62-year-old sports retail giant cuts 100s of jobs
Sportswear is still a growth market, but not every brand is winning equally.
North American retail sales of sports-related apparel and footwear were projected to reach $173 billion in 2025 and rise to $209 billion by 2029, according to a McKinsey & Company report.
But the report also highlighted that the market has become more difficult for legacy players. Challenger brands, including Lululemon, On, Arc’teryx, and Hoka, grew faster than Nike and Adidas from 2019 to 2024, taking 3% of the market from these established giants.
Over the years, consumers have also become more mindful of their purchases. With inflation and concerns over tariffs, companies are also increasingly concerned about pricing and supply chain management.
It does not mean the sneaker business is failing; rather, growth is becoming harder to capture.
For Nike, that pressure is now showing up in a much broader workforce reduction.
Nike is cutting about 1,400 jobs globally, according to Reuters, representing less than 2% of its workforce.
The most recent reduction comes in Missouri, where the company plans to permanently reduce its workforce at a manufacturing facility operated by Nike IHM, Inc., doing business as AirMI, in St. Charles, Missouri, effective June 26.
The cuts will impact 172 employees, who do not have bumping rights and are not represented by a union.
The layoffs have hit a facility tied to Nike’s Air manufacturing Innovation operations, a significant part of the company’s footwear production system.
Nike's job cuts part of bigger layoffs
Nike has described the move as a workforce reduction in its WARN filing, and the affected roles include plastic machine operators, extrusion technicians, production supervisors, product development engineers, maintenance workers, and other quality roles.
The largest affected groups include 31 plastic machine operators, 26 associate plastic component operators, and 17 senior plastic machine operators.
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Earlier in January, Nike Retail Services also filed a WARN notice in Tennessee for a permanent layoff affecting 583 workers at two Memphis locations, effective April 3.
While the company did not state a reason for the reduction in the WARN filings, Nike’s broader statement, issued last week on April 23, makes clear that it is reshaping global operations.
In its official statement, Nike said that the changes will result in a reduction of about 1,400 roles in global operations, with the majority in technology.
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The move is intended to create a more focused technology organization and streamline operations as it tries to move faster, according to the company.
Venkatesh Alagirisamy, COO of Nike, wrote in a memo to employees that the changes were part of the company’s Win Now action plan.
“Earlier this year, I outlined four actions we’re taking across Operations to help make NIKE, Inc. a more responsive, resilient, responsible, and efficient company: optimizing our supply chain footprint, accelerating technology deployment, investing in upskilling our teams, and strengthening our partner and supplier relationships,” Alagirisamy said, according to a Business Insider report.
Adding that these changes include “advanced automation” for better work and “building an even stronger end-to-end foundation for future growth.”
It maintains that the changed, optimized team will “play a critical role in the company’s comeback.”
Nike tries to improve business health
Nike remains one of the most powerful brands in sports. But recent challenges and the need to adapt to growing competition show that even dominant brands are not immune to changing consumer behavior.
In its recent earnings report, Elliot Hill, President and CEO, said that they took “meaningful actions to improve the health and quality of our business” this quarter.
The results also show that, for Nike, pressure is coming from several directions.
North America, Nike’s largest region, remained a bright spot, with revenue up 3% to $5.03 billion, led by footwear, which rose 6%.
Higher tariff costs pressured Nike’s gross margin, while the company also continues to work through inventory and demand challenges.
Internationally, the situation was more challenging, with revenue in Greater China and Europe falling 10% and 7%, respectively, on a currency-neutral basis.
Several sports brands under pressure
Nike is not the only athletic brand trying to navigate a slow-growth market.
Puma said in October 2025 that it had entered a reset phase, outlining new strategic priorities to restore brand momentum and improve long-term performance.
To establish itself as a top 3 sports brand globally, Puma decided to reduce costs and have a more strategic mix of wholesale and direct-to-consumer operations.
It added that as part of it, the company will cut 900 white-collar roles globally by the end of 2026, of which 500 have already been cut in 2025.
Allbirds, once a highly watched direct-to-consumer sneaker brand, also agreed in March to sell its intellectual property to American Exchange Group for $39 million.
Even Reebok announced its plans to return to hockey by partnering with Wholesale Sports Inc to return to the hockey equipment category. Under which the sports legacy brand will debut ice and inline hockey equipment, including sticks, helmets, and skates.
This is an effort to reclaim its market position through a sport it once dominated.
These examples show that the pandemic-driven footwear boom has given way to a more selective market where brand loyalty, price sensitivity, and sustainability matter more.
Related: Walmart makes surprising move beyond retail
