Just redo it: inside Nike's plans to put swoosh back into its sales

World's largest sportswear brand reveals innovations and a new slogan to rebound from a 'pretty big kicking'

- Sean Ingle

The entrance to Nike's swish global headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon is paved with rough cobbles, designed to remind employees to watch their step when they go forward.

Last summer, though, not even the world's biggest sports brand could stop itself from taking an almighty tumble.

Over the course of one July day in 2024, Nike's share price plummeted by $28bn - the worst single-day performance in the company's history - after it revealed that second-quarter sales were down 10%.

There were headlines proclaiming that Nike was in crisis. That it had lost its cool, become either too woke, too safe, too conservative or too cumbersome, depending on their political stripe and reading of the situation. To no one's surprise, its chief executive, John Donahoe, stepped down.

True, Nike was still worth around $100bn - more than twice the value of its closest rival, Adidas, and even further clear of Puma, Lululemon and New Balance. And, yes, the cost of living crisis didn't help. But much of the pain was self-inflicted.

Just over a year later I am sitting with Nike's new president and chief executive, Elliott Hill, talking about how he intends to turn the company around with the help of some wild new innovations, including the world's first motor-powered running and walking shoe.

Soon I will also hear about “mind shoes” that help Erling Haaland focus before matches, a self-inflating jacket that Team USA will wear at the Winter Olympics and technology that aims to help England's footballers at the World Cup. Before then, though, I throw Hill - a huge soccer and baseball fan - a curveball. Might Nike's recent kicking actually turn out to be a good thing? Both for consumers, who now have more choice from upstart brands such as On and Hoka, and for his company - as it has forced it to raise its game?