For Nike, however, the decision highlights just how dramatically the company’s market standing has changed in recent years.
The sportswear giant will not disappear from the broader S&P 500. Nike will remain a member of that index, meaning the company will continue to be represented in one of the most widely followed benchmarks for U.S. stocks.
Still, its departure from the S&P 100 marks a significant change for a company that had occupied a spot in the elite index for nearly two decades.
Nike entered the S&P 100 in December 2008. Its removal comes after a prolonged period of weakness in its stock price and a substantial decline in its overall market value.
Nike is not the only company being removed.
Honeywell Aerospace, Simon Property Group and Colgate-Palmolive will also leave the S&P 100 as part of the September 21 rebalance.
They will be replaced by four information-technology companies: Dell Technologies, Palo Alto Networks, Arista Networks and Sandisk.
The reshuffling reflects a broader shift in the composition of the largest publicly traded American companies, with technology firms continuing to hold a powerful position in the market.
Nike’s numbers tell a particularly striking story.
The company’s stock closed at $38.40 on September 4, a price level not seen in roughly 12 years.
Compared with Nike’s November 2021 peak, the stock has lost approximately 76% to 79% of its value.
That decline has dramatically reduced the company’s market capitalization.
At the end of 2021, Nike was valued at roughly $264 billion to $280 billion. By early September 2026, its market capitalization had fallen to approximately $57 billion.
That represents a loss of more than $200 billion in market value.
The contrast becomes even more significant when compared with the broader S&P 100, which advanced substantially during the same five-year period.
Nike’s struggles have not been limited to Wall Street.
The company has also faced difficulties rebuilding its business after strategic decisions that reshaped how it sold products to customers.
For fiscal 2026, which ended May 31, Nike reported revenue of $46.4 billion, representing a 2% decline on a currency-neutral basis.
One of the company’s most important international markets also continued to struggle.
Sales in Greater China dropped 11%, dealing another blow to expectations that the region could serve as an important source of future growth.
Nike management has pointed to several factors behind the company’s difficulties.
One major issue has been the company’s earlier push toward a direct-to-consumer strategy. That approach reduced the company’s reliance on traditional wholesale partners, but Nike later began working to rebuild those relationships.
At the same time, the company has faced tougher competition and weaker consumer demand in certain markets.
Tariffs have added another complication.
Nike has dealt with higher tariff-related costs, although the company later recorded a one-time benefit associated with a tariff refund.
For investors, the S&P 100 change will also have a technical consequence.
Funds designed to track the index will need to adjust their portfolios around the effective date. That could create mechanical selling pressure in Nike shares as those funds reduce their positions.
But the impact is expected to be more limited because Nike remains part of the S&P 500.
A complete removal from the S&P 500 would have potentially created a much larger adjustment among passive investment funds.
Nike’s business troubles have unfolded alongside a controversial chapter in the company’s corporate branding strategy.
Over the past decade, Nike has repeatedly taken public positions on major social and cultural issues.
One of its most prominent decisions came in 2018, when the company made former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick a central figure in its 30th-anniversary “Just Do It” campaign.
The campaign carried the tagline: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”
The advertisement was closely associated with Kaepernick’s national-anthem protests and generated enormous attention, both positive and negative.
Two years later, following the death of George Floyd, Nike released its “For Once, Don’t Do It” message addressing racism.
The company subsequently pledged tens of millions of dollars to organizations focused on “social justice,” education and economic opportunity in black communities.
Nike also faced controversy surrounding a planned sneaker featuring the Betsy Ross flag.
The company ultimately canceled the shoe after Kaepernick and others objected to the design because of its historical associations.
Other Nike campaigns in recent years have emphasized equality, inclusion and related social causes.
Those decisions helped make Nike one of the most recognizable corporate voices in America’s culture wars.
But now, the company’s market performance is forcing investors to focus on a different question: Can Nike regain the financial strength that once made it one of America’s dominant consumer brands?
Being removed from the S&P 100 does not mean Nike is finished.
The company remains a major global brand and continues to be part of the S&P 500.
But the numbers are difficult to ignore.
A stock price that has fallen back to levels last seen roughly a dozen years ago, a market capitalization decline of more than $200 billion and declining revenue in fiscal 2026 all point to the scale of the challenge confronting Nike.
The September 21 index change will therefore be more than a routine quarterly adjustment for many investors.
It will serve as another highly visible reminder of how far one of America’s most iconic brands has fallen from its market peak—and how much work remains if Nike hopes to reclaim its former position.
