5 big changes Nike CEO Elliott Hill is making to turn around the struggling sportswear giant

Elliott Hill has had a busy 2025 at the helm of Nike. Hill launched Nike's plan to drive a sports-focused turnaround. He restructured senior leadership, sought to mend wholesale partnerships, and raised prices. Nike CEO Elliott Hill inherited an uphill battle when he took over at the sports giant in October 2024. Since then, Hill has made changes - both big and small - to the company as part of its turnaround strategy . After retiring from Nike in 2020, the former president of consumer and marketplace returned to guide the company amid declining sales, sluggish growth, and increased pressure from upstart rivals. During the quarter preceding Hill's start, Nike's revenue declined 10% year over year to $11.6 billion, following flat growth in the 2024 fiscal year. Nike shares jumped about 8% on the day Hill's appointment was announced in September. The Nike veteran didn't waste time launching his strategy when he took the helm, reevaluating the existing practices and adjusting them as needed. "We lost our obsession with sport," Hill said on a December 2024 earnings call. "Moving forward, we will lead with sport and put the athlete at the center of every decision." Last week, during the company’s most recent quarter, Hill told investors that the comeback "won't be a straight line." Here's what Hill has been up to in 2025. Hill kick-started his turnaround plan Nike's "win now" strategy - Hill described it on last week's earnings call as Nike's "immediate response to our biggest challenges and opportunities" - focuses on five key areas: culture, product, marketing, marketplace, and in-person presence. The plan leans on a sports-driven reset that has "realigned" about 8,000 employees around its core sports categories, the company said. Those categories include running, basketball, football, and training, as well as sportswear. The idea is to put the athlete "at the center of everything that we do," Hill said in a March earnings call. The running category is leading the effort and reflects the direction Hill is steering the company. Nike said its running business grew by more than 20% last quarter, which ended in November, marking the second consecutive period of comparable growth. Nike's senior leadership team got a revamp Hill shook up Nike's leadership this year. In May, he restructured its consumer, product, and brand leadership to focus on three areas: consumer and sport, marketing, and product creation. As part of that overhaul, Nike's former president of consumer, product, and brand retired, and Hill promoted four other Nike insiders to senior roles reporting to him: president of Nike (Amy Montagne), chief innovation, design, and product officer (Phil McCartney), chief marketing officer (Nicole Graham), and chief growth initiatives officer (Tom Clarke). Hill also hired a new communications chief this year, Michael Gonda. And he made another round of changes in December, eliminating the roles of chief technology officer and chief commercial officer. At the same time, Nike established the role of chief operating officer, which reports to Hill. The new job's function is to...

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