Feb 9 (Reuters) - Nike-owned Converse brand's employees were instructed to work from home this week as the sportswear giant makes strategic changes to recapture sales growth, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing a memo.
The changes include new roles and team moves for some staff, according to the note from Aaron Cain, Converse's chief executive officer, the report added.
Nike's shares were down nearly 2% in afternoon trading.
Nike had laid off 775 employees, impacting distribution center roles in Tennessee and Mississippi, in a bid to boost profits and accelerate its use of automation, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters in late January.
The company, currently facing business struggles, is trying to reestablish itself as the world's leading sportswear brand after losing market share to rivals. It has undergone several rounds of layoffs in recent years.
In August last year, Nike cut a little less than 1% of its corporate workforce as part of its turnaround efforts under CEO Elliott Hill, who took over the top job in 2024. It had previously announced it would cut 2% of its jobs -- more than 1,600 in total -- in February 2024. Meanwhile, Converse had previously cut jobs as part of its parent company's cost-savings plan in May 2024.
Nike declined to respond to a Reuters request for comment.
(Reporting by Neil J Kanatt and Koyena Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
Elliott J. Hill currently works at NIKE, Inc., as President, Chief Executive Officer & Director from 2024, Weber-Stephen Products LLC, as Director from 2020, Big Brothers Big Sisters Northwest, as Director, Tecovas, Inc., as Director from 2021, Rather Outdoors LLC, as Director from 2020, and Texas Christian University, as Trustee. Mr. Hill also formerly worked at Cambia Health Solutions, Inc., as Director and NIKE, Inc., as President-Consumer & Marketplace from 2018 to 2020. Mr. Hill received his undergraduate degree in 1986 from Texas Christian University and graduate degree in 1988 from The Ohio University.
Nike, Inc. specializes in the design, manufacturing and marketing of sports shoes, clothing, and equipment. The group's products are sold primarily under the names Nike, Jordan, Converse Chuck Taylor, All Star, One Star, Star Chevron and Jack Purcell. Net sales break down by family of products as follows:
- footwear (66.9%);
- clothing (28.1%);
- sports equipment (4.8%): golf equipment (golf clubs, balls, gloves, etc.), bags, balls, etc.;
- other (0.2%).
At the end of May 2025, products were being marketed through a network of 1,034 stores worldwide, through independent distributors, and via the Internet.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: North America (42.3%), Europe/Middle East/Africa (26.5%), China (14.2%), Asia/Pacific and Latin America (13.5%) and other (3.5%).
This super rating is the result of a weighted average of the rankings based on the following ratings: Global Valuation (Composite), EPS Revisions (4 months), and Visibility (Composite). We recommend that you carefully review the associated descriptions.
Investor
Investor
This super composite rating is the result of a weighted average of the rankings based on the following ratings: Fundamentals (Composite), Global Valuation (Composite), EPS Revisions (1 year), and Visibility (Composite). We recommend that you carefully review the associated descriptions.
Global
Global
This composite rating is the result of an average of the rankings based on the following ratings: Fundamentals (Composite), Valuation (Composite), Financial Estimates Revisions (Composite), Consensus (Composite), and Visibility (Composite). The company must be covered by at least 4 of these 5 ratings for the calculation to be performed. We recommend that you carefully review the associated descriptions.
Quality
Quality
This composite rating is the result of an average of the rankings based on the following ratings: Capital Efficiency (Composite), Quality of Financial Reporting (Composite), and Financial Health (Composite). The company must be covered by at least 2 of these 3 ratings for the calculation to be performed. We recommend that you carefully review the associated descriptions.
ESG MSCI
ESG MSCI
The MSCI ESG score assesses a company’s environmental, social, and governance practices relative to its industry peers. Companies are rated from CCC (laggard) to AAA (leader). This rating helps investors incorporate sustainability risks and opportunities into their investment decisions.
![Elliott Hill](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" fill="%231b1b1b" class="bi bi-person-fill" viewBox="0 0 16 16"><path d="M3 14s-1 0-1-1 1-4 6-4 6 3 6 4-1 1-1 1zm5-6a3 3 0 1 0 0-6 3 3 0 0 0 0 6"/></svg>)
