The fact that I, a humble Substack writer, was sitting across from Hill at all speaks to a broader shift underway at Nike. Once notorious for keeping the media at arm’s length, the company has become intentionally more open under Hill’s leadership, making a concerted effort to tell its story through voices both large and small. Whether it’s engaging a dedicated runner with a modest social media following or sitting down with an independent publisher, Nike is no longer content to simply tell its story and hope consumers are listening.

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Hill himself is not only all in on the importance of storytelling but is also helping to steer the boat. He chose Nando’s, the football-favorite restaurant chain, as the site of our lunch because it appears as an Easter egg in Nike’s recent “Rip the Script” campaign, a small but revealing example of a leadership style that is anything but hands-off.

That attention to detail surfaced repeatedly throughout our conversation. When the recently reopened House of Merc came up, Hill casually noted that he had opened the store years earlier while serving as Nike's Retail Development Director. Later, when I mentioned that NBA player Victor Wembanyama had been spotted wearing Nike x Jacquemus Moon Shoes during a pregame walk-through, Hill immediately knew the pair in question, including his shoe size and the fact that the pair had been customized for him.

There is also a certain poetry to Hill’s own story.

A former Nike intern who met his wife at the company and spent more than three decades climbing its ranks, Hill appeared to have completed his Nike chapter when he retired in 2020. Instead, four years later, he returned to lead the brand through what feels like one of the most consequential moments in its history. Nike has weathered challenges before, but the landscape it faces today feels uniquely complex: a fragmented media environment, rising competition and consumers whose attention is harder to earn than ever.

Whether viewed as destiny or simple logic, Hill’s return carries the shape of a classic homecoming story: the longtime company insider called back to help steady the institution that helped shape him.

Because Nike is currently in a quiet period, we avoided financial performance and business strategy and instead discussed leadership, the lessons Hill learned in sales, the years he spent away from Nike and why he believes the company is beginning to move in the right direction.

You started your career in sales. What did those years teach you that prepared you to become CEO?

Elliott Hill: “Consumer first, always. From a sales perspective, I wasn’t creating product, I was selling it. But success wasn’t just about selling inventory into an account. It was about making sure it sold through. To do that, you had to understand the consumer as well as the retailer did.

“You learned how assortments, storytelling and presentation all work together to create a connection with the consumer. That lesson has stayed with me throughout my career.

“The other thing sales teaches you is independence. I had 168 accounts. I drove 60,000 miles a year. Nobody was watching. We worked out of our houses and our apartments.”

What did you have to unlearn?

Elliott Hill: “It’s not so much as unlearn, but going end to end. The job doesn’t begin with the assortment, it begins with the insight and innovation that translates into the product and how it’s developed, engineered and then manufactured.

“And that’s something I did over my career with Nike and I think that’s something Nike is really good at—giving teammates different experiences throughout the entire value chain so that we learn.”

You retired for a few years before returning to Nike. What did you learn about yourself and the brand while you were not working there?

Elliott Hill: “Part of the reason I stepped away was because I wanted to know whether what I’d learned at Nike was transferable. And had I been successful at Nike because of Nike or because of who I am? And the reality is a bit of both, right? I worked with several consumer product companies and it gave me some confidence that what I had learned around insight on product and storytelling was transferable to other brands.

“I think it was a really great journey for me to step it away and take a break. I was away from Portland and Beaverton, where it does skew heavily to Nike in terms of what we see on the streets and obviously in the office. My wife and I were splitting time between Texas and Italy, so whether it was a piazza in Italy or walking South Congress in Austin, I was always looking and doing shoe counts—it never leaves your blood, and I could see the brand taking a step back.

“I watched it happen slowly. I think it shows you've got to be sharp on the consumer and the products they want. The moment you forget them is the moment they leave you.”

What’s something you’re better at now than you were at 35?

Elliott Hill: “Giving myself grace. When I was younger, I was harder on myself. I expected more from myself than was realistic. As you get older, you realize not everything is within your control.

“Urgency would probably be another one. I have a sense of urgency clearly now. But what’s different today versus my younger self is communicating that sense with and through the teammates around me.

“We're leading a very large organization. How we communicate with the leadership team and the broader organization, where we're going collectively and the sense of urgency around that, is something I've had to learn over the years. And I'm better at it today than I was."

What’s a belief you held really strongly in your career that you’ve changed your mind about?

Elliott Hill: “I don’t know if I’ve changed my mind. I do know over the years I’ve become more comfortable with who I am and how I do things. My style of communicating is a bit more informal and maybe not as polished and structured as you might expect from a CEO, and I’ve learned over the years how to be comfortable with that, which takes time.

“Earlier in my career I tried to emulate some of the leaders ahead of me versus being more true to who I was and not in terms of just communication, but dress and style and all those sorts of things. Gaining the confidence to understand that takes time, but I believe once we do that, we become our authentic selves.”

Outside of sports, what are you a total nerd about?

Elliott Hill: “Art. Contemporary art especially. My wife and I collect everything from Warhol to Richard Phillips and Mark Bradford and Mary Corse. We love architecture, food and wine.

“And I love fly fishing. It’s one of the few places where I feel completely removed from the madness. It’s just me, the river and the rhythm of the sport.”

Do you believe in signs and vibes, or are you more of a data person?

Elliott Hill: “Signs and vibes. No question. I’m a karma guy. I believe good things happen to good people. That’s why I believe in the importance of honesty and integrity. What does one do when no one’s looking? Are you making the right choices? I think about that all the time. So I’m definitely signs and vibes.”

What are some of the signs you’ve recently seen whether for yourself or Nike that tell you you’re on the right track?

“I’ve never shared this story before, but I got asked to meet with all the board members as part of the interview process for this role.

“I still play baseball. On a Sunday afternoon, the day before I was leaving to begin the interview process, I had a game. Nobody knew what I was about to embark on other than my wife and my two children. I go up to bat and hit a home run. I haven’t hit a home run before or since that day. I hadn’t even come close.

“I come into the dugout, put my helmet down, and my son bats right after me. He goes up and, on the next pitch, hits a home run. We went back to back. There’s a video of me running around the bases, and I remember thinking, ‘Okay, that’s a sign.’

“The other sign happened when I was in the Bay Area. I was supposed to stay at a certain hotel while meeting with a couple of our board members, but it was sold out, so I ended up staying at the Stanford Park Hotel across from the Stanford Shopping Center.

“I get my key, go up to the second floor and start walking down the hallway. I didn’t know it at the time, but the hotel has all these photographs of famous Stanford alumni. I turn the corner and there’s a picture of Phil Knight from the 1970s holding a pair of shoes.

“I stopped. Then I looked behind me and there was a photograph of Tiger Woods lining up a putt. That's when I thought, 'Man, I think I'm going to have to do this job.'“

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“For Nike, let’s take the World Cup right now. We’ve officially flipped to the sport offense. We’re just now starting to see the fruits of these small cross-functional teams focused on a consumer and a sport and a competitor. Their work is coming to life. I’m incredibly proud, whether it’s “Rip the Script” and how the consumers responded to that digitally or the depth and the breadth and the exposure.

“At retail, I’m starting to see how we’re getting back to really elevating the presentation and telling the stories in authentic ways. There’s another sign. The product itself on the pitch, whether it’s the craftsmanship and innovation of the boots, that’s a sign.

“Then this cultural moment. We’re starting to see the importance of the intersection of sport and culture and how we translate that into meaningful product and stories. There’s another sign. Toma la Juega [a global street soccer movement and youth tournament platform launched by Nike in 2025], the way the kids are interacting with our brands on the street. There are signs out there that the sport offense is working.

“That’s what gives me confidence that we’re heading down the right path. Now it's all about confidence, conviction and repetition, over and over again. When we’re at our best is when we have a relentless flow of innovation and stories across all three brands, all sports.”

My son is a huge Knicks fan, so this is his question for you. You’ve had a front-row seat to Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. When you watch Victor Wembanyama, do you see someone with the potential to eventually end the GOAT debates?

Elliott Hill: “If he stays on the trajectory he’s on, there’s no question he’ll be in that conversation. What makes him unique is the combination of size, athleticism and skill. We’ve never really seen someone built like that move the way he does.

“But that’s also why sports are so great. Every generation gets to have these debates. Who was the greatest? Who changed the game? Who would have succeeded in a different era? Those conversations are part of why we keep coming back to sports.”

Last question. If you had a meeting walk up song, what would it be?

