1,400 Reasons to Take a Breath

A message to the people, not the brands.

I didn’t want to write this one.

I know dozens of you reading this right now work at Nike. Hundreds more of you work somewhere in this industry... retail, brands, media, tech adjacent to footwear. And yesterday, Nike announced another round of layoffs. 1,400 roles, mostly in technology, part of their ongoing “Win Now” turnaround. It follows 775 cuts in January. It follows rounds before that.

It’s always a numbers thing. The people behind them are more real.

So I’m not going to do analysis today. I’m not going to talk about what this means for the brand or the turnaround strategy or Elliott Hill’s timeline. That can wait. Today I just want to talk to you.

If you were one of the 1,400... take a breath. Seriously. Just breathe for a second.

I know what this feels like. The numbness that hits first, then the disbelief, then all of it at once. The anger. The disappointment. The grief, honestly, because that’s what it is. You built something there. You cared. And caring about your work makes this kind of news hit different than it would if you were just punching a clock. That caring is what makes you more important than any brand, product, or sale.

It’s going to feel like your world is crashing down. In this moment, it probably is. I’m not going to tell you that it isn’t.

But I’ve been through it. A lot of people you respect have been through it. And I can tell you from the other side of it... after you’re done feeling everything you’re going to feel over the next days and weeks... all of the emotions, every single one of them valid... something shifts.

You start to see a bigger picture.

You realize the thing that made you good at that job wasn’t the badge or the building or the org chart. It was you. Your knowledge, your taste, your relationships, your instincts. Nike didn’t create those. You did. And they leave with you.

This is a genuinely awful moment for a lot of people. But it is also, whether it feels like it yet or not, a wide open door.

And if you’re still at your desk, and people around you are suddenly gone... don’t look away from that. Check in on your people. Let them know you’re thinking about them. The sneaker industry is smaller than it seems, and the way you show up for people in the hard moments is what they remember.

To everyone impacted, I’m sending you love and positive energy. And when you're ready... not today, maybe not this week, but when you're ready... reach out. I'm happy to support your next chapter in any way that I can.

Keep building.

-Nick