NIKE Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
June 26, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • NIKE reported Q4 revenue down 11% on a currency-neutral basis and FY25 revenue down 9%, with gross margins contracting by 440 bps to 40.3% in Q4 and Q4 EPS of $0.14, and the company expects Q1 FY26 revenue to decline mid-single digits.
  • Early signs from NIKE’s WinNow actions—focused on product, marketing, marketplace, culture, and ground game—include improved brand momentum and a holiday order book increase in North America, EMEA, and APLA.
  • NIKE is reorganizing into a “sport offense” with cross-functional Nike, Jordan, and Converse teams aligned by key sports to accelerate innovation, storytelling, and market differentiation.
  • New U.S. tariffs on Chinese-sourced footwear are expected to add approximately $1 billion in costs, and NIKE plans to mitigate a 75 bp gross margin drag in FY26 by reallocating sourcing, partner agreements, targeted price increases, and operational cost reductions.
  • NIKE’s product momentum shows high-single-digit growth in Running driven by the Vomero 18 franchise already exceeding $100 million, over 50% growth in Women’s Basketball, and sellout launches like Asia Wilson’s A1 and early Air Max 95 rollouts.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
NIKE Q4 2025
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

Skip to Participants
Operator

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to NIKE, Inc. Fiscal twenty twenty five Fourth Quarter Conference Call. For those who want to reference today's press release, you'll find it at investors.nike.com. Leading today's call is Paul Trussell, VP of Corporate Finance and Treasurer. I would now like to turn the call over to Paul Trussell.

Paul Trussell
Paul Trussell
VP of Corporate Finance & Treasurer at Nike

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss NIKE, Inc. Fiscal twenty twenty five fourth quarter results. Joining us on today's call will be NIKE, Inc. President and CEO, Elliot Hill and our CFO, Matt Friend.

Paul Trussell
Paul Trussell
VP of Corporate Finance & Treasurer at Nike

Before we begin, let me remind you that participants on this call will make forward looking statements based on current expectations, and those statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in NIKE's reports filed with the SEC. In addition, participants may discuss non GAAP financial measures and non public financial and statistical information. Please refer to NIKE's earnings press release or NIKE's website investors.nike.com for comparable GAAP measures and quantitative reconciliations. All growth comparisons on the call today are presented on a year over year basis and are currency neutral unless otherwise noted.

Paul Trussell
Paul Trussell
VP of Corporate Finance & Treasurer at Nike

We will start with prepared remarks and then open up for questions. We would like to allow as many of you to ask questions as possible in our allotted time. So we would appreciate you limiting your initial question to one. Thank you for your cooperation on this. I'll now turn the call over to NIKE, Inc. President and CEO, Elliot Hill.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

Thank you, Paul, and hello, everyone. I'll kick it off with a reflection on Faith Kipyegin's attempt to run the mile in under four minutes today called Breaking Four. While she crossed the line at a personal best of four zero six, today's attempt will always represent more than the pursuit of a specific singular time. We're super proud of Faith, our teams and everyone who supported her, and we were all inspired by her effort. The Breaking Forward journey will live on as a symbol of courage and ambition.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

You have to dare to try. And I deeply admire the monumental effort. What it showed is that no other brand offers athletes the depth of expertise that we can. No other brand dreams as big as we can. And more than anything, no other brand inspires 8,000,000,000 potential athletes to believe.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

Faith's historic attempt comes at a unique moment for NIKE and our consumers as the sportswear industry continues to operate under geopolitical volatility and tariff uncertainty. Specifically to our business, the results we're reporting today in Q4 and in FY 2025 are not up to the NIKE standard. But as we said ninety days ago, the work we're doing to reposition the business through our WinNow actions is having an impact. From here, we expect our business results to improve. It's time to turn the page.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