Elliott Hill: “‘You Get What You Give’” by The New Radicals. There’s a lot of meaning to the song for me. My wife and I lived in Amsterdam for almost five years and that was transformative for us from a professional and a personal perspective.

“The New Radicals had just come out with the one and only album they made that included that song, and every time I hear it, it takes me back to that moment in time, and that chapter of our life, which was so special.

“I think the message in the song is real. Whatever we get out of life is what we put into it.”

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The timing was hardly accidental. The FIFA Club World Cup represents Nike’s first opportunity under Hill to align product, athletes, marketing, retail and community around a single global sporting moment. Outside of Adidas, no athletic brand can match its ability to simultaneously activate athletes, product, storytelling and retail across multiple continents.

One theme that surfaced repeatedly throughout the week was Nike's focus on moments it can own. The World Cup is one example, but so too are the NBA Finals, where the company has leveraged everything from player storytelling to pop-up t-shirt shops (above) and retail activations. In both cases, the goal appears to be the same: create so many consumer touchpoints that competitors struggle to break through the noise.

The message was remarkably consistent regardless of the setting: after several years spent emphasizing direct growth and cost-cutting, Nike is once again putting sport at the center of innovation and storytelling. Lifestyle still matters, but increasingly as something that radiates outward from sport rather than the other way around.

The shift began almost immediately upon Hill’s return as CEO in October 2024. In his first interview back, he stated, “We will put the athlete at the center of everything we do. We’re a company of dreamers, optimists and inventors, and our eyes are on the future.”

What Hill didn't say was that Nike's renewed focus on athletes required more than a messaging shift. The company was also spending valuable time unwinding structural changes made under former CEO John Donahoe. While much of the discussion around Donahoe’s tenure focused on Nike’s direct-to-consumer strategy, I have long believed the more damaging decision was the reorganization of product teams around men, women and kids rather than sport categories.

The change altered the way Nike had historically created product and, in my view, weakened the innovation pipeline. By moving away from an athlete-led structure, Nike reduced the athlete feedback loops and category expertise that had historically produced its most important breakthroughs, leaving the company increasingly dependent on lifestyle product for growth.

And if the turnaround feels like it’s taking a long time, part of the reason is that footwear operates on lengthy development cycles. A shoe can easily take 18 months or more to move from concept to retail.

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Which is why the World Cup matters. When I asked Hill what signs he looks for that Nike is heading in the right direction, he pointed to the tournament as one of the first opportunities for the company’s reorganized teams to show their work. “We’re just now starting to see the fruits of these small cross-functional teams focused on a consumer and a sport and a competitor,” he said. “We’re starting to see that with this World Cup execution.”

In other words, the tournament is more than a marketing opportunity. It is one of the first large-scale tests of Nike’s sport-led model, bringing together product, storytelling, retail and athlete partnerships around a single global competition.

That philosophy surfaced repeatedly throughout the week. At Nike’s New York headquarters, vice president of marketing Helena Thornton hosted media for the debut of “Rip the Script,” a six-minute football film (above) mainly starring football players alongside LeBron James and Serena Williams as well as brand partners Travis Scott and Kim Kardashian, who appears as the campaign’s “ultimate soccer mom” in a nod to her son Saint’s interest in the sport.

When I asked Thornton about the target audience for NikeSkims, she described the partnership not as a fashion play, but as an opportunity to reach women who have historically felt forced to choose between feeling “strong” and “sexy” while exercising.

More notably, she framed the brand’s success not in terms of customer acquisition, but in its ability to bring more women into sport. “What NikeSkims has also done is bring a whole new audience of young women into the Nike brand,” she said. “And if that becomes their pathway into sport, it’s something we’re incredibly excited about.”

Thornton also noted that Nike was deliberate about centering female athletes in the launch campaign, pairing a cast of 12 athletes with Kardashian to reinforce the idea that “strong and sexy” applies equally to elite competitors and everyday consumers.

After spending the past week immersed in Nike’s world, a few observations stood out.

1. The Team Feels Locked In

Perhaps the most noticeable shift was the team’s sense of urgency.

My impression was that both the SoHo and House of Merc activations came together through a combination of sheer will and an organization moving with more purpose than it has in years. Deadlines were tight, details were constantly being refined and everyone appeared determined to meet the moment.

That urgency seemed to extend well beyond the retail teams. From marketing executives to Hill himself, there was a sense that everyone was operating on a Lady Gaga “bus, club, another club...” schedule, racing to bring Nike’s sport-centric vision to life ahead of one of the biggest football moments of the year.

Would it be preferable if the timeline were less compressed? Certainly. It might help avoid issues such as the World Cup jersey shoulder controversy. But it was difficult not to be impressed by the level of commitment on display.

2. Retail Is Becoming More Local

Merchandising appears increasingly tailored to individual neighborhoods.

At Nike SoHo, which draws a larger local customer base, a prominent New York Knicks display anchored the store. Uptown at the House of Innovation, where tourists make up a greater share of traffic, the first floor had been transformed into a football jersey customization hub while Knicks merchandise was pushed to the upper levels.

The House of Innovation also held an exclusive launch for the ACG Radical Air Flow, the distinct-looking trail-running top worn by Eliud Kipchoge during the 2024 New York City Marathon.

3. Nike Is Tapping Into Its History

This observation may be more of a reach because Nike has never been shy about celebrating its past. Still, the brand’s history appeared with unusual frequency across the stores and activations I visited.

At House of Merc, an entire wall was dedicated to the evolution of the Mercurial franchise. At Nike SoHo, the Jordan section featured a retrospective of the brand’s history through the lens of New York City. At the “Rip the Script” media event, part of the showcase included vintage football jerseys, while back in Beaverton, the newly renamed Philip H. Knight Campus featured exhibits highlighting Nike's earliest years."

Taken individually, none of these examples would be particularly noteworthy. Together, however, they suggest a company increasingly aware of the value of its own history.

That makes sense. At a time when many of Nike’s fastest-growing competitors are relative newcomers, heritage is one of the few advantages that cannot be easily replicated. Innovation may determine who wins the future, but Nike’s 60-plus years of athletic and cultural relevance remain a powerful asset in the present.

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4. Apparel Is Improving

While footwear will take longer to judge, apparel is already showing signs of progress.

One example is the return of longer shorts, a trend Nike has embraced with an expanded assortment of mesh styles across stores. There were encouraging signs on the women’s side as well, including a bubble skirt that felt both adorable and distinctly Nike.

5. Shoes Need Work

And not just a little but a lot.

Walking around New York City it doesn’t take an expert to observe what people are wearing and at the moment it’s almost never Nike. One notable exception remains young Black and Latino men, many of whom continue to show remarkable loyalty to Air Jordan. Ironically, while I was visiting the SoHo store, there was a line around the block of mostly resellers for the release of two Mind 001 silhouettes, a Hill-era production that packs the punch of innovation and fun that has long been Nike’s winning formula.

The response is encouraging, but one launch won’t solve the company’s broader challenges. As Jadakiss famously said about The Lox during Verzuz, “It’s good, but it’s not enough.”

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• After months of literally playing footsie with multiple athletic brands during the regular season, Stephen Curry has announced a deal with Li Ning. The deal is worth $400 million for 10 years, according to ESPN reporter Shams Charania. Independent reporter Brandon, who is well known on X for providing early information on sneaker releases but is brand new to Substack, broke down the deal's details in his debut post. One particularly fascinating item he uncovered: Li-Ning products are currently subject to a U.S. import ban tied to government allegations that the company uses cotton sourced from North Korea through forced labor programs.

• Last week, I broke the news that Rihanna and Puma had parted ways, reporting that was subsequently confirmed by Business of Fashion's Mike Sykes. I also reported that Puma's relationship with A$AP Rocky is winding down. According to Sykes' sources, however, the brand has product planned with Rocky through early 2027. From what I heard, there is still product in the queue, but allegedly no new product is being designed from this point forward.

• After shuttering Nike Studios earlier this year, the brand is staying in the gym but now as a partner to franchisee The Yard Gym, according to Fitt Insider. As part of the deal, Nike will outfit trainers at its 24 locations, while also taking part in activations and events.

Running by the Numbers

Most athletic brands have now reported their latest quarterly earnings, so I thought it would be useful to see how the major names that participate in the running business stack up. My focus is on running because, right now, it’s the hottest category in the space.

A few notes: Nike’s fiscal year ends in May and it will report FY26 results in June, so its numbers are slightly out of sync with competitors. I didn’t include Salomon because, while it has a lot of lifestyle heat at the moment, it’s not yet a major player in the performance running space. I also left out Skechers, which has not provided financial information since going private.

