now that ive been working closely to nike for the launch of the young and the banging, ive been going to a lot of nike events around the city. last night was an olympics event at corner bistro, an all american bar with the best burgers on the west side of downtown manhattan. it’s a small bar and can get crowded very very fast. the event started at 6 and around 7 it was well packed with both guests from nike and regular bar folks. a group of about 10-15 young tourists from italy came strolling by. they walked in, and walked right out. maybe they felt out of place or intimidated by the scene? reasons unknown. but a sharp lady from nike took note of this. i saw her run up to the people running the door and asked how many olympics t-shirts they had left. she then ran over to the group of young people as they were walking away and invited them to join the party. she gave them all t-shirts and a gold wrist band which was their ticket to free drinks, burgers and fries. later we sat on a stoop next to the bar, talking about them. she said “yeah, they were young. i felt bad they had to leave. now we have fans for life” – what she did made me think about a lot of things. she didnt have to do that. they were not invited and they made the bar even more crowded! i thought about what giving back means. i thought about americas current state of foreign affairs and where companies come into play in the mix of it all. how important it is to pay attention to what’s happening around you at all times. how important it is to think on your toes. working at naked, i’ve learned how important communication is and how everything really does communicate outside of a print ad and TV commercial. what the lady from nike did was a great example of brand communication. its little things like this that can communicate a lot and it didnt take much. now im sure that group of tourists will speak highly of their positive experience with nike, talk about the great time they had at corner bistro and the bomb ass burgers they got to eat for free. now next time Nike speaks to them I’m pretty sure they will be happy to listen. some of the best ways to make money is by giving it away and by including people. another one of my observations for all of you other young tycoons in the making!

p.s. go USA!