Nike's not just doing it

Nike’s earnings report this week came with a stark admission: the company is going to get smaller, and that means layoffs. The sneaker and sportswear giant, whose swoosh and Air Jordans once defined global athletic culture, has lost its footing. Analysts and industry watchers described a decade of drift—a corporate restructuring that cut ties with athletes like track star Alison Felix and soccer star Kylian Mbappé, an overproduction of Air Force Ones and Dunks that dulled their cachet, and a failure to keep up with running shoe technology. "There were underlying things in the company that they should have been taking care of that they didn't take care of, and now all of that has come to a head," said sneaker industry analyst Christopher Burns, who grew up in Memphis in the 80s when Nike was the only shoe that mattered. Meanwhile, the sportswear market is still growing, but Nike is losing share to brands like On and New Balance, both in the U.S. and in critical markets like China, Japan, and Korea. Jessica Ramirez at the Consumer Collective said her worry isn't that Nike is cutting costs—it's that executives haven't said much about how they'll reinvest. "I don't know that there is a real strategy that makes me feel they're headed in the right direction," she said.

A weak jobs report and a sour mood