One of the most interesting dynamics in running today is that a growing share of category growth is coming not from performance footwear, but from lifestyle product inspired by current and retro running silhouettes. Shoes such as Asics’ Gel-Kayano 14 and On’s Cloud 6 have increasingly replaced classic court styles like New Balance’s 550, Adidas’ Superstar and Air Jordan 1 as everyday footwear. Even performance-running stalwart Brooks is making a push into the lifestyle category.

Investors tend to view lifestyle-driven demand with more caution because fashion-rooted trends are often viewed as having a shorter shelf life than performance-driven demand. Yet there's also a counterargument: a growing share of running's recent growth has been driven by lifestyle adoption. As a result, brands that fail to gain traction beyond performance running may also face skepticism from investors. In other words, the market is trying to determine which brands have enough lifestyle appeal to drive growth without becoming overly dependent on fashion.

Key Takeaways on Public Athletic Brands:

• Nike: Looking at the numbers, Nike clearly has been roughed up this year, revenue was down in the most recent quarter and the stock is down close to 30% year to date. And yet, the brand called out the strength of performance running in its Q3 earnings call and shoe revenue in the United States is up versus last year. The bigger drag is international where it’s been dogged by fairly substantial share losses to competition.

• Adidas: Adidas has racked up a lot of wins in running over the past few years, fueled by the breakout popularity of the Adizero franchise. Yet much of the company’s recent growth has come from apparel, while footwear increased only 4% CC, causing some trepidation on Wall Street, which is mirrored with slightly negative year-to-date stock growth.

• Asics: Asics appears to be the clearest winner in the group, posting strong growth across all major regions, particularly Europe. Notably, a significant portion of that momentum is coming from SportStyle shoes like Gel Kayano 14 and Gel-1130, highlighting the importance of lifestyle product within the running category.

• On: On is seeing similarly explosive growth figures, and yet the stock is down ~12% year to date, perhaps reflecting investor uncertainty around how much of the brand’s momentum is being driven by lifestyle adoption versus performance running.

• Hoka: While Deckers is having a nice run this year, much of the enthusiasm is tied to international growth, creating some investor concern around Hoka's more modest U.S. growth and its ability to further expand into lifestyle. Addressing those concerns, management pointed to "green shoots" in lifestyle product, led by Mafate Speed 2 and Bondi 7.

Key Takeaways on Private Athletic Brands

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My interest in the status of Rihanna’s deal was piqued after spotting a member of Nike’s collaborations team on LinkedIn proudly posting about seeing Rihanna wearing the brand’s Moon Shoe collaboration with Jacquemus, something that struck me as unlikely to be allowed under a typical brand partnership agreement. Beyond breaking the news, this piece will examine Rihanna’s two Puma eras and why the revived partnership landed differently from the first..

The return of Fenty x Puma was officially announced in March 2023. While financial terms were never disclosed, I’m told Rihanna and Puma agreed to a three-year contract. Rihanna initially partnered with Puma in 2014, likewise under a three-year agreement that she later told Vogue had concluded with a final spring 2018 collection. Other than their duration, however, the two deals had very little in common.

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For her first run with Puma, CEO Bjørn Gulden was still leading the company before departing in 2023 to take over at Adidas, where he remains today. At the time, Rihanna’s world looked very different too: she was dating around but not yet committed, and had yet to launch Fenty Beauty (2017) or Savage X Fenty (2018).

It was also the early, pre-mainstreaming of New York and Los Angeles’ luxury streetwear movement, which produced the Mr Completely x 424 creeper that her stylist Jahleel Weaver sourced for Rihanna, who fell in love with the shoe and ultimately brought the concept to Puma as the foundation for her first signature silhouette.

Fenty by Puma 1.0 was by no means perfect but it was energetic and fun and joined at the hip with the rising streetwear movement, producing banger silhouette after banger silhouette beginning with the Creeper, which won Footwear News’ Shoe of the Year in 2016 (acceptance speech above). In its coverage of the shoe, the publication noted, “In the third quarter of 2016, footwear was its strongest category, with sales up 16.4 percent, thanks in large part to the Fenty line.”

Budgets were also far more generous and Puma by Fenty’s releases were supported by a string of big and bold runway shows held in New York and Paris that included expansive apparel offerings, some of which were sold in limited quantities at luxury department stores, giving the project the feeling of a true fashion universe rather than the typical cut and paste celebrity collaboration.

Rihanna was still flying commercial at the time and her airport arrivals and departures became an unofficial rollout machine for new product, particularly the fur slide, a shoe that transformed the standard athletic slide into something unabashedly girly. From the start, Fenty by Puma had a direct conversation with the young female customer athletic brands are forever trying to reach, the one who wants branded footwear with clout but also wants her shoes to flirt a little.

Nothing Is Promised

When the partnership returned in 2023, this time dubbed Fenty x Puma, Arne Freundt had stepped into the role of CEO vacated by Gulden. According to Puma, he received a contract for four years, effective January 1, 2023. He was gone within roughly two years, according to Puma, “due to differing views on strategy execution.”

Meanwhile, Rihanna’s to-do list had expanded considerably since her first effort with the brand. She kicked off 2023 with a Super Bowl LVII halftime performance, where she revealed her pregnancy while wearing Salomon sneakers, an early sign that the timing around Fenty x Puma’s return may have already been off given the partnership had yet to be announced and Puma apparently wasn’t prepared to capitalize on the moment. When Fenty x Puma was announced in March, she was still serving as CEO of Savage X Fenty, though she stepped down from the role in June. Two months later, in August, she gave birth to her second-born, Riot.

Fenty x Puma kicked off with an Avanti silhouette, a low profile soccer shoe that was a good choice given demand for Adidas’ Samba, which at the time was officially on fire and had little competition. Still, the seven-month gap between the partnership announcement and the shoe’s eventual launch felt lengthy and while the metallic silver colorway was perfectly on trend, The $170 price point felt ambitious, particularly because women, who often spread their spending across a wider range of footwear styles than men, also tend to be more price conscious as a result. By comparison, the Adidas Samba retailed for around $100. The brand followed with full family-size runs of the Avanti in forest green (above) and navy, color choices that felt positively off.

The return of the creeper was announced in November, a shoe that was described by Rihanna as the same as the OG Creeper but “bigger and badder.” But nine years had passed since the launch of the OG version and this time around the response was much less enthusiastic. A women’s buyer I spoke with at the time felt the shoe had returned too soon for the original customer, many of whom still had pairs sitting in their closets, while also failing to fully connect with younger shoppers who related less to Rihanna’s current reality as a mother of two balancing family and business responsibilities. The shoe was also bulky at a time when footwear trends were moving in the opposite direction.

The long gap since her last album in 2016 also created an impressions drag, taking Rihanna out of music-centered cultural conversations as a slew of newer pop stars arrived who, while nowhere near her level of achievement, nonetheless soaked up much of the attention she once owned.

Very much a hands-on creative throughout her career, coordinating with Rihanna reportedly became more complicated during Fenty 2.0, according to multiple accounts, often leading to delays around design approvals, photo shoots and appearances.

But let us not place this entirely on Rihanna’s shoulders because in the meantime Puma was dealing with its own issues, pressured in part by a post-COVID U.S. consumer who was no longer flush with stimulus money. Investor concerns around the brand had already begun building in 2024 after Puma issued weaker-than-expected guidance early in the year. Then in January 2025, Puma reported disappointing Q4 results and an unexpected decline in 2024 net profit, sending shares spiraling nearly 18% in one of the company’s worst trading days on record. Thus, even if pinning Rihanna down had become more challenging, I’m told the company still valued the partnership because she continued to bring a level of visibility and attention the brand would have struggled to generate on its own.

Whether related to Puma’s own profitability issues or all part of the contract, Fenty’s launches weren’t supported in the same way as the first effort. There were no runway shows and what little apparel there was, came and went without fanfare or announcement and was limited to sport lifestyle silhouettes. A sandal like the Fenty x Puma Cat Cleat sandal, a legitimately clever design that captured some of the imagination of the first collection, was quietly announced with a two-image campaign starring Rihanna and little else.

Puma did stage a splashy New York Fashion Week presentation in February 2024 to herald the return of the Mostro, but neither Rihanna nor Rocky attended, and Puma x Fenty was never involved with the shoe though one could argue that it should have been.

In hindsight, the issue may not have been that Fenty x Puma failed so much as it arrived trying to recreate a moment that could no longer exist. Fenty by Puma 1.0 belonged to a very specific era, one where streetwear still felt insurgent, Rihanna was a carefree pop star at the top of her music game and consumers were open to fashion that felt loud, playful and new. By 2023, all three had changed.

