Nike's former CTO agrees with this LKDN post that Nike is divesting the wrong things.
These repeated cuts feel less like a thoughtful long-term strategy and more like a short-term push to satisfy board expectations and quarterly metrics. “Win Now” sounds more like reactive cost-cutting than a real competitive investment plan.
In plain English: Nike should stop overreacting with broad, random headcount reductions and instead focus on making strategic investments that strengthen innovation, technology, and long-term market leadership.
Cutting core capabilities, especially in tech during a digitally driven retail era, risks weakening Nike’s ability to compete, rather than positioning it for sustainable growth.
-- Here is the original post --
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aalokrathod_nikes-win-now-strategy-is-starting-to-look-share-7454251646185996288-0mPs
Nike’s Win Now strategy is starting to look like a Cut Now reality.
Nike just cut 1,400 roles, mostly in tech.
Their official statement? It's part of their "Win Now" strategy to position for future growth. And I cannot stop laughing at the sheer audacity of that phrase.
You're firing your entire technology department during the most technology-dependent era in retail history, and calling it "Win Now"? That sounds like a surrender with better branding.
This brings Nike's 2026 total workforce reduction to approximately 2,175 employees when combined with the 775 roles eliminated in January, representing a staged approach to cost optimization that most FP&A teams recognize as "we didn't get the cuts right the first time."
When you do layoffs in multiple tranches within four months, you're not executing a strategy. You're making it up as you go. The tech department specifically? That's the department that's supposed to help you compete with lululemon's digital-first model and On's DTC dominance. But sure, let's cut those people because nothing says "future growth" like dismantling your competitive infrastructure.
From an FP&A perspective, this is textbook "optimize for this quarter's EBITDA, worry about revenue growth later." Which works great until your board asks why market share is hemorrhaging faster than your cost savings can offset.
And can we talk about "Win Now" as a strategy name? That's what you yell at your fantasy football team when you're down by 30 points. Real strategies have timelines, milestones, and don't require firing the people who actually know how your systems work.
The forecast model practically writes itself. Cut costs in Q2, miss revenue targets in Q4, announce "restructuring 3.0" in Q1 2027, rinse, repeat. Nike's not positioning for future growth. They're liquidating future capability to hit current-year numbers.
But hey, at least the PowerPoint probably looked incredible.