David Given Schwarm

Win at All Costs: Inside Nike Running and Its Culture of Deception by Matt Hart My rating: 2 of 5 stars I really struggled with this book. It reads like a hatchet job with no real awareness of the world in which it operates. There is a smug tone as the author destroys Salazar with journalistic glee that I do not experience all that often — and I am not sure why…something just feels off about this book. Salazar and Nike clearly bent rules and played loose with core competitive principles, but the validity of those principles were challenged by their actions and that is not addressed–we do not live in the idealized world the author seems to argue from or something. He is very focused on Female specific issues–athlete’s missing periods because of hormones, pregnancy discrimination, forced weight loss, etc., but not in a general way — it feels exploitative or something–not helpful, not observant, there is a glee in the revelations of athletic and corporate sexism that is not there in the source material. and is not helpful. Oddly brought up, addressed, and never really commented on in any meaningful way–like the audience is assumed to understand what the point is & I am not sure I do–catholic, Cuban, corporate–they all blend together without discerning reporting…I am trying real hard to write a meaningful review that captures my experience reading this book, but it is hard. Maybe it is the tragedy of all this story that is missed by the book, more then the reality–struggling to pin this down, but it was definitely odd and not really good while reading. There is a reference to Salazar twisting off cap of a Corona bottle–which is a little thing, but points to this weird specificity / generalization thing that occurs within the narrative–the book moves back and forth really fast and misses subtle details and relevant insight. A hard read, but not for the reasons you would think–there is a lesson for journalists here on how this type of book may be written going foreword…ugh. View all my reviews