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Get in, loser, we're going to complain about Nike….

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I want to write about an ongoing Nike phenomenon that is not helping the brand’s current situation. Sneaker culture-themed social media feeds have discovered that negative news about the brand goes viral because unhappy news draws more eyes, but also because Nike is a global brand with sky high name recognition that many people have an emotional connection with. Nike isn’t alone in this. Increasingly, the internet seems addicted to analyzing why culturally important brands have failed the moment they hit a bump in the road.

ESPN analyst Brian Windhorst sparked a negative Nike viral cycle that lasted for days in mid-April when, citing a UBS analyst report, he said the company’s stock had been “obliterated” because “basketball players aren’t as popular as they used to be,” despite Nike itself highlighting basketball as a rare bright spot in its most recent earnings report; meanwhile there was zero response when Adidas reported its own 1Q26 basketball sales were down versus last year.

More recently, Stacy Devino, who is currently employed by Fanatics, kicked off another round of debate with a LinkedIn post in which she blasted the demise of Nike’s SNKRS app, writing, “The org and the people behind SNKRS were obliterated yesterday.” Nike announced layoffs of 1,400 employees, primarily in its technology department, in mid-April, so her post was likely a reaction to employees being officially informed last week and posting about losing their jobs.

The Birth of a Brushfire

I saw Devino’s post last week on Tuesday and DMed her the next day to see if she’d like to discuss what she wrote (as of today, she hasn’t responded—I imagine her DMs are having a day!) When I clicked on her profile, it was then I realized she hadn’t worked at Nike in six years and was employed by the company for just under three years, so basically pre-COVID, a period after which Nike and other brands went whole hog on investing in building out all things online related, as well as the ill-fated blockchain-based digital asset space.

When her LinkedIn post was published on X on May 8, it immediately began to go viral. Not surprisingly a lot of people misinterpreted her stating: “I had started on SNKRS the MONDAY after the Friday that they had let go of nearly 30% of tech in the company…” as a reference to something that happened recently when in fact she was writing about joining the company shortly after wide-reaching layoffs.

Shortly thereafter, House of Heat weighed in with an article featuring yet another former Nike employee, this time anonymous, who claimed, “There are a few people left that are being asked to keep things going. They don't want to be here. The people making the decisions don't understand SNKRS at all.” When asked about how much longer he estimated SNKRS would survive, the source said, “My guess is [SNKRS] ends in 12-18 months.”

While Complex had been holding off from covering what was clearly a flimsily-sourced story, it finally gave into the race-to-the-bottom clicks economy with an article covering the House of Heat source and the LinkedIn poster. Within 24 hours of the story appearing on my feed, it had crossed over from social chatter into “proven fact,” despite being derived from the combination of a misinterpreted LinkedIn post and an anonymous quote from an ex-employee, underscoring how difficult it has become for traditional reporting standards to compete with the speed of viral social media narratives, which begin and end before a source returns an email.

No doubt watching the fracas turn into a full-blown storm from the sidelines, Nike p.r. entered the building, issuing a statement refuting the claim that the app was circling the drain, instead stating it was “deeply committed to SNKRS”:

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And why would Nike kill SNKRS? On its face it seems absurd that a company would delete an app whose popularity and ubiquity would be goals for every other company in existence. And the reset of SNKRS is not surprising given Nike has emphasized on recent earnings calls that it is prioritizing rebuilding wholesale relationships and creating greater product relevance in key categories. Separately, the brand signaled a tech team reorganization when it announced in December that it was eliminating the chief technology officer role in an effort to “remove layers.” Arguably, SNKRS also needs modernization after years of functioning as a platform that frequently left everyday consumers simply trying to give Nike their money frustrated to the extreme. (In her post about launch days, Davino herself referenced 100 million users “trying to get their hands on one of the 5k total pairs.”)

It should be noted, tech layoffs have become commonplace as companies downsize teams built during the COVID-era digital boom, when businesses staffed aggressively around online growth and Nike specifically expanded investments in ecommerce sales, apps and now seemingly nuts ventures like RTFKT. And while the tech layoff wave peaked in 2023, workforce reductions have since become a regular headline, including at businesses still in growth mode.

To be fair, Nike’s stock declines over the past several years have created an opening for these kinds of narratives to gain traction and if a turnaround story began to take hold it would likely “obliterate” the viral nature of take downs. And that’s why this issue isn’t so easily fixed, Nike actually needs to get back on a wining path to silence critics. In the meantime, that is the gift and curse of being a brand with this level of emotional connection, enough that layoffs, basketball commentary or possibly embittered ex-employee chatter can turn into an internet-wide referendum on whether the company is “cooked.” As Oscar Wilde observed 136 years ago, there is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

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The U.K. Drags, Abroad Delivers

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Before we dive in, a few methodology notes:

• I selected two silhouettes from the U.S. site for each retailer, sorting for new arrivals and excluding discounted styles. This creates a bias toward shoes that have been on site longer. For example, On and Zendaya’s Cloudnova Moon has seen solid sell-through in select colors but has only been live for eight days. Given more time, it likely would have shown up more broadly across retailers.

• The highlighted sneakers were nearly or fully sold out. I would have preferred to isolate styles that were completely sold out, but some sites remove them from the feed. When more than two silhouettes qualified, I chose the ones that best reflected the broader story.

• Images feature the colorway that was nearly or fully sold out, with some slight AI-related distortion. In many cases, other colors of the same shoe were available in full size runs.

• I split the infographic into two groups: sport and affluent specialty, and luxury. The lines are not perfect. Nordstrom and Kith, for example, sit somewhere in between and don’t cleanly belong to either category.

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Conclusions: Sport and Affluent Specialty Retailers

• Select sneaker pricing across the above four retailers spans a wide range, from entry-level canvas to high-fashion statement: $39 for a Vintage Havana Starter sneaker at Nordstrom; $60 for Vans Classic Slip-On at Foot Locker and Vans Authentic at JD Sports; $80 for Puma Speedcat Ballet at Kith; rising to $270 for Nike Zoom VaporFly X at Foot Locker; $565 for Common Projects Achilles Low at Kith; and topping out at $1,995 for Christian Louboutin So Flo Perla at Nordstrom.

• Allocation is everything. Most sneaker brands are highly selective about how they position product at wholesale. Kith is seeing strong demand for Vans Old Skool 36 with pearl embellishment, partly because it’s a well-designed shoe, but also because access is limited. The same applies to Nike’s Air Rift. Salomon is another brand with tighter allocation.

• There’s a lot of talk of Adidas’ headwinds but it still dominates the low profile trend that it spotted first and leaned into under CEO Bjørn Gulden’s behest, arguably one of his most significant moves as a leader to date. The brand’s design team also deserves credit for expanding on the look with ballet and Mary Jane-inspired profiles, both of which have been a big hit. The issue for the brand is that the low profile trend is in stage four of adoption and every brand in existence has a version. And when it comes to Adidas’ version of the shoe, customers are seeking a classic color story, meaning that a lot of the more colorful versions are available in full size runs.

• Brooks Revel isn’t new, but the latest version, priced right at $100, is selling well across multiple colors on JD Sports and on the brand’s e-commerce site. It hits what a younger female customer is looking for: a streamlined lifestyle running shoe with of-the-moment cushioning, backed by a brand with real credibility in the category. At the same time, shout out to the strong demand for Nike Vomero 18, a violet shoe priced at $180, an usually high price point for the average aspirational female shopper.

• As Carrie Bradshaw once famously said, we’re so over, we need a new word for over as far as the little white shoe trend is concerned. The customer is mainly focused on one of three silhouettes: low profile, retro runners and performance running shoes, all of which are seeing demand because of eye catching logos, color, materials or detailing.

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Conclusions: Luxury Retailers

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Down ~47 Percent Versus a Year Ago

Lululemon’s stock dropped an astonishing 12% last Wednesday after the company announced its board had unanimously voted to hire 26-year Nike veteran Heidi O’Neill as its next CEO, a role she begins in September following her negotiated separation from Nike. In a press release, O’Neill said her goal is to “accelerate product breakthroughs, deepen the brand’s cultural relevance and unlock growth in markets around the world.”

