13 April 1997: Tiger Woods wins the Masters and Nike's bet pays off
On April 13, 1997, 21-year-old Tiger Woods won the Masters by a record 12 strokes. Nike had signed him months earlier to an endorsement deal widely reported at $40 million over five years, a huge sum for a player who had not yet won a major. The win turned Nike Golf from an afterthought into a serious business and made the contract look like a bargain. Golf ratings jumped along with it.
The lesson: Paying up early for exceptional talent can be cheaper than waiting until everyone agrees it is exceptional.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Nike at the start of 2000 → $5,833 today, vs $4,626 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2000, the first year in our price data after the event. That is 5.8 times the money, and $1,207 more than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What Nike teaches: Even dominant brands lose ground when they neglect the channels and product innovation that built them; market leadership has to be continually re-earned.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | $12.00 | $5,833 | $4,626 |
| 2003 | $11.00 | $6,364 | $7,727 |
| 2005 | $22.00 | $3,182 | $5,763 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Nike? Every starting year and the full story →
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
Play Sixty-40