For the past couple of years, Nike's biggest business problem has been scraping the competition from the sole of its exquisitely designed, high-priced athletic shoes. Since 1995 Nike has racked up an astonishing average growth rate of 39%, sprinting from $4.8 billion to $9.2 billion in sales, capturing nearly half the athletic-shoe business in the U.S. while simultaneously expanding across the globe. In its last fiscal year, which ended in May, the company boosted sales more than 42% and posted earnings of almost $796 million. By any measure, that's a stunning year.
But since then Nike has been shooting bricks. Sales...