{"id":209561,"date":"2025-10-23T13:00:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/23\/just-redo-it-inside-nikes-plans-to-put-the-swoosh-back-into-its-sales\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T13:00:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T13:00:38","slug":"just-redo-it-inside-nikes-plans-to-put-the-swoosh-back-into-its-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/23\/just-redo-it-inside-nikes-plans-to-put-the-swoosh-back-into-its-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"Just redo it: inside Nike\u2019s plans to put the swoosh back into its sales"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The entrance to Nike\u2019s swish global headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon is paved with rough cobbles, designed to remind employees to watch their step when they go forward.<\/p>\n

Last summer, though, not even the world\u2019s biggest sports brand could stop itself from taking an almighty tumble.<\/p>\n

Over the course of one July day in 2024, Nike\u2019s share price plummeted by $28bn \u2013 the worst single-day performance in the company\u2019s history \u2013 after it revealed that second-quarter sales were down 10%.<\/p>\n

There were headlines proclaiming that Nike was in crisis. That it had lost its cool, become either too woke, too safe, too conservative or too cumbersome, depending on their political stripe and reading of the situation. To no one\u2019s surprise, its chief executive, John Donahoe, stepped down.<\/p>\n

True, Nike was still worth around $100bn \u2013 more than twice the value of its closest rival, Adidas, and even further clear of Puma, Lululemon and New Balance. And, yes, the cost of living crisis didn\u2019t help. But much of the pain was self-inflicted.<\/p>\n

Just over a year later I am sitting with Nike\u2019s new president and chief executive Elliot Hill, talking about how he intends to turn the company around with the help of some wild new innovations, including the world\u2019s first motor-powered running and walking shoe.<\/p>\n

Soon I will also hear about \u201cmind shoes\u201d that help Erling Haaland focus before matches, a self-inflating winter jacket that Team USA will wear at the Winter Olympics, and technology that aims to help England\u2019s footballers at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Before then, though, I throw Hill, a huge soccer and baseball fan, a curveball. Might Nike\u2019s recent kicking actually turn out to be a good thing? Both for consumers, who now have more choice from upstart brands such as ON and Hoka, and for his company \u2013 as it has forced it to raise its game?<\/p>\n

Hill laughs, then leans in. \u201cTrust me, I would have preferred not to go through the kicking,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd this one happens to be a pretty big kicking. But I do think it helps us refocus on why we exist, and is a rallying cry for us as a company.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Nike has put a greater emphasis on innovation of late, developing products such as self-inflating coats, skin-cooling T-shirts and shoes that influence your state of mind.<\/span> Photograph: Nike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think it helps us get sharper. We\u2019re at our best when we\u2019re competing. And not only competing, but competing and winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill\u2019s answer is open, honest and authentic: a face that Nike hasn\u2019t always shown to outsiders. And the 62-year-old is just as direct when it comes to his plans to turn the company round using sport and trusting in new ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn my first day, I stood up on stage and my first slide said we are a sport company and we are a growth company, and they\u2019re not mutually exclusive,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd when we invite eight billion consumers into the world of sport, I like our chances of growing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it sounds simplistic,\u201d adds Hill, who joined Nike as an intern in 1988 and came back last October having retired in 2020. \u201cBut the response from around the world was: OK, we\u2019re back to sport. We exist to serve the athletes. And when we do that well, that usually translates into innovative products, emotional storytelling, and then it pays off at retail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Internally Nike is signalling that fresh direction with a six-word mission statement: \u201cCreate Epic Shit, Make Athletes Better.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is provocative and bombastic. In other words, classic Nike. But, as Phil McCartney, Nike\u2019s chief innovation, design and product officer, explains, it is also a tribute to one of its most famous athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreate epic shit is something that we got from Kobe Bryant,\u201d he says. \u201cHe used to walk the halls here and say: \u2018Are you creating epic shit?\u2019 It\u2019s a standard of excellence. It has a bit of an attitude to it. And we\u2019re already starting to use it when we look at our innovations. Is it that? If it\u2019s not, then we shouldn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Kobe Bryant provided the inspiration for Nike\u2019s new internal mission statement.<\/span> Photograph: Mark J Terrill\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not so long ago, McCartney, who grew up in Wallsend in the north-east of England and was once a talented Great Britain runner, remembers an acquaintance telling him that the brand had become \u201cbig, dumb and slow\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it sort of struck a chord with a lot of us,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause that\u2019s not who we are, it\u2019s not how we want to operate. And it\u2019s definitely not our future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Nobody here is crazy. We just live in the future\u2019<\/h2>\n

