Nike Cuts 1,400 Jobs in Second Layoff Wave This Year

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Nike announced its latest wave of redundancies on Thursday (23/4/2026), impacting around 1,400 employees across the organisation, with the majority coming from the technology division.

In a memo from COO Venkatesh Alagirisamy, the company explained that this step is part of the “Win Now” strategy to improve performance.

This involves streamlining the technology team, updating Air production processes, relocating some Converse operations, and integrating raw materials management with the shoe and apparel production teams for greater efficiency.

“Overall, these changes will result in the reduction of around 1,400 positions in global operations, with the majority in technology,” wrote Alagirisamy, as cited by CNBC.

“This reduction is very difficult for the affected employees and their surrounding teams,” he continued.

The redundancies cover employees in North America, Asia, and Europe, and represent less than 2 per cent of Nike’s total global workforce.

“This is not a new direction, but rather the next phase of the ongoing transformation,” added Alagirisamy.

Nike stated that affected employees will begin to be notified from Thursday.

CEO Elliott Hill is working to turn around the company’s performance after several years of declining sales. Although initial progress has been shown, the process is not without challenges.

Previously, Nike announced the cutting of 775 jobs in January, mainly at distribution centres in the United States, as part of accelerating automation.

Those redundancies also followed workforce reductions in the summer of last year that affected less than 1 per cent of corporate staff, in an effort to adjust the business.

In last month’s fiscal third-quarter performance report, Nike warned that sales are expected to continue declining throughout the year, particularly due to a projected drop of around 20 per cent in the Chinese market in the current quarter.