Nike keeps telling us to “Just do it,” but the brand has found it difficult to live up to that famous slogan. Nike’sNKE

new CEO, Elliott Hill, is racing to revive the sportswear giant’s glory after a number of challenging quarters — marked by heavy discounting and shifting consumer preferences. In its final showing of 2024, the company beat Wall Street’s expectations but reported an 8% revenue decline to $12.35B, while earnings per share dropped to 78 cents from $1.03 year-over-year.

• Nike’s digital platforms currently operate on a concerning 50/50 split between full-price and promotional sales, leading to compressed margins and marketplace disruption.
• The sneaker sensation expects holiday quarter sales to decline by low double digits, with gross margins projected to fall by 3-3.5 percentage points.

Game plan: Hill, who started as an intern in the 1980s, faces the daunting task of repositioning the world’s largest sportswear company amid intensifying competition. His strategy involves returning “sport to the center of everything we do” while rebuilding trust with wholesale partners by focusing on specific categories like basketball, football, and soccer while reducing reliance on lifestyle sneakers. This approach has already scored some wins — Nike recently renewed its NFL contract through 2038, maintaining its position as the exclusive uniform provider for the NFL, NBA, and MLB. However, with shares down 27% in 2024, compared to the S&P 500’s 27% gain, Hill’s turnaround playbook needs to deliver better results to restore investor confidence.