Just look at the pace of change we've embraced and the progress we've made over the last eight months. It all started on October 14, my first day back at NIKE with an all employee meeting and a declaration to our teammates that we are a sport and a growth company and that we will put the athlete at the center of everything that we do and every decision that we make. In December, we aligned our teams against the five WinNow actions, culture, product, marketing, marketplace and our ground game with a sharp focus on five key sports, three key countries and five key cities. We also set out to aggressively rightsize three very important franchises, the Air Force One, Dunk and the AJ1, and to return NIKE Digital to a premium destination. With our teams executing against our actions, I flattened my leadership structure and made changes to 11 of my 15 direct reports.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

We pulled the lever we could pull the fastest, investing heavily in big sport moments and key product launches to win back our brand voice. That energy has ignited NIKE Performance products with consumers, which is helping us to better balance our portfolio. Reclaiming our voice in sports has turned out to be the jumpstart we needed for our team culture too. I see the fight in our teams. We believe and we're competing.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

A sharp sport point of view and a less promotional NIKE marketplace is helping us gain the confidence of wholesale partners. I'm personally meeting with our partners to reaffirm that we're prioritizing and investing in their businesses. We're also strategically adding more points of distribution to be in the path of a wider range of consumers. NIKE Direct is showing early signs of being a more premium destination, especially when tied to a sport moment, a key product launch or a Nike created on the ground activation. To accelerate our WinNow actions, the next step is to realign into dedicated cross functional teams by sport.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

We're organizing into a sport offense to have deeper relationships with the athletes we serve, to gain better insights, to drive sports specific innovation, telling inspiring stories and differentiating ourselves in the marketplace. Instead of a men's, women's and kids construct, Nike, Jordan and Converse teams will now come to work every day Converse These sport obsessed teams will create greater dimension and distinction for our three brands, will make us more competitive and will accelerate our growth. We'll pay it off in an integrated marketplace of our own design. We'll invest in NIKE Direct, digital and physically and thoughtfully segment wholesale partners to serve sport specific consumers across channels and up and down price points.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

Strategically, sharper marketplace segmentation in a sport offense allows us to deliver unique assortments and storytelling opportunities across different channels and partners to better serve our consumers and to help drive profitable, sustainable growth for our partners. We're already moving on a number of these fronts. To better serve wholesale partners, we're in the process of hiring retail marketing, visual merchandising and account management teammates. And in NIKE Direct, we're getting into the rhythm of lining up against sport moments and key product launches. Two wholesale partnership examples this quarter were through with DICK'S through our 20 fourseven training collection and with JD through the Air Max 95.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

The result? Elevated presentations, better consumer connections and increased sell throughs. Earlier this month, our Nike LA door at The Grove was home base for a highly successful global After Dark run series. Hosting thousands of women runners in LA created energy throughout the week. The day before the race, we captured our best sales day at The Grove in three years.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

And at the conclusion of the inspiring French Open finals, NIKE Digital posted the pre, during and post game looks of Carlos Alcaraz and Janik Sinner with a 30% bump in day to day sell through. Consumer right, sport led assortments, in the moment storytelling and elevated presentations in a segmented and differentiated marketplace, these are some of the many ways we will compete brand by brand, sport by sport, geo by geo. The truth is we're in a fight in every sport we're in and each sport has different competitors. As we began to align our iconic brands by sport, we'll have a closer line of sight, so we can develop targeted plans to match up against each one of them. We're approaching every opportunity with an athlete mindset, passion, commitment and determination.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

Our teams are also making strong progress in expanding our distribution with strategic partners. I'll focus briefly on North America, who in this quarter led a Gen Z targeted experience with Urban Outfitters becoming the number one brand in select doors on the opening weekend. We entered over 200 women's led doors including boutiques like Aritzia. We hosted 30 running specialty accounts from around the world at the NIKE campus for four day immersion and our upcoming running innovations. We leveraged two of our iconic brands, NIKE and Jordan, to create meaningful product activation with key city specialty partners along the I-ninety 5 Corridor.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

And finally, we announced a new partnership with Amazon. This fall, they'll carry a select assortment of footwear, apparel and accessories and Nike will have a featured brand store on the platform focused on running, training, basketball and sportswear. The Nike integrated marketplace is beginning to take shape. Along with the NIKE Direct, these partners will play an important role in serving a wider range of consumers. This is NIKE at its best, leveraging our portfolio of brands and sport led product offerings across multiple channels and up and down price points.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

