Nike cut heavily from the top in its recent mass layoff, according to a new filing with Oregon workforce officials.
The sportswear giant in April said it would eliminate 740 Oregon jobs, part of a 2% reduction in its global workforce and an ongoing $2 billion cost-cutting effort. Nike has been losing ground against smaller, nimbler rivals and focusing on developing new products.
The company recently provided a list of 732 jobs it eliminated this year to the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission, as required when mass layoffs occur.
The list shows Nike laid off 32 vice presidents, 112 senior directors and 174 directors, accounting for more than 40% of the jobs the company eliminated.
Nike employed 423 vice presidents and above in its 2023 fiscal year, according to the company’s last corporate responsibility report. Senior directors sit beneath vice presidents in Nike’s corporate hierarchy. Directors sit below them.
Workers who supported Nike’s executives also got laid off in bulk. Twenty-two senior administrative assistants lost jobs, more than any other job title. Four executive assistants also lost jobs.
The list shows it was a broad reduction, with finance, brand, footwear and apparel among the functions that took double-digit hits.
The filing does not cover positions Nike eliminated last year. In December, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported on rolling layoffs at the company that touched human resources, recruitment, sourcing, brand, engineering, digital products and innovation.
The loss of seasoned employees is increasingly a talking point with stock analysts. The company laid off 700 Oregon workers in 2020. Like this round of layoffs, many had decades of experience.
“The Nike talent today does not, in our view, hold a candle to the talent at Nike 7 years ago,” Williams Trading analyst Sam Poser wrote in a note to investors last week.
Nike employed 83,700, including 11,400 at its roughly 400-acre corporate headquarters campus near Beaverton, in May 2023, according to its last annual report.
Last week, Nike’s stock had its biggest one-day tumble since going public in 1980, falling nearly 20% after the company said it expects sales will decrease this fiscal year.
On an earnings call with stock analysts last week, CEO John Donahoe said the layoffs are behind the company and Nike is focused on getting new products on store shelves, part of what he said in December would be a “multi-year product innovation cycle.”
“Teams are focused on driving for the consumer innovation and execution,” Donahoe said last week, adding the company is “100% focused on driving the growth and innovation we’ve been talking about.”
– Matthew Kish covers business, including the sportswear and banking industries. Reach him at 503-221-4386, mkish@oregonian.com or @matthewkish.
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