Analysts reaction was—as it always is—largely polite with some noting they had hoped for other candidates, including Marc Maurer, who stepped down as On Holding’s co-CEO last July, former Lululemon executive Stuart Haselden who now leads Arc’teryx and longshot Jane Nielsen, a former Ralph Lauren c-suite exe…

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Here for a Good Time not a Long Time: Nike has announced a new SoHo home, located at 611 Broadway, placing it exactly across the street from Adidas’ downtown flagship. Nike shuttered its location on Broadway and Spring Street in mid-January not long after it was announced that IKEA purchased the building, and at the time the brand said details were forthcoming on a new downtown location.

Notably, the new store is a temporary location, according to reporting by WWD, suggesting the brand was caught off guard by IKEA’s purchase. Nike has not disclosed how long it will occupy the space, but it plans to use it for installations tied to major events, including the World Cup, the U.S. Open, and the New York City Marathon on November 2, so it will probably stay open at least through the end of 2026.

Known as the Cable Building, 611 Broadway was constructed between 1892 and 1894 and spans a full city block. The building is owned by M.D. Carlisle Real Estate and is represented by Ripco Real Estate. Following an extensive renovation, Crate and Barrel opened the location in 2002 before closing in late 2023. Crate and Barrel leased the first and second floors, totaling 36,620 square feet, including 14,254 square feet on the ground floor, which features a distinctive wraparound window. The building remained vacant until Kith temporarily operated from a portion of the first floor in the first half of 2025 during renovations of its Lafayette Street store.

I will find out tomorrow, but it appears Nike is leasing only the first floor, where it has set up key departments around a central space, including Nike By You customization, women’s training and Jordan. The store is currently anchored by a soccer-focused display, mirroring the House of Innovation store on Fifth Avenue.

Nike and Mbappé: I Have Questions: There has been ongoing chatter, sparked by reporting from Le Parisien, that French-born soccer player Kylian Mbappé and Nike will part ways after a 19-year relationship that began when he was eight years old. His current deal, reportedly worth €14 million annually, will allegedly end in late July, two weeks following the conclusion of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. For now, we will set aside a report from OK Diario two years ago that Kylian Mbappé signed a 10-year deal with Nike in 2019, which would run through 2029. It is also worth noting that the current story has yet to be confirmed by any major global outlets.

Adidas and Under Armour are both said to be in pursuit. Adidas I could see, given its sponsorship of his club and national team, while Under Armour sounds more like agent chatter, given its limited investment in top-tier football boots and a roster of players that is solid but not elite. The timing is also questionable. Under Armour remains in the midst of a restructuring plan and in November announced an additional $95 million in restructuring actions, including the separation of Curry Brand and “further contract terminations.” Shares are up ~28% year to date, driven in part by cost discipline, so it would seem an odd time to tack back on a bulky contract.

In the meantime, Nike has continued to invest in Mbappé, queuing up new KM-branded shoes including a Nike Air Max Plus VII and Mercurial Vapor 16 Elite released in March. At the same time, Nike has been previewing Mbappé product slated for as far out as 2027, so it’s difficult to know what to believe.

Nike has made it clear that its path to better growth numbers will be a long and winding one, so given the slog, it might not be a bad idea for Nike to pull a few million out of its massive demand-creation budget, but the brand doesn’t appear ready to ease up just yet. According to multiple credible outlets including The NY Times, Nike is currently in exclusive talks to take over the Union of European Football Associations’ (UEFA) official match ball rights from Adidas, a deal that would end Adidas’s 25-year run and underscores that Nike isn’t putting down the marketing money gun anytime soon.

Photos

Some images shot by me from my recent press and shopping-related visits over the past week

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Back Like Ye Never Left: Kanye West performed in the United States for the first time in two years at SoFi Stadium outside Los Angeles, with both April 3–4 shows selling out and generating $33 million in ticket sales, according to Bloomberg. The performances, tied to the release of his 12th studio album Bully, which debuted at No. 2 on the charts, followed an apology for his antisemitic remarks published as an ad in The Wall Street Journal. Ahead of SoFi, Ye had already performed in Mexico City, Haikou, China, and Seoul. He was joined by Travis Scott, Lauryn Hill, North West, CeeLo Green and Don Toliver, performing atop an orb designed by Aus Taylor (Instagram), a longtime creative partner.

The show was attended by Dave Chappelle, Erykah Badu, Diplo, Jerry Lorenzo, Michèle Lamy, ASAP Nast, The Game and Ri…

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A while back on X, I quote-tweeted someone who scoffed at an individual who argued, “Virgil [Abloh] was a better designer than [Alexander] McQueen.” Leaving aside comparisons of their skills, I wrote, “Virgil had an advanced design degree, interned at Fendi, was creative director at Donda overseeing multiple collections, launched his own label, was first Black [creative director] at [Louis Vuitton]; ….They're very diff[erent] designers but Virgil's accomplishments & influence is comparable to McQueen's.”

To put it mildly, I received a lot of pushback on that tweet, mainly because people thought I was comparing their skills as designers, which I specifically wasn’t doing because I don’t care to engage in top 10 talent arguments. More so I was speaking to their generational …

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1. Adidas lit up sneaker culture when it was revealed the company had filed a trade secret lawsuit against sneaker media platform Sole Retriever and founder Harris Monoson over leaked images of upcoming Anthony Edwards AE and Donovan Mitchell D.O.N. sneakers. The complaint, filed March 12 in Oregon and seeking at least $75,000 in damages, alleges Sole Retriever obtained confidential designs in 2025 and attempted to pressure Adidas for preferential product access, later posting unreleased CAD images and photos after the brand declined. At the center of the filing is a jaw-dropping email Monoson sent to three Adidas employees and representatives at the public relations agency Pitchblend: “The way adidas basketball continues to alienate us is not appreciated, and we will not tolerate it. Just a heads up — we have the full AE2 lineup in every colorway, and if this is how adidas intends to keep treating us, we have no reason to keep doing favors on our end and hold back on posting these kinds of things.” Adding another layer of insanity, Sole Retriever posted a statement describing the lawsuit as an attack on free speech, then reportedly issued a cease-and-desist to someone covering the case.

2. Kering-owned Alexander McQueen is moving ahead with layoffs in Italy that likely will impact 54 of 181 employees, according to reporting by WWD. The cuts come as parent company Kering restructures the brand following years of losses tied in part to a drop-off in demand for the brand’s exaggerated-sole sneaker, which CEO Luca de Meo said at one point generated around 80% of revenue. De Meo also signaled a major retail reset, saying more than half of McQueen’s 135 stores could close “without mercy” as the group moves to restore profitability.

3. Eighteen-year-old Emir Balat, who once ran sneaker-buying bots and flipped limited releases as a teen, according to reporting by The New York Times, has been arrested in connection with a failed homemade bomb attack near Gracie Mansion, where Mayor Mamdani resides. Balat reportedly stepped away from reselling last year as profits shrank amid wider releases from brands like Nike. As one former buyer told the Times, “Nike started mass releasing, and instead of making $50 he was making $10 to $20 a pair.” Authorities say Balat and another teen were inspired by ISIS, an extremist group; the device failed to detonate and no one was injured.

4. Former Vice President of Global Entertainment at Adidas, Jon Wexler, sat with the All the Smoke podcast during NBA All-Star Weekend, and discussed his time working with Ye to build the Yeezy brand. In the exchange, Wexler revealed the Yeezy Boost 350 V2 Triple White release in September 2018 sold 1.4 million pairs in 24 hours, generating roughly $350 million in sales. Widely shared on social media, for some reason the aforementioned clip wasn’t included in the full YouTube interview—perhaps Adidas demanded its removal? [Correction: The aforementioned clip was shared on the the YouTube video, time stamp 25:25] One quick fact-check: Wexler claimed that prior to Ye joining Adidas in 2014, the brand had a market cap of $14–$15 billion, and that placed Adidas at that time fifth among global athletic brands behind Nike, Under Armour, Skechers and Jordan. The ranking isn’t accurate. Adidas was the world's third largest athletic brand in 2015, Under Armour peaked at around $17 billion in market cap that year and Skechers fluctuated between $6–$7 billion. As for Jordan, Nike doesn't break out the brand separately, but in 2019 it announced the brand had hit $1 billion in annual sales, but that's a revenue figure, not a market cap.

5. Aimé Leon Dore founder Teddy Santis has announced plans for a dedicated women’s collection along with a Los Angeles store. Santis sent the note to brand subscribers, letting them know that going forward he would be using his platform to weigh in more frequently on newsworthy events.

