It does speak to the financial health of a company. Check LinkedIn to see the impacted parties. You'll see they probably should not have gotten into footwear and stood for that sash aesthetic, which can get dated pretty quickly.
I worked for a couple of Fortune 100 firms and they usually had layoffs going into the 4th quarter. Their financial health was never in doubt. The stockholders loved it.
Tracksmith is not a publicly traded firm but investors will like this move
Do any of their sponsored athletes actually run in their shoes?
I agree that it is a tougher business than apparel, more so then ever with super shoe technologies. So many companies have tried, remember Oakley?
They only have a single training shoe so no one is required to run in their shoes just wear the apparel. Maybe they offer them a free pair with the "sponsorship" but its not a traditional deal.