Your Brand Premium Is a Bet on Human Irrationality — AI Just Called It

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:33:50 +0000

The reason Nike can charge $180 for a $12 shoe is that humans are bad at comparison shopping — and that exploit is about to be patched.

I don’t mean that as a criticism of Nike. They built something real: a brand, a story, a feeling. But if you’re honest about the mechanics, a significant portion of that $168 margin exists not because of the story itself, but because most people lack the time, attention, and information infrastructure to ask whether the story is worth $168. That’s a different thing. One is value creation. The other is value extraction through friction.

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Your Brand Premium Is a Bet on Human Irrationality — AI Just Called It