Later that morning I am standing outside Nike\u2019s LeBron James Innovation Centre, a 750,000-square-foot facility which has 400 motion-capture cameras, nearly 100 force plates and male and female sweat-testing dummies, waiting to stare into that future.<\/p>\n

First I put on a normal-looking pair of super shoes. Then I attach a prototype device containing a motor to my ankles, calves and the shoes themselves. After that, a senior Nike biomechanical engineer, Alison Sheets, presses a button, and the device starts to whirr and fit more snuggly around my legs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sean Ingle tries out the prototype Project Amplify shoes<\/a>
<\/svg><\/span>Sean Ingle tries out the prototype Project Amplify shoes.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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I feel like Robocop, and initially when I walk I move like him too. But when I start running and Alison ramps up the power via an app, I suddenly turn into Forrest Gump. Despite very little effort, I am running far quicker than my effort level \u2013 and my mind \u2013 tells me I should be.<\/p>\n

It is more than a little weird. But also a whole lot of fun. Incredibly, at one point I jog up the 150-metre ramp on Nike\u2019s campus which has a 15.63% incline \u2013 without being remotely out of breath. (If evidence didn\u2019t exist, I wouldn\u2019t blame you for wondering which substances in downtown Portland I had been inhaling.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re actually putting a robot on your body,\u201d explains Michael Donaghu, Nike\u2019s VP of create the future, emerging sport and innovation. \u201cAnd we want that robot to be your best friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Project Amplify shoes<\/a>
<\/svg><\/span>Nike likens its Project Amplify shoes to an ebike for feet.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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What makes all this even harder to compute is that I happen to have been hobbling around with a heavily bruised little toe. Yet the shoe seems to take most of the impact off the joint, like an anti-gravity treadmill, allowing me to run with only minor pain.<\/p>\n

Nike calls this motorised shoe Project Amplify and likens it to an ebike for feet, allowing the general population \u2013 rather than serious runners \u2013 to run or walk far quicker than they otherwise would do.<\/p>\n

How much quicker? In testing, the company\u2019s researchers found that athletes experienced anywhere from a 9-22% improvement in metabolic effort. In other words, like going from a 12-minute mile to a 10-minute mile, using the same effort.<\/p>\n

Donaghu says that Nike engineers had been working on various iterations of the device for years, but it was Hill\u2019s return that made it happen. \u201cWe sat down, pitched him on what the idea was and unflinchingly, he was like: \u2018This is absolutely what Nike should be about,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cNobody here is crazy. We just live in the future and have bigger dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>The 15.63% incline ramp outside the LeBron James Innovation Centre.<\/span> Photograph: Nike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At next summer\u2019s men\u2019s World Cup, Nike\u2019s sponsored teams, including England, the US and Brazil, will be wearing kits with a new Aero-Fit material which \u2013 Nike says \u2013 will allow players to feel cool even in very hot and humid conditions. For good measure it is also made from 100% textile waste.<\/p>\n

Before then it will release the Air Milano, a jacket that inflates in 30 seconds and can generate warmth levels that range from a lightweight hoodie to a mid-level puffer, and which will be worn by Team USA at the Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>The Air Milano jacket will be worn by Team USA at the Winter Olympics<\/span> Photograph: Nike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally there is the Nike Mind, a shoe and slider that contain cushioning nodes which press on the sensors in the feet and \u2013 the company says \u2013 improve focus when worn.<\/p>\n

Haaland, the Manchester City striker, and WNBA basketball star A\u2019ja Wilson have been using the shoe, which took nearly a decade to develop, to prepare for matches. Nike insists it has the science to back up its claims.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Erling Haaland in the the Nike Mind footwear.<\/span> Photograph: Nike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cUsing tools like EEG, we\u2019ve measured changes in brain activity linked to focus and presence,\u201d says Matthew Nurse, the company\u2019s chief science officer. \u201cThat\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve been able to show \u2013 and prove \u2013 that footwear construction can influence how the mind works.\u201d<\/p>\n

