Nike Gives The iRobot Treatment As 775 Employees Get Axe’d In The Name of “Automation”

Nike Just Put “Just Do It” on a PIP

Somewhere in Oregon, a warehouse robot just got promoted… and 775 Nike employees got an email. In short, Nike decided this week was a great time to “accelerate automation” at its U.S. distribution centers… presumably with Clawdbot LOL (jk). The cuts are hitting Tennessee and Mississippi warehouses, aka the part of the company that actually touches boxes instead of Minesweeper. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Now if this feels familiar, that’s because it is. Nike already iced ~1,000 corporate roles last summer. Now it’s the warehouse turn. We’re talking a clean sweep with new brooms and even fewer humans. And yet, to be fair, this is the mess that Nike made itself in the first place. For instance, Under the last regime, Nike went full galaxy brain and decided it didn’t need wholesalers anymore. Direct-to-consumer everything. Cut out the middleman. Own the relationship. Cue the applause. Except… When you do that, you suddenly need a ton more warehouses, inventory, staff, logistics, and tolerance for margin pain. So distribution centers ballooned, sales slowed, China cooled off, and now those same warehouses are “overstaffed.”

(Source: CNBC) 

Who could've seen that coming? Apparently, not Nike. And now that Elliot Hill is on the Iron Throne, automation is the excuse for undoing a bad strategy without saying the words “my predecessor cooked us.” What’s more is that Nike says this helps them “move faster” and “build a more resilient supply chain,” which is funny because the fastest thing here was the pink slip. 

But alas, this isn’t just Nike. UPS already told the world it’s cutting 48,000 jobs thanks to automation. Warehouses are the canary in the coal mine. If your job involves moving, sorting, scanning, or touching anything with a barcode… the robot is already in training. 

(Source: Giphy) 

As for Wall Street… They love this. Fewer humans means better margins (in theory). But culturally, it’s a different story. Nike built its brand on grit, labor, aspiration… and now it’s quietly replacing the people who make the shoes move with machines that don’t need healthcare. Bold strategy Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for ‘em. 

So yeah… Just Do It I guess. Until next time, friends… 

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