Q4 was also filled with a number of sport moments for Nike, Jordan and Converse. All three brands showed up with louder brand statements to leverage the emotion of epic storylines. At the golf majors with Rory and Scottie, with Asia to kick off a new WNBA season, at the Champions League final with PSG and Inter Milan, with Shay for both his MVP and the Thunders NBA Championship and at Roland Garros with Alcaraz and Center. All of that is in ninety days. It's a reminder of the strength of NIKE's athlete relationship and our brand's far reaching influence across all sports.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

Shifting to our product portfolio. We made progress this quarter in rebalancing sportswear and performance. We're getting back to executing our formula more consistently to create innovative and coveted product, accelerate demand through a more emotional storytelling and then scale at an unmatched level to meet the growing demand in the marketplace. Take Nike Running as an example, which grew high single digits overall for the quarter. The energy was led by Bovero eighteen, which in just over ninety days has already become a $100,000,000 plus franchise with strong sell through.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

In basketball, our women's business expanded more than 50% this fiscal year proving that product demand is catching up to the spike in energy surrounding the women's game. The biggest basketball headline this quarter was the retail release of Asia Wilson's signature collection and her first shoe, the A1. It showed how effective we are when we line everything and thing up for a thoughtful journey closely planned with the athlete. The first launch sold out in three minutes on NIKE Digital in North America and will double the amount of Asia pairs in coming seasons. In sportswear, the look of running footwear saw continued strength through products like P6000, Vomero five and Shox and we're reintroducing the Air Max 95 to a new generation of consumers through a more thoughtful seating journey of high energy driving models through different channels account by account and through early adopters like athletes and creative partners in our key cities.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

While we have a ways to go to return to a truly diversified sportswear lineup at scale, I'm pleased with the progress the team is making. I'll close by saying a few words on fiscal year twenty twenty six. As we put the sport offense in place, we're building a full pipeline of innovative products and driving momentum in the marketplace. I see a clear path to recovery ahead. A strong signal of our progress is the momentum we're seeing in NIKE Performance product, which we expect to continue throughout fiscal year twenty twenty six.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

In running, our Nine Box footwear lineup will continue to deliver new innovation. We'll approach basketball through multiple dimensions and we'll build on apparel opportunities in training, golf and tennis that span the spectrum of sport and style. In global football, the stage is set for an intense World Cup battle. We're prepared with an upgrade of all three football boot silos in a twelve month window. Our kits look phenomenal and will debut an exciting apparel innovation that will scale across multiple sports.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

The early feedback to the product pipeline from our wholesale partners at our engagements meetings has been positive. For example, our order book is improving sequentially with our holiday orders up. We're finding a better balance with our portfolio of sport performance and new dimensions of sportswear expected to offset the declines in our Classic franchise with wholesale partners. As I step back and look at the overall progress against our WinNow actions by geography, momentum and confidence are building in North America and EMEA, APLA's progress varies by individual country and China will take longer due to the unique characteristics of the marketplace. We've been operating in China for over four decades and our teams know how what is required to return to growth.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

We're executing our plans and trending in the right direction, but a full recovery will take time. I believe we have everything we need to win and we are ready for the new fiscal year. We're laser focused on what we can control, inspiring and innovating for the 8,000,000,000 consumers we have the privilege to serve. We know what it will take to set off the next wave of growth for NIKE. From here, it's on us to get back to executing at the level we expect.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

And like Faith Kipjeagan, our entire team is ready to run towards something bigger and is committed to writing the next great chapter for our beloved company. From here, I'll pass it to Matt.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

Thanks, Elliot, and hello to everyone on the call. In fiscal twenty twenty five, we reclaimed our identity through sport and implemented the WinNow actions to reposition our brands and business for future growth. While in line with our expectations, we are not pleased with our financial performance.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

