Swoosh swoosh... Despite a global crisis, Nike was its own Most Improved Player last quarter. Sales slipped less than 1% compared to last year and profit actually increased. That's a big glow up from June, when Nike posted a loss and 38% sales plunge. Nike's stock is up 8% in the last week on the performance.

The OGs are the real MVPs... What fascinated us most: Nike is cashing in big on its vintage shoe styles. Whenever there's a slump, Nike can fall back on its trusty OGs. That's a major advantage that iconic brands have over newer players (no one wants Lululemon's 2001 leggings).

• Nike's Air Force 1, born 38 years ago, saw a major resurgence last quarter. AF1 is the most-purchased shoe of 2020, according to the NPD Group (and your Insta feed).
• Air Jordans, 1st released in 1984, were the only highlight of Nike's sad June quarter: the Jordan brand hit a record $3.6B in sales thanks to surging demand from China and "The Last Dance," a Jordan documentary on ESPN.

EV parking only... They're a familiar sight in parking lots, especially if you live in CA. ChargePoint is one of the world's oldest and largest electric vehicle charging networks. It operates 115K orange charging ports, mostly in North America. Its customers include Best Western, LinkedIn, UCSD, and the city of Long Beach (of course). Good news for clean energy fans...

• Chargepoint is going public at a $2.4B valuation. It's getting acquired by a SPAC, a company that goes public for the sole purpose of acquiring a private company.
• Congrats, Switchback Energy: Your SPAC-y purpose in life has (almost) been achieved. The deal is expected to close at the end of the year.

America runs on Dunkin'... but EVs run on charging stations. One of the main barriers to EV adoption (besides price), is fear that your car will run out of battery with nowhere to charge it: aka Range Anxiety. Gas stations are always 0.3 miles away, but charging stations aren't always so close.

• ChargePoint can use the money it raises from going public to further scale. It's aiming to hit 2.5M ports by 2025 — aka: 2.49M more than it currently has.
• More ChargePoints = more EV adoption = more sales for EV carmakers. That's why electric hopefuls like BMW and Mercedes-owner Daimler are also investors.

• Inaction: Disney pushes back the release of Marvel's "Black Widow" from November 2020 to May 2021, along with a slate of other films.
• Stimulate: House Dems are putting together a new $2.4T stimulus plan with unemployment aid and direct payments — TBD if it'll move.
• Alexa: Amazon announces new, orb-shaped versions of its four Echo speaker models (Siri is jealous).
• Numb: TikTok-owner Bytedance said it's waiting on approval from the Chinese government for the Trump-endorsed Oracle-TikTok deal.
• Breadstick: Olive Garden-parent Darden Restaurants saw its quarterly sales fall 28% — the Times Square location's sales were down 94%.

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• Earnings expected from Utz
• The New York Fed President speaks

Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Spotify

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