6. Telfar has released a cheeky “Fear of Job” shirt, printing the phrase on a t-shirt and sweatshirt priced from $75-$128. Noting the play on Fear of God’s logo, The Face editor-at-large Ashantéa Austin reached out to Jerry Lorenzo on Instagram where he told her, “…that’s my guy, we talked and laughed about it,” adding that both are “independent designers that design with a fear to work for someone else,” and that the joke lies in how people might interpret the phrase.

7. Rising Chinese brand Pane this week debuted a ballet silhouette. Founded in 2022, the label has been gaining buzz for subtle, low-profile shoes whose appeal lies in quality materials and small design details that consistently sell out.

8. Resale platform Depop has announced stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson as its official trends spokesperson. “I am looking forward to digging into the aesthetics, subcultures and personal style movements that emerge across Depop and celebrating the people behind them,” said Karefa-Johnson in a statement she posted on Instagram.

One of these Things Is Not Like the Other One!

Academy Sports + Outdoors Inc.: Academy reported 4Q26 results that fell short across the board, with slightly negative same-store sales missing Wall Street expectations and revenue of $1.72 billion (up 2.5% yy) also disappointing, alongside earnings per share. Full-year guidance for both revenue and EPS came in light. Chief Financial Officer Carl Ford pointed to tax refunds, international sporting events and the U.S. 250th anniversary as potential demand drivers, while cautioning, “We are also mindful that the American consumer is still under financial pressure that we expect to persist throughout 2026.” Shares fell nearly 12% on the day and are now down approximately 4% year to date.

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1. Off-White, now owned by Bluestar Alliance, started showing up at Costco last week and yes, the shirts are authentic. The sight was jarring given the brand had just staged a runway show in Italy under creative director Ib Kamara. The moment sparked debate about whether Virgil Abloh would ever have sold the brand through Costco if he were still alive. My view is that he might have approached it as a one-off collaboration, similar to Nike’s recent collaboration with Costco. But historically, when Off-White was licensed by New Guards Group and later folded into LVMH, the brand was never distributed directly through big-box retailers.

2. Interview stirred conversation with an editorial featuring young finance bros from several prominent firms. The story sparked debate about whether the subjects had permission from their firms to appear and if not, whether they would be fired. On Wall Street, one of the many unwritten rules for junior employees is to avoid looking too flashy and as such the editorial felt borderline hostile to people in the business. That said, there was a lot of commentary about whether or not the young bros could afford the Rolexes they were sporting, which is a non issue because the subjects of editorials don’t supply their own clothes.

3. Ty Dolla $ign announced a new album dedicated to his female listeners, but the cover art quickly drew side eye. The musical note rising from the female avatar’s head was interpreted by some viewers as a noose, turning what was supposed to be a tribute to women on its head.

4. Onitsuka Tiger charmed runway watchers with a collection that included a Mexico 66-inspired slingback heel. Whether the collection will ever make it to the United States remains unclear. Despite growth globally, the brand still has only a limited footprint in the United States following Asics decision to pull the brand from wholesale distribution a couple years back.

5. More Virgil Abloh news. The designer’s estate, operating under the Virgil Abloh Archive, announced the launch of The Virgil Reader, Volume 001, a publication compiling many of his interviews. Originally limited to 2,000 copies, the estate increased the run after strong demand.

6. London designer Martine Rose has canceled production of her fall 2026 collection despite strong orders. The decision arrives amid turbulence surrounding Tomorrow London, the brand accelerator that holds a majority stake in Martine Rose and has recently faced challenges across parts of its portfolio.

7. Hanifa designer Anifa Mvuemba has announced she’s putting a pause on operations, a move that has prompted widespread debate online about grace, accountability and the unique structural hurdles Black-owned fashion businesses face when scaling.

8. Adidas Originals has launched a new Superstar campaign featuring a wide cast of ambassadors including Kendall Jenner and Blackpink’s Jennie, part of the brand’s latest push to reintroduce the classic shell-toe to a new generation.

Three Future Stories

We’re far enough long into 2026, that brand’s plans for 2026 are starting to come into focus. In the case of Adidas, I’m hearing that it will follow up the relaunch of Superstar with a similar effort for Stan Smith. Details are very murky but I’m also hearing that Nike is looking to relaunch FlyKnit Racer in some form or another. To finish things off, look for Reebok to reenter the soccer category, timing uncertain.

The Most Recent Quarter for Eight Athletic Brands

I pulled together the most recent quarterly results for major athletic brands and created a chart. Nike reports earnings at the end of this month, so those numbers are a bit stale. Salomon is owned by Amer Sports, which doesn’t break out results by brand, so the figures here are a close approximation based on the category figures the company provides. And I couldn’t calculate operating income for Salomon, Hoka or Vans because their results aren’t broken out by their respective parent companies, Amer Sports, Deckers Outdoor and VF Corp.

I didn’t include Brooks or New Balance in the chart because they’re private and though they recently updated with some information it wasn’t much. New Balance said revenue grew 19% to reach $9.2 billion in 2025, while Brooks said its 2025 sales were up 16%, a figure Sportswear International used to back into revenue of $1.6 billion.

For anyone new to the terminology, “operating margin” refers to the percentage of revenue a company keeps after paying the costs of running the business, but before interest and taxes. It’s an important figure to investors because it shows how efficiently a company turns sales into profit.

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Pour One Out for Nike SoHo: On my most recent visit to SoHo, I had to pause for a moment and take in the reality of Nike’s Spring Street store closure. I suppose I should have taken a picture, but there was nothing to mark the brand’s departure other than an absence of signage and brown paper-covered windows, which all felt too depressing to document. Will it conjure the same future nostalgia as Barneys, Fred Segal or even 21 Mercer? Surely not, and yet it still feels like a neighborhood loss.

21 Percent Comps and a Wide Open Lane

I popped into a few more stores, including Aritzia (a store whose appeal I don’t quite get—like Zara but with wooden fixtures and brands?) Then I stopped by FP Movement, which appears to be the only retailer enthusiastically taking up the flag for the burgeoning retro activewear movement. The trend was first covered on Substack by The Sweat Lookbook, Running Supply and Neverworns, and on Instagram via reseller Rummage Stretch. It has since been picked up by larger publications, including The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, which ran a piece on FP Movement’s early embrace of “big workout pants” with a piece titled, “You’re a Boomer if You Wear Leggings.”

The look reads as a pushback on the matching set uniform that Alabama sorority rush outfit-of-the-day videos have made ubiquitous by leaning into looser-fitting nylon track pants, vintage cotton collegiate and race participant t-shirts and mix-and-match tops and bottoms.

Choosing a distinctly different merchandising lane from its competitors seems to be paying off for FP People Movement. In Urban Outfitter’s Q4 earnings report announced last week, the company noted that FP Movement delivered same-store sales growth of 21 percent and revenue growth of 29 percent. The company opened 12 stores during the quarter, bringing the total to 88, with plans to open an additional 21 stores in fiscal 2027.

A Nike Vet Enters the Building

Capping off all the good news, the company announced during the call that it has tapped former Jordan executive Andrea Perez as FP Movement’s first global president. Perez will report to Sheila Harrington, the global CEO of Free People and Urban Outfitters. “Andrea is uniquely positioned to steer FP Movement as a premier performance lifestyle brand. Her expertise in disruptive marketing and a deep-seated passion for women’s sports make her the ideal leader for the stage of our expansion,” said Chief Operating Officer and Co-President Francis Conforti on the call.

Perez first joined Nike in 2003 and left in 2022 during CEO John Donahoe’s messy regime, where she spent five years as Jordan Women’s global vice president and general manager. Free People announced the news on LinkedIn where it noted that Perez scaled “Jordan Women’s into a billion-dollar business.”

Salomon Over Swoosh

When I visited the store a couple weeks back, the looser-fitting, less matchy-matchy look of Free People Movement was centered in the window display (above), with mannequins sporting footwear by Salomon, Asics, On and Hoka. I’ve visited this store half a dozen times and for the first time noticed in-store signage pointing to the downstairs sneaker department that I was told was recently placed there to bring more attention to the assortment.

Intrigued, I made a first-time trek downstairs, where displays included the aforementioned brands along with Brooks, Keen and Vibram FiveFingers. Pure lifestyle plays were limited to Puma Speedcat styles. There are additional brands on the Free People site where FP Movement is housed, but merchandisers are clearly editing the assortment to emphasize silhouettes with performance-lifestyle or low-profile bonafides.

