Thread regarding Nike Inc. layoffs

well if it is i am hoping its me. RTO (as gas prices go up nonetheless) is garbage and feels like a soft layoff, so id rather get my severance.

@cw What are you smoking?

Top 5 Athletic Footwear and Apparel Brands by Revenue (it’s not even close)

Nike: ~$46–$51 billion
Adidas: ~$26–$30 billion
Decathlon: ~$16 billion
Lululemon: ~$10 billion
Skechers: ~$9 billion

@OP In July you all said August. In August it was September. Now in September it’s October. Keep guessing. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Or they will announce it in December like they did a few years ago, putting everyone on edge during the holidays. LOL.

@vg They’ll definitely wait until December. Why ruin the holidays with transparency when you can quietly cut people loose while everyone’s distracted, get the headcount off the books before the March earnings call, and call it “organizational optimization”? 😂

@th they won’t do December, too many out of office leaders etc. Likely late January, early February.

I would assume that the “Finance” functions would go later (December?) to give the new CFO time to work through them.

@e1 yup, just expect a semi-annual cleansing until some future date when a strategy sticks.

You mean layoffs stopped?

Also, lots of contractors not being renewed and continuing to fall off after contract end date.

We haven’t stopped OP. Don’t forget the stores, DCs and locations outside the U.S.

I remember when the IBM campus in Armonk NY was comparable to WHQ. They lost focus, didn't innovate, now it's covered in vines. Heed or not the cautionary tale.

@cw that ain’t going to happen, there is no part of the puzzle leading to acquisition. Outside players could be Amazon but their business is cloud and distribution. Not retail clothing and athletic shoes.

Nike is big, with a challenging supply chain to compete in and a consumer that finicky. No big corporation without ties to the industry wants to play in that space because the margins aren’t there like technology and AI is right now.

Attrition will be perpetual now until operating costs are lowered enough to be attractive enough to aquire. Then NKE will be right next to Hurley on the Kohls rack.

@ap where has the date been announced?

Nobody outside the decision-making circle can confirm the exact timing, but the signals are difficult to ignore.

Nike eliminated approximately 775 distribution roles in January and announced another 1,400 cuts across global operations and technology in April. The company has now installed Dave Denton as CFO with an explicit mandate around “disciplined execution,” capital allocation, and operating rigor.

Denton started August 17. Matthew Friend remains only through September 4. Nike’s first-quarter earnings report is expected later in September. Meanwhile, multiple employees are independently hearing September, with additional restructuring potentially extending into December.

A newly appointed CFO probably wouldn’t create a September restructuring in a few weeks. If action occurs that quickly, the planning and financial modeling were likely already underway before he arrived. Denton could validate the savings targets and shape whatever comes next.

None of this officially confirms another layoff. But after two rounds of cuts this year, a CFO transition centered on financial discipline, and repeated reports pointing to the same window, employees would be wise to prepare rather than dismiss everything as rumor.

Update your résumé. Preserve personal copies of permitted employment records and accomplishments. Strengthen your network. Understand your benefits and severance policies. Hope the reports are wrong—but don’t wait for an announcement to get ready.

It's late September, but that isn't tech so nobody on this board is likely to care. Tech is going to be EoY. RtW date has been announced, and they are going to want to clean house before then to avoid having to find desks for those getting axed.

September around earnings report and then another round in the first half report in December.

Bad enough leadership is a-s… now with inflation; people are thinking twice about what they spend on and overpriced sneakers aren’t at the top of the list. Couldn’t pick a worse time to have even worse leaders.

I heard it was September