However Donaghu, who joined Nike in the late 80s and even worked with the co-founder Bill Bowerman, insists this is just the start.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re like kids in a candy store here,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd there\u2019s something really magical going on. We sweat getting it right. And worry about making money later. That\u2019s a lesson we learned from Bill Bowerman. Phil Knight [Nike\u2019s other co-founder] really did care about building a company that was solvent and could make money. Bill Bowerman didn\u2019t give a shit about making money. He just wanted to make athletes good. I love having both of those angels on our shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the success, he adds, comes from Nike having an innovation kitchen \u2013 a place he describes as \u201cvery non-hierarchical playground\u201d \u2013 where about 30 people from all parts of the company throw ideas around.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the kids that want to know the things that others just have hunches about,\u201d he says. \u201cOh, we don\u2019t have a mind scientist? We\u2019re going to hire a mind scientist in the kitchen. That\u2019s how we push the ball forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018There will be moments when we get it wrong\u2019<\/h2>\n

Nike has invited the Guardian to Beaverton to unveil its new innovations, but also to show the outside world that it is changing. And so towards the end of our conversation I ask Hill about Allyson Felix, one of America\u2019s greatest Olympians, who in 2019 revealed Nike\u2019s threat to cut her pay by 70% if motherhood affected her future athletic performance. Three months later Nike changed its stance to guarantee athlete\u2019s pay and bonuses for 18 months around pregnancy, and three other brands soon followed suit.<\/p>\n

I also mention the former Nike Oregon Project coach, Alberto Salazar, who was given a four-year doping suspension in 2019<\/a> and then a lifetime ban for sexual and emotional misconduct, issued by the US Center for Safe Sport.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Allyson Felix revealed Nike proposed to cut her pay by 70% if motherhood affected her future athletic performance.<\/span> Photograph: Ryan Pierse\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every company makes mistakes. But Nike has made a lot down the years without always owning up to them. Will it really be different under his watch?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that consumers today want companies to be more vulnerable, authentic, real, and upfront,\u201d Hill replies. \u201cAnd here\u2019s what I would say as the leader of this company. The entire world has my commitment to be real \u2013 about the situations when we get it right, and then there will be moments when we get it wrong. That\u2019s just inevitable in the world of business. But I think it\u2019s how we respond in those moments when we get it wrong that matters most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill is more guarded when it comes to discussing Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs, which will cost the company about $1.5bn this year. But is there anything Nike can do to alleviate the burden?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a pretty diverse global supply chain and expenses, and we\u2019re pulling all the levers,\u201d he says. \u201cBut my hope is that it doesn\u2019t impact the world of sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if you think about it, it\u2019s not just Nike. It is helmet manufacturers, baseball bats, equipment, and it all trickles down to the consumer. The accessibility of sports today is already challenged, and I think it will make it even more challenging for the average American. That\u2019s the part that I\u2019m nervous about.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Nike\u2019s new president and chief executive, Elliot Hill.<\/span> Photograph: Nike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before travelling to the US, I spoke to a couple former Nike employees who both had positive things to say about Hill. One even insisted, somewhat implausibly, that when he was appointed last October, people literally cried with relief.<\/p>\n

Certainly something had to be done to turn around the company\u2019s fortunes. For years analysts had warned that Nike was relying too much on colour variations of older favourites \u2013 especially Jordans, Dunks and Air Forces \u2013 like a classic 80s rock station spinning the same old tunes even when the hype has faded.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Nike put a huge amount of focus on direct-to-consumer sales \u2013 meaning that fewer of its products were in stores.<\/p>\n

That allowed the likes of Hoka, ON, and others to move in. And when the new wave of runners, often women in their 20s and 30s, flocked to join run crews after the pandemic they often turned to those brands first.<\/p>\n

Since returning to Nike, Hill has focused on rebuilding relationships with retailers, with one of its largest customers, JD Sports, saying last month that Nike was \u201cdoing all the right things\u201d to revive demand.<\/p>\n

Hill has also gone back to having separate departments for each sport, such as running, football and basketball \u2013 as opposed to Donahoe, who organised things by men\u2019s, women\u2019s and kids\u2019 categories which led to bottlenecks when it came to innovation. Now, Hill says, teams are quicker to react and get products to market.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Nike now have a mind scientist working at the LeBron James Innovation Centre.<\/span> Photograph: Nike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/svg><\/span>Nike is determined to put athletes \u2018at the centre of everything we do\u2019.<\/span> Photograph: Nike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He concedes that there is still plenty of work ahead. But in its recent earnings report there were some green shoots, with a number of well-received releases helping the running division grow by over 20% in the last quarter.<\/p>\n

