Nike Plan another series of layoffs as part of CEO Elliott Hill’s efforts to realign the business and bring it back to growth, CNBC learned.
The cuts will have an impact less than 1% of the Nike corporate personnel. We do not know how many jobs will be affected. The EMEA and Converse companies in Nike will not be affected.
“As we have shared in the revenues of the fourth quarter, Nike, Inc. is in the midst of realignment. The movements that we take are to set up to win and create the next big chapter for Nike,” the company told CNBC in a press release. “This new training is designed to put sport and sports culture at the center, to connect more deeply with the athlete and the consumer, and to give us space to create what only can.”
Last February, Nike announced its intention to dismiss 2% of its staff, or more than 1,500 jobs, as part of a broader restructuring. The last series of layoffs is part of Hill’s efforts to change the structure of teams within the company.
Under the former CEO John Donahoe, Nike changed the way his business was segmented. Instead of being divided by sport, it was divided into women, men and children as part of a broader effort to develop its lifestyle activity.
Some criticisms say that the adjustment was among the reasons why the Nike innovation pipeline collapsed while the company focused on lifestyle products adapted to a wide range of consumers, instead of being directed against athletes.
A Nike store in Hanoi, Vietnam, July 3, 2025.
Nhac Nguyen | AFP | Getty images
Hill, a longtime veteran from Nike, now cancels this work, so that the company focuses squarely on sport and culture. After Hill shared his vision in June, the leaders were identified in July to lead the new teams, said the company, adding that a “small number” of staff will share following quarter -work.
In a memo to the staff, Nike said that in the context of changes, some staff members will assume a new position or a new level, will present themselves to a new manager or will join a new team.
The staff will learn if they are affected during conversations before September 8. The majority of new roles will take effect on September 21.
“To make room for these conversations, employees of companies based in an office in the United States and Canada will work remotely next week, unless otherwise indicated by your leader,” said the note.
Since he took the lead of the largest sports clothing brand in the world, Hill has put on a mission to reverse a continuous drop in sales, a lifting innovation and to reconquer wholesale partners.
When he announced his tax profits in the fourth quarter in June, Nike said that he expects his sales and profits to moderate in the coming quarters, which indicates that the worst was now behind and the fruits of his reversal could arrive earlier than expected. In a call with analysts at the time, Hill was referring to the realignment which is now starting to materialize.
“Instead of a construction for men, women and children, Nike, Jordan and Converse will now come to work every day with a mission to create the product, shoes, clothing and accessories the most innovative and coveted,” said Hill.
Hill said the company would be organized as “teams obsessed with sport” which would lead to an implacable flow of innovative product on the three brands “.