenue alone.
  👉 Explore Lilly's weight-loss drug domination

• 🧠 China's Brain-Computer Interface Industry Is Sprinting Ahead — Chinese startups are scaling BCIs while Elon's Neuralink is still "pioneering." Provincial governments are even setting medical pricing for the tech.
  👉 Uncover why China is winning the BCI race

• 🍽️ Big Tech Companies Are in an All-Out War Over Free Lunch — Meta, KKR, and OpenAI are competing hard on office cafeteria quality while cutting gym memberships. Mediterranean lamb and cassis mousse are the new retention tools.
  👉 See who's winning the lunch wars

• 🔋 Battery Storage Costs Hit Record Lows — A four-hour battery system dropped 27% year-over-year to $78/MWh in 2025. Solar, wind, and fossil fuels got more expensive. Clean energy revolution is accelerating fast.
  👉 Get the full energy cost breakdown

• 🎎 American Girl Turns 40 (But Its Sales Collapsed 67%) — The doll brand dropped from $600M to $200M in revenue, crushed by digital competition. It's stabilizing now, but that's a long way to fall.
  👉 Learn how Mattel is fighting back

• 🍕 Domino's Is Still Dominating Pizza — Same-store sales jumped 3.7% in the U.S. and the company just raised its dividend by 15%. Sometimes boring is profitable.
  👉 See Domino's pizza dominance

• 🤖 Schools Are Racing to Teach "AI Literacy" — Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI are pushing schools to teach students how to use AI tools and understand AI ethics. The future of education is getting weird.
  👉 Understand how education is transforming

• 🚗 China's EV Market Is Hitting a Wall — BYD surpassed Tesla but its stock fell 40% from peak. EV sales growth is slowing and competition is brutal. The easy wins are gone.
  👉 See what's happening to China's EV boom

• 🐕 Dog TV Is Becoming a Real Business — Your dog can now watch YouTube videos made just for them. DogTV has added 388k subscribers since 2020 as pet entertainment spending hits $157B annually.
  👉 Find out why pet streaming is exploding
  

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