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J.Crew will not renew Brendon Babenzien’s contract as creative director of men’s, according to GQ editor R.F. Kenmore, who shared the news on X. The move has been framed as Babenzien stepping down to focus on Noah, the brand he founded in 2015. However, the company is said to be bringing back Alejandro Rhett, formerly chief product officer at Todd Snyder and a past J.Crew executive who was fired in 2015 after an Instagram post comparing company layoffs to The Hunger Games sparked backlash and put him on the cover of the New York Post. The return marks a notable second act for Rhett, and a reminder that we are indeed living in a post-woke world.

The leadership shift comes as J.Crew faces mounting financial pressure. Despite a broader return to classic, preppy dressing that would seem to favor the brand, credit card data cited by Puck News Line Sheet reporter Laure…

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I’m a person who follows and is fairly heavily invested in politics, so when I first took in the reaction to Bad Bunny’s NFL Super Bowl halftime performance it was through the lens of Mediaite’s One Sheet which aggregates how the big stories of the day are covered by media. Reaction to the event split between analysis of the roughly six million people who watched the live version of Turning Point USA’s MAGA-friendly halftime show (versus the approximately 135 million who watched Bad Bunny) and angry responses from conservative commentators like Fox News’ Jesse Watters and Sirius XM host Megyn Kelly, who described Bad Bunny singing entirely in Spanish as “a middle finger to the rest of America.” A couple of GOP lawmakers even called for a government investigation into the halftime performance and its broadcast.

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As much yelling as there was, a fair number of conservative-coded voices pushed back on the hyper-criticism of the event…

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The result is a month now packed with collabs, drops and street photo moments where statements made in January can set the tone for the rest of the year. Check out some highlights below, followed by additional news updates.

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Drops and Collabs

1. Nike SB Dunk Low Pro x Costco Kirkland Private Label: A shoe that was initially reviled for its basic material story quickly turned into a must-have, when Nike shock-dropped the shoe at eight Costco locations, spurring lines at multiple locations. Priced at $124.99, each store received a pallet holding roughly 500 pairs, with no restock planned. The shoe is now trading on StockX for an average of $369.

2. Nike V5 Runner x A Ma Maniére: Nike and A Ma Maniére pivot away from the retro court shoe collabs they’re known for, landing on a retro running silhouette. Coming in at $95, the shoe’s unexpectedly accessible price was met with approval across sneaker culture.

3. NikeSKIMS makes the most of new ambassador Lisa of Blackpink to promote the label’s spring 2026 ballet-inspired line, which includes a satin NikeSKIMS Rift Satin ($160, launching February 5). The shoe follows on the heels of NikeSKIMS’ debut Rift Mesh launch, which did not sell out instantly but cleared by the end of the day as is typical for women’s drops.

Paris Fashion Week Men’s

4. Paris-based Village PM (Ig), founded in 2024 by Basile Lapray, Bram De Cleen, and Julien Traverse, became the unofficial shoe of Paris Fashion Week Men’s, with its 1PM silhouette standing out as a low-profile shoe blending retro appeal with technical bona fides.

5. Paris-based Satisfy surprised with an Adidas collaboration, unveiled at its Paris Fashion Week Men’s studio (Ig). The rollout was revealed via Satisfy’s signature Moth Tech t-shirt, with the perforations reworked to form Adidas’ Three Stripes logo. (More thorough coverage of PFW running activations via Cole Townsend’s Substack here.)

6. SZA made her official debut as Vans’ artistic director by attending Louis Vuitton’s menswear show in a pair of Authentic sneakers customized by Rachel Goatley (Ig), a New York-based jewelry designer.

7. Jerry Lorenzo (Ig) made his break with Adidas official by sporting a pair of Nike x Jacquemus Moon shoes while out and about during Paris Fashion Week. Notable, the shoe was Snobette’s Sneaker of the Year for 2025.

Locals Only

8. Mayor Zohran Mamdani lit up the streetwear space last week, while attending a snowstorm-related press conference wearing a Carhartt jacket sourced from Dave’s New York (Ig), the 63-year-old retailer located in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. The jacket was embroidered by Bushwick-based Arena Embroidery (Ig), founded by Rocco Arena, who previously customized product for Nike.

Staff Changes

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Snobette’s annual Sneaker Awards include 10 shoes selected by myself and Samia Grand Pierre that are informed by our panelists of six women, comprised of Kari Cruz, Ticara Devone, Lee Glandorf, Key Lee, JerLisa and Smoove (links to Instagram accounts). Each of their selections is posted here on X. It’s a plus if the shoe’s designer is a woman, but mainly we’re looking for shoes that resonate, reflect the moment and carry a point of view. For the No. 1 spot, the sneaker had to do more than generate buzz. It needed to carry a point of view strong enough to walk with us into the year ahead.

Our list is often praised because of the eclectic nature of selections. I think that’s mainly because people in sneaker culture are accustomed to SOTY lists that are created by men’s platforms, most prominently Complex and Nice Kicks (whose panel I was included on). I’m not 100 percent sure, but I believe we’re the only platform that creates a list by and for women. Media sites like Vogue and Elle write about sneakers, but mainly as fodder for shopping stories featuring affiliate links.

I will say that this was a year in which it was very difficult to choose a No. 1. It was also challenging to find a through line among the panelist picks. Case in point, Retro Jordans have been a constant on our panelists’ lists over the past nine years, and yet the Retro silhouette selections this year were all over the place.

SOTY Notes

Nike x Jacquemus Moon Shoe:
Choosing the No. 1 shoe was a very difficult decision. I could see one year from now feeling like this pick was unhinged, but it might also mark a brand turning point for Nike, signaling an ability for the brand to design new silhouettes that resonate with consumers and are properly supported by marketing.
Designer Note: Juliana Sagat (Instagram), who led the Moon shoe design team, is no longer with Nike, having been poached by Pharrell Williams’ design studio.

Vans Old Skool 36
Gosh I loved this shoe and repeatedly thought about putting it at No. 1. It’s just so personable and likeable, instantly tapping into millennial nostalgia vibes. Like the Moon Shoe, it may point to a broader brand reset, with Vans’ OTW offerings beginning to generate sustained momentum rather than one-off hype.
Designer Note: Greg Betty (Instagram) who designed this shoe plus several other notable OTW silhouettes was picked off by Jordan in the spring last year. Officially his new title is: Senior Principal, Streetwear Concept Design, Global Jordan

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Sporty & Rich's Paris-based David Obadia announced on Instagram last week that he is stepping down after seven years with the label, pointing to the brand’s growth into a $40 million business. Obadia, who joined the company in 2018, said the company will continue under the leadership of founder Emily Oberg, adding: “She has a very unique talent and creative vision, and I am confident she will lead Sporty & Rich into its next phase with great success.” While Obadia has since removed the post, Oberg was not tagged in the announcement and the two are not currently following each other on Instagram.

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Obadia described himself as Sporty & Rich’s chief executive officer (a description that remains in his Instagram bio), though in a follow-up exchange, Oberg clarified that she has held the CEO title since founding the company in 2015, retains full ownership, and “made all final business and design decisions.” When Obadia began working with Sporty & Rich in 2018, he was dating Oberg, and he continued in his role after the two ended their relationship. When asked, Oberg described Obadia’s position as that of an “operator” working under a licensing arrangement.

The company employs approximately 40 people, who are based in Paris and the United States. Oberg, who splits her time between Los Angeles and Paris, said in November on The Burnouts podcast that the brand will open a store in Los Angeles in the new year, reduce the number of drops and “scale back and do things in a bigger and better way.” She described revenue at roughly $40 million in 2025, with a goal of reaching $60 million in 2026. The brand currently has no outside investors.

Editor’s Note: There is a particular challenge that comes with being the face of a brand as a young, attractive woman with a strong personality. Charismatic beauty can function like early-stage funding when launching a brand, which is why it’s accurately described as pretty privilige. But in business exchanges, it can also short-circuit seriousness, leaving some men flummoxed and unable to act like a normal human being. And while female supporters in the early days act as a do-or-die cheer section, a tiny but highly motivated group can be obsessed with tearing the frontwoman to shreds (I think this has Darwinian origins but that’s a different Substack!) As someone covering the space, it’s a dynamic I’ve witnessed Oberg experience in real time on Snobette’s Instagram feed. As Oberg put it on the podcast, “It’s definitely more noticeable how much more the world dislikes women,” adding that, “At the end of the day you have to be a tough cookie, and if you’re not, you might want to choose another job.”

Streetwear Is Dead. Long Live Streetwear!

U.K. Corteiz founder Clint Ogbenna has landed a major New York Times profile, spotlighting the scale of the business just eight years in. The label generated $58 million in revenue in 2024 with a core staff of just 10 (excluding warehouse workers), operates entirely DTC, and sees roughly half of sales come from England, with the U.S. accounting for about 15%.

