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Nike’s New CEO Has One Hell of a Challenge Ahead
A ruinous pandemic business strategy, declining innovation, exodus of talent, and a “worst sneaker of all time” accolade has laid the world's biggest sports brand low.
It was a significant departure from his predecessor, revered sneaker designer Mark Parker, who founder Phil Knight told Portland Business Journal would often finish his “thoughts before I even know I’m having them.” Donahoe was tasked with turning Nike into a tech powerhouse. Yes, Amazon and Foot Locker were huge blows to bottom lines, but by cutting ties with these “Tier Zero” concept stores such as Alife Rivington Club and the late, great, Dave’s Quality Meat (both of whom had partnered with Nike on hyped collabs) they began losing their elusive cultural cachet. It all started when Donahoe took over as CEO and made the controversial decision to restructure Nike’s product and marketing departments, eliminating long-established categories such as running, football, basketball, fitness, and training in favor of simplified, gender-led labels such as "men," "women," and "kids."
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