Nike informed the state of Oregon on Friday of its intention to lay off more than 700 workers at its Beaverton headquarters.
The layoffs are a “second phase” of major layoffs announced earlier this year, cutting more than 1,500 jobs worldwide and 2% of the total workforce. The company will cut about 740 jobs at its Beaverton headquarters by June 28, according to the notice.
“Nike’s always at our best when we’re on the offense. The actions that we’re taking put us in the position to right-size our organization to get after our biggest growth opportunities as interest in sport, health and wellness have never been stronger,” the company said in a statement to Front Office Sports. “While these changes will impact approximately 2% of our total workforce, we are grateful for the contributions made by all Nike teammates.” (Nike gave media outlets an identical statement when the layoffs were first announced in February.)
Nike is in the middle of a challenging period. The company released a plan in December to cut costs by roughly $2 billion over the next three years. In March, the company posted its first back-to-back annual losses since the 1980s. It’s been in a PR battle this spring with MLB and Fanatics over the new baseball uniforms, with the league putting some gentle blame on Nike earlier this month. MLB praised Fanatics for following Nike’s directions to a T, and said Nike still had “necessary adjustments” to make. Even CEO John Donahoe recently criticized the company to CNBC, blaming working from home during the pandemic for a lack of “bold, disruptive innovation.”
