Besides the factors which we blame in our earnings call such as lack of innovation, cutting off too many wholesale partners, macroeconomy… I’m curious to hear what you think may be contributing which hasn’t gathered as much public attention. Prefer serious answers only.
23 replies (most recent on top)
after 34 years there I can tell you without a doubt, ignoring boots on the ground, culture shift, bad MGMT, political su----e/wokeness, market complacency and/or chasing fads,
As an employee….many reasons in my eyes. Most not being mentioned.
- Inflation. People are spending more on what they HAVE to have….which cuts down on NEED. bank accounts are now lowest they have been per my advisor….so that means credit. We know credit is maxed. People are out of money.
- Competition everyone makes shoes at par with nike technology
- Price. Nike pushes 70% margins…it has crept up in the 20+ years I have been here. Price/value
- Sports doesn’t matter to people anymore. Less kids play…less people idolize sports figures vs a tik toker
- Politics. You pi-s off x% of your customer base. Why?
I wear NIKE to work….i wear NB or Hoka outside of work. Why….everything above.
Because it's impossible to get anything accomplished when you have people you work with actively working against you and priorities that seem to change every quarter. And, just months out of the year where the people who need to make decisions are MIA.
@1cqx has it right. Competition has increased and Nike isn’t easily dispatching with it like in years past. As others have said before, this Nike downturn feels fundamentally different than prior downturns.
In addition between inflation, stagnant wage growth, and record amounts of personal debt the bottom 80% of consumers are increasingly tapping out. Even those lucky enough to be in the top 20% like me are increasingly being cautious and more selective with spending.
Between global and domestic political events, constant layoffs, and a government that has been unwilling to allow the economy to self-correct since 2009, I think a lot of us are living in constant angst that the proverbial other shoe could drop at any time. If or when it does I don’t want to be bogged down by debt and having purchased hundreds of dollars worth of footwear and apparel I don’t truly “need”.
Even worse, by most measures the economy is still doing pretty good! When we eventually have a real recession it’ll make people nostalgic for today! When that happens Nike will be forced to cut more labor. Maybe substantially. I think people intrinsically feel and know this, and it adds to that impending sense of doom.
Internally, the product is stale and uninspiring. As is the marketing and storytelling. Why should I buy Nike as opposed to any of the other brands that make good products? Nike isn’t really giving me or other consumers a reason.
Bloat and product that relies on a certain level of disposable income from people that are not on the upper half of the economic spectrum.
RTO
Lack of innovation vs. On or Hoka. Poor culture. Bad product that isn't premium or coveted. Forgettable marketing. Lack of seeding strategy vs. Adidas with Sambas.
A CEO who has never produced hard products before is the root
Nike isn’t going to fall out of relevance over night due to one or two bad decisions - it’ll be more of a gradual decline into mediocrity as consecutive bad decisions stack up. We’re seeing that happen now because we don’t have the right people in positions of leadership. This isn’t only an ELT issue - our senior leaders are completely incompetent to what they were years ago. They don’t understand or care for the business or brand, only their personal wins. DEI hasn’t helped with picking the most experienced and capable leaders either.
The brand is stale and not cool anymore unless you are over 30. Fashion is fickle especially with younger consumers, Nike got lazy and lost its edge. Sadly the clowns running the show don’t seem to realize this. RIP Nike the new Gap
I average a new boss every <1 year.
My boss themselves has had 5 different bosses in the last year and a half.
At Nike “long term planning” means sticking to a plan for a full quarter.
Because of its toxic culture and incompetent leaders who award talkers and push down doers. Because no one cares about how doers get frustrated and quit every 2 years and institutional knowledge leave with them! What happens next? It is a vicious cycle of re-doing things, wasting time figuring out, etc. I have a new manager who has been with us for less than 18 months and 5 full time employees ( out of his 7 direct report) resigned! No leader even blinked an eye or bothered to ask WHY?!
Corporate greed.
Some areas with very bad leaders received a lot of investment which didn’t pay off due to those incompetent leadership. Best examples tech with Rat and consumer insights (which leader is still there). Total write offs.
Why such hate for GT DEs? They are trying their best to simplify tech landscape without any GT VP help. GT VP are only in it for their own pockets.
“Prefer serious answers only”..
ok boss.. Cough, I mean reporter
You sound like the woman who was let go and then tried to spark discussions on LinkedIn around how do we connect to each others networks? Let me invent LinkedIn on LinkedIn to LinkedIn. The egos! Ba-f.🤢
Anyway, your disingenuous question there are too many egos a--hats and do nothings.
There are many DEs in GT talking big and delivering little. No background in bringing projects to life, just talking and talking.
A department full of parrots.
Yep’ working for vendors .. many times .. vendors sell products to GT DEs .. take them out for fancy dinners and they create crisis to bring in those products ! No one gives a f about what consumers need ! This company is getting bleed to death by these vendors
@mh1… personally agree with points 3,4,5,6 (with 6 being an outcome of 3,4,5).
I don’t think this company is actually taking this inflection seriously enough. Our leaders today don’t understand the product/industry or even really care that much, in contrast to leaders of the past. A sr director today is a joke compared to what it was a decade ago. Don’t been get me started on VPs. For the leaders I interact with, it’s apparent their interest and focus is inwards on themselves, figuring out what they can get out of the company, and not outwards on the consumer. We have a leadership problem which is not limited to the ELT - it extends several layers below.
- Very arrogant, distant and unreachable SLT. Not accessible to their teams and the consumer. They simply do not listen and believe everyone under them is stupid. This is the main issue.
- inside out mindset. Unless you are in Oregon, inside the berm, graduated from UoO no one will listen to you.
- stuck in the past. “We had crisis before, and we came back stronger”. “This is one more inflection point which we will recover”.
- Culture of slideware and story telling. Ivy leagues running the show and no practical product/retail experience
- no accountability at all. You can do a terrible job and most likely nothing will happen. I ve seen that a lot in GT, specially with VPs - which HR always protects.
- bad product. Became a fashion company dependent solely on AF1/AJ1
Nike used to stay out of politics. Now they’re in the middle of any and every issue. Not all people think/believe the way the LT does. The result of this turns consumers off from this Brand. They need to get back to staying neutral as they did when Phil Knight was leading the Company.
Our ELT is too busy committing fraud to have any time left for their real jobs. And HR has been captured, they protect their rich friends instead of Nike.
Research all the people that are in court right now.
It’s an endemic and the news only sees the individuals d-mb enough to get caught.