It’s a blood bath
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The only surprising thing about this move is how early Venky decided to make it. The stage has been set for offshoring Air manufacturing for a while, but to hit the go button now before any capabilities are really transferred to factory partners or, more critically, the APCC is going to set back new product dev for a year or two.
I’d pay good money to see the next meeting between Venky and McCartney. Phil is going to chew Venky’s a-s out hard for basically ki-ling off the Ride Roadmap right as Phil is being pressured to provide Air innovations for 2028 and beyond.
@df
The strategy is clear. The first layoff sets the stage to shutting down the entire operation and moving it closer to the partner factories. Now that there is a bunch of unused equipment you will start to see some of it removed from the facility and moved to Asia. Expect this process to take 2 years or so and all that will remain will be a small innovation center running samples and prototypes. All production will be farmed out.
Nike has been fu--ing over the factory for years. Choking innovation and its workforce while using it as a tax write off.
$35 billion they spent on share-buy backs instead the last decade instead of investing in making the product cheaper and sustainable.
They hate their workers and their only priority is to ensure the Nike Inc VPs get their richer and richer.
What happened to bringing manufacturing back to the United States? Seriously. We used to talk about it all the time. Big promises. Huge promises. And yet we’re still losing manufacturing jobs. Still losing them. It’s not good, it’s not smart, and frankly it’s not acceptable.
Instead of tariffs, which everybody argues about nonstop, here’s a much stronger idea. Much smarter. Much tougher. If a US corporation hires a non-US worker, they pay a tax. A real tax. Not a tiny one. A meaningful one. You want to go overseas, you want to hire abroad, fine, but you’re going to invest back into America when you do it. Very simple. Very fair.
And where does that money go? Straight into American education. Trade schools, technical training, high-level skills. We build the greatest workforce the world has ever seen. Better than anyone. Nobody even close. We start producing engineers, builders, innovators at a level that absolutely dominates the future. That’s how you win.
Because let’s be honest. We’re not stopping India. Not happening. They’re producing hundreds of millions of incredibly skilled engineers. Smart people. Very smart. And companies are going to hire great talent wherever it exists. That’s reality.
But here’s the difference. We make sure the United States is doing it better. We make sure we are churning out the most capable, most advanced, most competitive workforce anywhere in the world. Bar none. No competition.
So if companies go global, America still wins. Every single time. We build strength at home while everyone else is just trying to keep up.
It’s strong policy. It’s smart policy. It’s America-first policy at a level nobody has ever seen before
Whatever happened to bringing manufacturing back to the US? We're still losing manufacturing jobs. Instead of tariffs, US corporations should pay a tax for every non-US worker they hire. The tax would be used to improve our education or trade school system to enhance future American's competitive advantage. We can't stop India from developing hundreds of millions of software engineers or not hire good talent if they're there, but we need to ensure the US is also churning out skills needed for the future.
What would the strategy be here to do this? I thought AirMi is a competitive advantage and our IP. Machinery alone are assets in $M.
@a1 total count is 172 in St Charles. That’s about 38% of facility.
Hang tight friends. I’ve been there, happened to me back in ‘24. There is life after Nike and jobs are to be foind as long as you are open to change. Salaries and team culture are definitely different outside the Swoosh.
This is just a sign of more things to come. Unfortunately, large corporations seem to think that balancing the books with people‘s livelihood is an acceptable practice. They could’ve offered furlough or reduce salaries or unpaid time off as options before going to this extreme measure.
Worse yet, hearing that hourly employees, who are some of the most vulnerable, being laid off is a tough pill to swallow. Hopefully, the people responsible for all these bad decisions are being held accountable somehow.
Good luck friends.
@ac Id bet most employees dont have decent savings. So did they move all the Air baking overseas
That’s sad. A lot of those jobs aren’t high paying like some in the business or tech which means it’s unlikely they have a decent savings to fall back on.
Wishing you the best.
Currently 250+ laid off in AirMI in St Charles and Beaverton
@a4 what would someone in ops do, typically
@a2 It's all of ops and not just all offshoring. That said, the "majority" (so at least 701 out of 1400) are GT in all geos
Well over 100 and it's still ongoing
would not have thought airmi would be hit, thought it was GT only by moving jobs offshore
Do you know how many were impacted ?