Thread regarding Nike Inc. layoffs

@3cyw+1t8IFilJ
After SEC.

When is investment or reinvestment in wholesale going to start? Ain’t seen nothing yet, and this is an awfully big ship to turn (takes time).

Typical Nike those days.

Powerpoint, Ivy Leagues, no real world experience, arrogance and no accountability.

@jkc+1t8IFilJ This is a common misconception with DTC that the margins are better. I think the CDA was built of the premise that the traffic would automatically transfer from wholesale.com to Nike.com… whoever pitched it HON? thought they would look like a hero as they assumed they could steal traffic from wholesale.com by limiting distribution. While stores may have more margin control dtc.com (across all brands) is very much pay to play and actually a very difficult path the profitability. Not to mention google doesn’t work that way.

I think the disconnect lies in the underestimation of how the futures model almost guarantees profitability for DTC by getting wholesale partners to vote with $ for the best products of the season. So the DTC buyer’s don't even have to be that great because whether DTC buys 100 or 100,000 units the product cost is heavily influenced by the power of behind the wholesale buy. Then what doesn’t sell goes to Factory's or liquidators or inventory shifts between partners for key styles that resonate with their respective consumer.

One can only assume that the sheer amount of Nike product in TJ Maxx has less to do with Nikes ability to sell through and more to do with the gap that comes from the sheer disregard for the value of those Futures based wholesale sell-ins by the minds behind the CDA.

Nike investor meetings have been full of smoke and mirrors since the wholesale divestment. I definitely remember feeling like the acquisition of the NFT company RTFTK seemed like a convenient use of something that was “trending” on Wall Street to divert attention from the results of the first sell-in season that the laid off wholesale teams weren’t a part of.

The fact that the CDA strategy ever made it off a powerpoint deck is more of a signal to the larger issue at Nike. The fact that the DTC team and pretty much anyone with Digital in their title thinks that that somehow makes them more capable of setting a growth strategy than any of the many former wholesale leaders with 30+ years of Nike specific experience. You know the ones who actually built Nike into what it is today (mostly offline and face to face). Unfortunately, the only way Nike would get that business back is to recruit back all their top sales people who are now with their competitors.

When show the door to your top producing employees because their Age + Tenure = over 40… you don’t get to complain about the ones who are left not wanting to come into the office and the business going down the drain. Times Up for JD.

@1imf+1t8IFilJ Finally a sane take on this. This case is a nothing burger.

You said it. 50-100M of _Nike’s_ money. Not mine. The worst (or best depending on perspective) thing they could do is lay me off in 18 months during Round 1 (2025 edition).

I don’t really care if the lawsuit succeeds or fails. It’s not my job, life, or money at stake.

But you better believe I’m putting some popcorn on and hoping they dig up something juicy during discovery.

I know mid management is all about face-to-face-to-avoid-leaving-a-trace. But I bet our ELT is d-mb and arrogant enough to have sent some nono texts or emails.

Honestly, this is mostly a typical meritless class action lawsuit that exists to churn out a settlement, literally most of which will go right back to the lawyers filing the suit. Because that’s how the class action game works.

Nike made mistakes by abandoning wholesale and retail partners but that’s just a bad business decision. It isn’t illegal. The alleged illegality is misleading investors but that will be near impossible to prove. You have to prove “intent to deceive” when in reality what we have here is raw incompetence. Again, not illegal.

All projections Nike gave were “forward looking statements” as defined by law. That means “We’re projecting, but not guaranteeing, the following results…”. Nike leadership probably did sincerely think CDA would work. Once more…a bad business decision, but not illegal.

In addition several competitors made similar mistakes and also saw similar competitive pressures that hampered results. Adi, for example, recently posted its first loss in decades. Nike will easily be able to show a broader industry downtrend even if smaller upstarts are having success.

This lawsuit will do nothing but su-k maybe $50M-$100M or so from the company, which employees will ultimately pay for in one way or another.

Now, I return all of you to your vapid “You go get ‘em, Tiger!” discussion.

Most of corporate doesn’t even know Wholesale exists. Most of that channel has been conducted electronically for many years, and hums along with very few problems, other than those of the self-inflicted variety because we broke systems to work the Nike way instead of following best practices, or never fixed stuff so is manual work arounds everywhere instead of automation. Why would anyone ever cut off a revenue stream? Maybe prioritize things differently sure, but cutting off entirely while at the same time gutting every team in that side of the business? Wholesale Customers fill shelf space, if not with Nike then with someone else’s goods. Is not an operationally sound company, as soon as demand drops, Wholesale Customers will go with whose easier to do business with, delivers on commitments, etc

This bamf jd has got to go

Let’s not forget one of the key architects HON who ensured all the wholesale marketplace experts (aka the CDA naysayers) were marched out the door in 2020. Over 200+ Sr leaders. This all helped solidify the CDA strategy to 100% focus on direct and silence the extreme pushback from the marketplace experts who voiced concern.

Seriously hope this holds that piece of shi* JD and his cast of cronies accountable for their LIES! All that blow hard does is LIE bury him!!!!!

As an investor with a very significant amount of Nike stock, I am very interested to see how this class action suit plays out. I don't expect it to go very far, but I would love to see it result in some real accountability for these two executives who have seemingly forgotten what that word means.

One valid part of the complaint is the decision of Nike to pull away from wholesale partners during this time frame. Many of those partners did business with Nike for decades and are responsible for helping build the brand. Regardless of the merits of burning those relationships, I don't understand why the company would shut down a viable sales channel that is continuing to make the company billions. Sure, the margins are higher from direct sales and you want to entice customers to buy through the Nike website or company stores if you can. However, why shut off opportunities for customers to buy from local stores and trusted web retailers as well? I'd think Nike would want to market shoes wherever the customers are. It makes you wonder if Nike is making $50 billion as it is, could it have made $60 billion without cutting off these wholesale channels?

Good. These corporate spinlord grifters have been out in broad daylight lying to everyone inside of the berm for years. Why would anyone think that's a different story for investors? And all this failure at the perpetual expense of the only people propping this sinking circus up.

Put this lame board and ELT out to pasture. Get fu---d JD, stupid a-s hat.

Can employees become part of this trial

Love it!