Nike mass layoffs officially announced

Very, very simple.

All their new running shoes except the vapours are garbage.

Invincible heavy expensive

Zoom fly 5 heavy garbage

Next% tempo discontinued

Peg turbo discontinued

New infinity heavy garbage

Make some good shoes. So many Nike fans are now Adidas or Saucony

Nike's problem is not the discontinuing of some of the running shoes. I get this is a running forum but that's not the issue.

Their problem is the focus on the retro shoes and colorways within the Jordan/Air Force One lines. The people buying those shoes don't have the disposable income to be shelling out money every single week when a new colorway drops for a model.

It used to be Nike only dropped a new colorway every few months. It created buzz. They limited the numbers avail. Well, guess what? They, of course, bit the hand that feeds them. They started dropping new model colorways wayyyyy more often and increased the supply so the re-sellers got f*****d (which worked). The problem is they'd drop a new colorway in say Jordan 12s the first week. Then the next week, drop a new colorway in the AF1s, then the next week drop a new colorway in the Jordan 3s, then in the Jordan 7s and so on and so on.

Go to a Nike outlet or clearance center and literally 90% of the shoes there are Jordan's, AF1s or some god-awful colorway of a pair of shoes from the 90s/early 2000s.

But I thought Biden had the economy booming?

Did they layoff Shelby?

To the people saying this is evidence of a terrible economy, you know layoffs happen at companies throughout the country all the time regardless of the broader macroeconomic environment, right? 1600 people getting laid off from Nike is a little less terrible when you consider that throughout 2023 (and now into 2024), about 250,000 new jobs were created on average every month. Getting laid off obviously really sucks, but they'll all quickly find new jobs.

I wrote my last sentence tongue firmly in cheek to get a rise out of folks like you, which of course worked. I don't want to meet you, but I'll give you some background on me:

Political moderate. Vote independent, always vote third party for US President.

Live in an intensely blue city and state.

Multimillionaire with lots of disposable income.

Nike shareholder. Picked up a decent chunk at ~$60 post COVID crash, was patting myself on the back when it went to $180. Now falling back to earth.

First fell in love with Nike because of Michael Jordan and basketball. First pair of Nikes ever was the 1993 Air Jordans with the crossing straps over the tongue.

Raced exclusively in Nike spikes in HS and college.

Have bought thousands and thousands of Nike product for myself and my children through the years. Nike stock is not falling because of me. I am not boycotting Nike. My son's new Pegs just got delivered this week.

HAVING SAID THAT, I do enjoy observing cultural and business trends, and it is fascinating to see Nike's embrace of SJW-isms. I took my kids to the Nike flagship in NYC last year and took in the giant posters of 300 lb black women in full body spandex, and the mannequins of similar proportions, and all I could think is, "these guys are lost."

300 lb women, be they black, white, or any other race, are not a winning strategy for Nike. Nike is, or was, about cutting edge product, elite athletic performance, and coolest guy in the room, aspirational branding. The further they get away from that, the worse they will do.

It also is annoying because it's so inauthentic and pandering to whatever constituency DOES want to see 300 lb women as Nike flagbearer.

Do you mean the peg turbo with recycled foam/ fixed tongue?

Hold up. Nike pays their employees?

voguebusiness.com

Investor pressures Nike to address forced labour claims

Maliha Shoaib

Activist investment platform Tulipshare said it is “gravely concerned” about alleged human rights violations in the brand’s supply chain.

Link:www.voguebusiness.com/sustainability/i...

You sounded like a total dick the first time and even more of a dick the second time.

NIKE Desperatly needs to improve Their ESG Scores, Trump would definetely help them improve their ESG Scores as President, USA has the best ESG scores under Calvin Coolidge and Eisenhower, But USA's DEI scores were best under Teddy Roosevelt and James Madison with Thomas Jefferson in 3rd, Under Putin of Russia and Xi of China have the best ESG scores With MBS of Saudi Arabia having the best DEI Scores as Prince Mbs has always valued DEI Scores

These layoffs have little to do with running shoes. Let’s put this in perspective: Nike revenue was up 10% in 2023 over 2022 and up 5% in the 4th. Almost 60% of revenue comes from outside of the US and Canada and almost 20% from China, where share of US products is in decline, for various reasons.

In 2021 only around 12% of Nike’s revenue was in the product category “running”, however that is defined – less than the Jordan Brand alone.

Most of the layoffs seem to be in the corporate offices. It’s pretty standard for companies to periodically cut back on costs by reducing mid-level corporate salaries. Wall Street will approve of the cost cutting measures and the stock price will rebound. This cycle repeats over and over again for almost all large global companies.

Nike shoe construction has always been shoddy at best but you'll have some die hards that will swear by them. Most of their sales most likely "lifestyle shoes".

Nike definitely started the trend using obese models and some piebald/skin disorder teenager with 'street cred'.

However neither of them are ideal for selling world class leading materials to us skinny try-hards. Nor is it sexy.

The other shoe companies have now tried this too but Nike is definitely the market leader.

Actually, nike stock is down 16% over the past year.

So Nike makes layoffs even though they're making billions in profit

The rmployees probably weren't "woke" enough or black or lgbtqwtf

This is the reason Nike is laying workers off. It needs to reign in costs in order to bump the stock price.

As a brand Nike has gone down the woke rabbit hole as others have suggested. looking at the Nike homepage, there is nothing inspiring or appealing to a Caucasian. Those customers have gone to other brands: ALO, LuluLemon, On etc, which do a much better marketing job as well as nicer products.

The other issue for Nike is the brand used to be about being the best and winning. (Haven’t seen many nike t&f athletes winning much lately). Now the brand relies on its legacy and ability to dominate its presence with $$. The customer has moved on.