- Nike’s shares dropped 7% as it forecasted a double-digit revenue decline due to tough market conditions, including unfavorable shipment timing and potential tariffs. Despite the downturn, new CEO Elliot Hill remains confident in his ‘Win Now’ strategy, focusing on brand revitalization, digital expansion, and grassroots athlete engagement to drive long-term growth.
Nike’s shares sank 7% today after saying it expects revenues to drop by double digit percentages given tough trading conditions.
On an earnings call yesterday, the sportswear giant’s CFO Matthew Friend outlined that revenues next quarter will be down in the mid-teens courtesy, in part, to “unfavorable shipment timing in North America as well as two points of negative impact from foreign exchange headwinds.”
But like many other businesses, Nike is also eyeing trade policy outside the White House, which could impact its bottom line moving forward.
Friend explained: “We are also navigating through several external factors that create uncertainty in the current operating environment, including geopolitical dynamics, new tariffs, volatile foreign exchange rates, and tax regulations, as well as the impact of this uncertainty and other macro factors on consumer confidence.”
Tariffs on key trading partners like China and Mexico have been baked into estimates, he added, but made no mention of a feared universal tariff potentially being announced by the Oval Office on April 2.
“We are focused on what we can control and for Nike at this moment, serving athletes with new product innovation and reigniting brand momentum is what matters most,” Friend continued. “Our collective experience as well as the early signals we are seeing with consumers gives us confidence in the path ahead.”
Friend isn’t alone in the opinion that the health of consumers may yet prove relatively robust, despite inflationary headwinds and market uncertainty.
It’s a take echoed by Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, who pointed out this week that spending for the first few months of 2025 is up 6% compared to the same period last year.
Nike also isn’t an outlier in its concern about tariffs.
Accenture’s Julie Sweet, for example, highlighted in its Q2 2025 earnings call this week that in the economy “there’s been an elevated level of what was already significant uncertainty and there’s a couple of big themes around that, obviously tariffs, and that’s a global discussion. That is not just an Americas discussion.”
Elsewhere Target said on an earnings call earlier this month that profits could take a hit as a result of economic uncertainty and the impact of tariffs, while Best Buy CEO Corie Barry warned the tech retailer counts tariff-hit China and Mexico as some of the biggest sources on its supply chain.
Nike’s results, more generally, have been subdued however. Revenues for the quarter were $11.3 billion, down 9% compared to the year prior, with EPS at 54 cents.
That being said, it still beat Wall Street estimates which were $11.01 billion vs 29 cents estimated respectively.
Nike’s new era
The declining revenues of Nike, which has a market cap of approximately $98 billion, won’t come as a shock to its C-suite.
In fact, under the leadership of Nike veteran and new CEO Elliot Hill, there’s a plan to turn the business around.
This is Hill’s ‘Win Now’ era: A strategy focussed on focusing on rebuilding Nike’s hustle culture; sharpening the brand; expanding its offerings beyond the classics like Air Force Ones and Air Jordans; rebalancing its go-to market process and Nike Digital arm; and, focusing on local athletes with a more grassroots approach.
Against these metrics the business is performing, Hill told investors this week, which “reinforces my confidence that we are on the right path.”
When Hill took the top job in October last year he knew there was work to be done to reshape the company which is now more than 60 years old.
“We need a broader base,” he told Fortune in a January interview. “We need to be looking forward and trying to take consumers somewhere they’ve never been before.”