I Like IKEA but I Am Going to Miss this Store

Nike’s SoHo flagship officially closed its doors as of January 10, 2026. The brand occupied the building for roughly a decade before losing the downtown location to IKEA, which finalized its purchase of the property in September 2025. Nike has confirmed it is vacating the space and said it is evaluating options for a new downtown New York location, though no address or timeline has been publicly disclosed.

The Seemingly Inevitable Fall Out from a Shiny New Distribution Center

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Update: Austin Ratner has announced he’s accepted a role at Chewy as head of influencer marketing.

Austin Ratner, head of affiliate marketing, announced on LinkedIn a few days ago that he is leaving Nike, a Portland-based role he held for three years. Ratner’s departure is not a small loss. He was widely liked by both internal teams and external partners, and his farewell post drew an unusually warm response, reflecting the influence and credibility he built across Nike’s affiliate ecosystem.

Nike runs its affiliate program through CJ Marketing, one of the longest-standing players in the category. I didn’t speak with Ratner, so I don’t know why he left. He may have been recruited elsewhere and offered more money or it could be there was ongoing frustration with the affiliate department’s place on the totem pole. From what I’ve heard Nike doesn’t place a lot of priority on affiliate marketing and treats it more as a want not a need.

Several affiliate partners described frustration with a persistent disconnect. One industry source said Nike undervalues the partners who drive sales day in and day out, pointing to a gap between the teams shaping brand narratives and the affiliate channel. While top-tier launches generally sell themselves, most products arrive without story telling, not to mention details on pricing and launch timing, leaving affiliates scrambling to fill in the gaps. That top-down approach may have worked when Nike was firing on all cylinders, but it feels out of step as the brand faces stronger competition and works to regain lost share.

Nike’s posture isn’t unique. Affiliate marketing has long been treated as a stepchild within the marketing mix, despite total spend by companies globally projected to have hit $32.55 billion in 2025. Consumers often approach affiliate links with skepticism, while brands worry about loss of control and system gaming, tensions that help explain why many luxury labels have avoided the channel altogether.

But opting out carries its own risk. The Row learned that firsthand when it was reportedly frustrated by an influencer linking its product to department store sites, underscoring the limits of control in a media environment where creators, not brands, decide how the brand is shown to the consumer. In practice, avoiding affiliate marketing doesn’t eliminate its influence. It simply removes the brand from having a seat at the table. Against that backdrop, Ratner’s exit feels less like routine turnover and more like a missed moment for Nike to take the channel more seriously.

At the same time, if anyone could crack the code on making affiliate marketing less tacky, that would be something.

Closet Cleaning at Foot Locker

Intrigued by Dick’s Sporting Goods’ recent earnings commentary around clearing slower-moving inventory at Foot Locker, I spent part of the weekend examining how promotional activity varies by brand on the site. I’m keeping this analysis behind a paywall for now, both because it took a lot of time and because there are some limitations to what I was able to pull.

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Nike reported 2Q26 earnings on Thursday and the results were not positive. Currency-neutral revenue was flat, but performance was negative in every region except North America.

Nike traditionally reports the quarter and then uses the earnings call to frame guidance for the following quarter. On the surface, the initial numbers looked fine and even beat Wall Street expectations. Still, shortly after the release, the stock began to dip in after-hours trading. My guess is investors zeroed in on the further deterioration in China, where revenue swung from down 9% last quarter to down 17% this quarter, and started to feel queasy. Yes, Nike has been clear that recovery in China would be a long-term project, but seeing the losses double likely felt like a gut punch.

Guidance Was the Real Problem

The situation deteriorated further mid-call when Chief Financial Officer Matthew Friend outlined the outlook for FY3Q26. Nike now expects Q3 revenue to decline low single digits year over year, versus Wall Street’s expectation for modest growth, with gross margin also set to contract meaningfully. While management noted that margins would be expanding absent tariff-related cost pressure, the headline was clear: near-term fundamentals are moving in the wrong direction. From there, the stock slid in earnest, finishing the call down roughly 10%.

The Clock Is Ticking

If there was a word that defined the call, it was “time.” It was mentioned roughly 20 times during the presentation, including four explicit references to recovery that would “take time,” along with eight uses of “timeline” as management attempted to frame when growth might return across various franchises and regions. The repetition reinforced the same message investors seemed to take away: improvement is possible, but not imminent.

Management Buttons Up

Acknowledging the urgency of the situation, Chief Executive Officer Elliott Hill announced that all geography leads will now report directly to him, as well as to Chief Financial Officer Matt Friend, who also oversees sales and Nike Direct. While it wasn’t mentioned on the call, I’m told that Jeff Smallwood has returned to Nike as a consultant. Something of a Nike sales OG, Smallwood is working with the team to help straighten out the mess left behind by the Consumer Direct Offense strategy spearheaded under former Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe.

The Numbers (Constant Currency)

• Revenue: Global: Flat; Asia Pacific and Latin America (APLA): Down 4%; China: Down 16%; Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA): Down 1%; North America: Up 9%

• Wholesale: Global: Up 8%; APLA: Down 3%; China: Down 15%; EMEA: Flat; North America: Up 24%

• Nike Direct: Down 9%; Nike Digital: Down 14%; Nike Stores: Down 3%.

• Nike Classics: Down 20% (approximately $550 million)

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Inventory Is Starting to Bark

All of the above was announced following a week in which findings of premium footwear at off price stores like Ross was a trending topic in sneaker culture on social media. Items included Nike and Lil Yachty’s patent leather Air Force 1, Retro Jordan 4s and 11s, Air Jordan 1 Low, Vaporfly 3 Ekiden, and plenty more, and notably, not just from Nike. The moment recalls the mid-teens, when Adidas briefly put Nike back on its heels as Kanye West kicked off the Ultra Boost era, triggering a similar pile-up of Nike product in off price channels like TJ Maxx and Ross Stores.

Meanwhile, I’m told by a source who tracks these things that in the weeks following Black Friday, Foot Locker was “giving away shit rn basically, over 70% off shoes and apparel.” That outcome is hardly surprising. Dick’s Sporting Goods Chairman and point person on the Foot Locker integration, Ed Stack, has been explicit on recent earnings calls that the company plans to “clean out the garage,” liquidating aged Foot Locker inventory and offloading what remains to jobbers. In a filing with the SEC, Dick’s said it expects to take $500-$750 million in pre-tax charges tied to “unproductive assets,” a bucket that squarely includes this excess merchandise.

I visited Foot Locker’s 34th Street flagship in Manhattan last week and, while I didn’t see outright fire-sale pricing on the floor, Birkenstock, Hoka, and On were the only brands I didn’t see marked down (images below). Notably, Hoka and On largely avoid distribution into the Famous Footwear and DSWs of the world, a choice that continues to protect both pricing power and brand equity.

A Crowded Brand Set, a Contracting Door Base

I don’t think I need to hold anyone’s hand to say that the sneaker lifestyle space is in a tough spot right now. There are easily a dozen world-class brands, most of them publicly traded, all fighting for share at a moment when retail consolidation is driving negative door growth. It’s no wonder Jordan has moved into chains like Famous Footwear and Academy Sports, channels that would have been considered verboten for a premium franchise not that long ago. And it’s no wonder Ugg is pushing lower-priced versions of its Classics through DSW and Nordstrom Rack — because where else, exactly, is there left to grow?

The Last Bastion of Growth

As is often the case when the economy tightens and preppy sensibilities reassert themselves, performance starts to show more life. On its recent earnings call, Nike pointed to strength in running, which tracks. The more consequential question is whether that momentum can offset softness in lifestyle and training. For now, the most resilient channel is performance running, and the rise of performance brands like Bandit and Satisfy underscores just how fertile that ground remains. Their growth suggests consumers are still willing to invest in performance-first product, even as broader discretionary spending tightens.

Nike’s quarter isn’t best understood as a stumble tied to any single region or cycle. It’s the result of poor decision making at precisely the wrong moment. Nike still defines the category’s center of gravity, but leadership missteps during the Consumer Direct era left the brand out of sync just as the market rotated back toward performance, a category Nike helped build the modern playbook for. That gap created room for others to scale quickly by chasing demand Nike once set, while Nike worked through internal repair. Nike’s relevance isn’t in question. What is in question is how quickly it can close the strategic and leadership gaps that opened at exactly the wrong time, in a market now defined by performance, discipline, and execution.

Promotions at Foot Locker’s Flagship Store on 34th, photographed by Lois Sakany on December 16

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