Nike plans to become "a smaller company" with deeper job cuts

Nike will cut jobs and shake up its global structure as CEO Elliott Hill told staff the company plans to become “a smaller company”.

“This work will result in fewer roles across Nike,” Hill wrote in a memo seen by The Wall Street Journal. Decisions on job cuts begin in calendar 2027; numbers and locations unknown.

The shake-up collapses four geographic regions into three — Americas; Asia Pacific and Greater China; and EMEA — and a new campus planned in India, Reuters reported.

It follows Q1 fiscal 2027 results: revenue down 4% to $11.21bn, net income down 2% to $712m, and Greater China revenue down 22% to $1.2bn. Nike forecast full-year fiscal 2027 revenue would fall by a “high-single digit” percentage, the programme saving about $2.5bn through fiscal 2031.

Share price figures differ: the Journal reported a 3.7% fall in after-hours trading; Reuters put the extended-trading fall at 8.5%. The Journal put shares down 47% this year, on pace for the worst year on record.

Hill, who came out of retirement to become CEO in October 2024, oversaw nearly 800 warehouse job cuts in January and about 1,400 corporate roles in April.

Sources

• The Wall Street Journal, “Nike Plans a Smaller Company as Sales Slide Deepens” (Oct 2): https://www.wsj.com/business/earnings/nike-projects-sales-decline-this-year-after-lower-first-quarter-revenue-3b845fa0
• Reuters, “Nike plans more job cuts to boost sputtering turnaround, forecasts steep revenue drop” (Oct 1), via 101 WIXX: https://wixx.com/2026/10/01/nike-quarterly-sales-miss-estimates-as-china-weakness-competition-weigh/
• Reuters, “Nike plans job cuts as it forecasts lower sales” (Oct 2), via The Manila Times: https://www.manilatimes.net/2026/10/02/business/nike-plans-job-cuts-as-it-forecasts-lower-sales/2437703/amp