CEO John Donahoe was intially “perceived as both a breath of fresh air at Nike -- embracing change and keen to address demographic inequalities within headquarters"JONAS ROOSENS/Belga/AFP via Getty Images
Wall Street is “openly calling for ‘regime change’ in upper management” at Nike as the company is “in a crisis,” according to Sara Germano of the FINANCIAL TIMES. Consumers are “not as fond of the brand’s classic shoes” as they “used to be.” CEO John Donahoe has “overseen two massive restructurings leading to hundreds of lay-offs” and reorganizing Nike “into men’s, women’s and kids’ categories instead of divisions devoted to individual sports.” Initially in his tenure, Donahoe was “
perceived as both a breath of fresh air at Nike -- embracing change and keen to address demographic inequalities within headquarters -- as well as someone who had [co-founder Phil] Knight’s ear.” Stifel Managing Dir Jim Duffy said that as the world emerged from Covid-19 lockdowns, Nike “took its eye off the ball.” Germano writes a “major black eye” came this spring, when the MLB season began. Uniforms supplied by Nike were “see-through and lettering appeared small and cheap.” One longtime employee, who left the company “voluntarily during Donahoe’s tenure,” said that the MLB fiasco “‘would never have happened’ when Nike’s internal structure had focused teams for each sport, including baseball.” Successive rounds of lay-offs “coupled with the reorganisation from sport categories to men’s, women’s and kids’ silos has disrupted the focus.” Furthermore, by “eschewing longtime wholesale partners,” competing brands like Hoka, On, and New Balance “took up Nike’s market share at chains like Foot Locker” (
FINANCIAL TIMES, 7/9).
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