Nike creates wealth not from trading in physical material, but from value-added in services. The same phenomenon occurs when a piece of software, burnt into a CD-rom's physical material worth no more than a cup of coffee, is purchased. The lesson that emerges is that, in the weightless economy, appearances deceive. What you buy is never what you get. Market value comes from bundling.
Successes are the bundles that work.
There are elements of increasing returns to scale in this, and some might think that that's all one needs to know about new developments in the economy. The weightless economy perspective says things are more complicated. The supplier achieves such an outcome not just effortlessly, but with progressively greater ease. This is supposed to explain everything from Microsoft to Rupert Murdoch to the success of the City of London in financial markets. The weightless economy, on the other hand, has its players busting their chops to keep ahead of the game, constantly looking for the new bundle that works.