\u2018It didn\u2019t hurt that Spain was an Adidas team\u2019<\/h2>\n

Football is also a huge passion for Hill, who was raised by a single mum in a blue-collar neighbourhood in Texas. In fact such was his love of the game he made a small investment in the Italian Serie B side Venezia when he initially retired in 2020, only to give it up when he returned to Nike last year.<\/p>\n

Hill also remembers being \u201ccompletely blasted\u201d by some of his European colleagues in 1998 when he suggested they could do more to promote the women\u2019s game. \u201cThey were like: \u2018No one cares about women\u2019s football,\u2019 And then fast forward to today, almost 30 years later, and it\u2019s phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we chat he casts his mind back to the Women\u2019s Euros this summer. During the final<\/a> he sat with Football Association officials with England 1-0 down against Spain and looking like they had nothing left in the tank.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was yelling at them: \u2018We\u2019ve got to believe,\u2019 he says. \u201cBecause you can just see it with the English. They\u2019ve had their hearts broken so many times, especially in those big moments, and never winning one outside of the country, right? You can see it. So I literally started to yell at them: \u201cCome on everybody, let\u2019s go, come on, we got this.\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Georgia Stanway and Alessia Russo celebrate England\u2019s Women\u2019s Euro success in Switzerland.<\/span> Photograph: Maja Hitij\/Uefa\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAnd then, of course, when we won \u2013 everybody, the joy! And that\u2019s the beauty of sport,\u201d adds Hill, who says he wants Nike to absorb the lessons from the Lionesses\u2019 resilience. \u201cIt\u2019s those moments that define an athlete, a team, a country, and in our case, a company. And it didn\u2019t hurt that Spain was an Adidas team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before I leave Oregon I speak to Tony Bignell, a Briton who was a key figure in Eliud Kipchoge\u2019s Breaking2 marathon project and Faith Kipyegon\u2019s Breaking4 mile attempt as well as the game-changing super shoes that powered them, and is now Nike\u2019s chief innovation officer. The company, he insists, is getting back on track despite a few \u201cdramas\u201d in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard sometimes when you\u2019re trying to help an elite athlete as well as somebody like my mum, who wants to walk the dog around the block,\u201d he says. \u201cBut under Elliot the handbrake is off, and we feel loose. It\u2019s amazing how one person can make that difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish more people could understand the people in this building because they\u2019re not corporate, whatever you might read about Nike,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt\u2019s just a good human place to be.\u201d Somewhat ironically a company that tells stories better than most has often failed to get this across.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile to the outsider it also seems like there are multiple Nikes. The sports brand that wants to win at all costs, and sometimes takes it too far. The global multinational with 80,000 employees, watching every flicker of its share price. The company that is trying to stay endlessly cool. And the day-to-day numerous super-smart scientists, engineers, and other employees who will happily shoot the breeze, praise rivals, and be open about the state of the company.<\/p>\n

However Hill insists that, when you dig into its soul, Nike remains the company set up in 1972 by Phil Knight (the campus in Beaverton has just been renamed in his honour) and Bill Bowerman. The one that was propelled to glory by elevating athletes such as Steve Prefontaine and Michael Jordan, along with a series of innovations that began when Knight began creating shoes with his waffle maker, and selling them out of his Winnebago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose two started this company on a handshake,\u201d says Hill. \u201cThey each put $500 in. And they had a simple purpose: we exist to serve the athlete, and to put them at the centre of everything we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than five decades much has changed. But one time-worn formula remains the same: Create Epic Shit, Make Athletes Better. Keep consumers in love with the Swoosh. Reap the rewards.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>A prototype of the Project Amplify shoes.<\/span> Photograph: Nike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The entrance to Nike\u2019s swish global headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon is paved with rough cobbles, designed to remind employees to watch their step when they go forward. Last summer, though, not even the world\u2019s biggest sports brand could stop itself from taking an almighty tumble. Over the course of one July day in 2024, Nike\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6802],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-209561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-athetics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}