Nike CEO Purges “Lifestyle Employees” in Brutal Layoffs to Save Company From Itself…

Nothing brings sneakerheads and Wall Street together quite like a mutual agreement that Nike has been absolute trash since the “lifestyle” pivot… 

Welp, Nike is cutting again. Not in the Jordan 1 “lost & found” sense… but in the employee headcount sense. Less than 1% of the office class is about to get told their new assignment is updating LinkedIn and pretending it’s “an exciting new chapter.”

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, Nike confirmed Thursday that it’s trimming a sliver of its workforce as CEO Elliott Hill keeps carving the company into “sport-obsessed teams.” Translation: the Donahoe-era experiment of splitting Nike into men’s, women’s, and kids’ silos is officially over. Hill is putting the swoosh back in the hands of athletes and culture, not failed art majors who think slapping a pastel gradient on Air Monarchs counts as innovation.

(Source: CNBC) 

With that said, the cuts won’t touch Converse or EMEA, but U.S. and Canada corporate employees have been told to work remote next week so HR can quietly play executioner. Those who survive will find themselves reporting to new managers, shuffled into new teams, or slapped with new titles that sound like promotions but aren’t. Everyone else gets the weekend to practice saying “I wasn’t laid off, I was realigned.”

For more context, Nike employs about 77,800 people worldwide, but this is Hill’s second swing at trimming fat. Back in February 2024, Nike axed 2% of staff (read: over 1,600 jobs) as sales slumped and wholesale partners bailed. Since then, Hill has been on a crusade to pump out fresh product, rebuild retail relationships, and claw back ground in running shoes and basketball kicks that Adidas and upstarts have been feasting on. The problem? Nike’s innovation pipeline stalled when the company got addicted to “lifestyle.” 

(Source: Kapwing) 

Too much energy went into pastel hoodies and influencer drops, not enough into tech that keeps athletes from snapping an ankle. Hill, a Nike lifer, is trying to fix that. “Nike, Jordan, and Converse teams will now come to work every day with a mission to create the most innovative and coveted product,” he told analysts in June. In other words: the company’s going back to sports-first, hype-second. 

As for the financials, the swoosh is still limping but not broken. Q4 earnings in June showed that sales and profit declines should “moderate” in coming quarters, and management hinted the turnaround could show results sooner than expected. But tariffs and inventory still loom, which is why Hill has been diversifying production away from China and tightening expenses. For investors the math is pretty self-explanatory. Cuts t the corporate level don’t move the needle much, but they signal Hill’s seriousness about breaking the company out of neutral. The bet is that sport-driven teams can reignite Nike’s product engine and recapture margins that got torched chasing lifestyle growth.

(Source: Giphy) 

Meaning, if Hill is right, Nike’s got another run in it. If not? Well, expect more “realignments” and fewer carbon fiber jerseys for the Oregon Ducks’ football team. Until next time, friends… 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.