However, as I said last quarter, the fourth quarter reflected the largest financial impact from our WinNow actions. We expect the headwinds to revenue and gross margin to begin to moderate from here. Today, I will review our financial results, highlighting progress made against our WinNow actions. Then I will explain our approach to the newly issued tariffs. Last, I will provide guidance for the first quarter of fiscal twenty twenty six, as well as additional insight for how we expect WinNow to shape our financial performance over the next fiscal year.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

I'll begin with our financial results. For the fourth quarter revenues were down 12% on a reported basis and down 11% on a currency neutral basis. Nike Direct was down 14% with Nike Digital declining 26% and Nike Stores increasing 2%. Wholesale was down 9%. Gross margins declined four forty basis points to 40.3% on a reported basis due to higher wholesale discounts, higher discounts in our Nike factory stores, supply chain cost deleverage and channel mix headwinds.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

SG and A was up 1% on a reported basis. This was driven by increased investment in demand creation, up 15%, partially offset by a 3% decline in operating overhead. Our effective tax rate was 33.6% compared to 13.1% for the same period last year, due primarily to decreased benefits from stock based compensation and one time items. Earnings per share was $0.14 For the full year, revenue was down 10% on a reported basis and 9% on a currency neutral basis. Diluted earnings per share was $2.16 Inventory was flat versus the prior year and down 1% versus the prior quarter.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

Inventory remains elevated, but we are making progress. We closed the year in line with our plans and remain on track to exit the first half of fiscal twenty twenty six in a healthy and clean position. Now let me go deeper into our performance over the last ninety days. As I shared last quarter, our geographies are at different stages of progress against our WinNow actions. And as a result, business recovery is trending on different timelines.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

Today, I will focus my geography remarks on the specific context and insights of our WinNow progress. In North America, Q4 revenue declined 11%. Nike Direct declined 14% with Nike Digital down 25% and Nike Stores up 3%. Wholesale declined 8%. EBIT declined 29% on a reported basis.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

North America made meaningful progress cleaning up the marketplace and repositioning NIKE Digital as a full price model. Momentum is building in wholesale with newness in the product portfolio. Sportswear declined in the quarter, driven by a near 40% reduction in our classic footwear franchises. Performance also declined. However, we saw strong sell through for new products offered in running and training.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

North America inventory actions continued with higher sales related returns and higher discounts to liquidate aged inventory. Inventory dollars and units increased due partially to investment to support new distribution, unfavorable shipment timing and new tariffs. On digital, we saw a meaningful improvement in markdown rates as well as a higher share of demand at full price in the quarter. In EMEA, Q4 revenue declined 10%. Nike Direct declined 19% with Nike Digital down 36% and NIKE Stores up 5%.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

Wholesale declined 4%. EBIT declined 41 on a reported basis. EMEA is furthest along in cleaning up the marketplace and repositioning NIKE Digital within an integrated marketplace. The team has demonstrated progress by delivering growth in key dimensions key performance dimensions of our portfolio and diversifying sportswear with new product journeys. In Q4, running and training delivered growth, offset by declines in our sportswear business.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

Within sportswear, we have taken meaningful steps forward to diversify our portfolio. In fact, sportswear grew overall in wholesale in Q4 and women's sportswear footwear returned to growth in the quarter. As it relates to inventory in EMEA, we ended the quarter slightly ahead of our target with inventory dollars flat and units down mid single digits versus the prior year. NIKE Digital also delivered improvements in markdown rates as well as a double digit increase in the share of demand at full price. In Greater China, Q4 revenue declined 20% largely in line with our plan.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

NIKE Direct declined 15% with NIKE Digital down 31% and NIKE Stores down 6%. Wholesale declined 24%. EBIT declined 45% on a reported basis. Greater China executed a deeper reset of inventory relative to our other geographies with higher sales related reserves, higher discounts and supply reductions. Traffic remains challenged and our priority is to refresh local monobrand store concepts and elevate brand presentation through sport.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

On product, we saw bright spots this quarter when we launched sport led innovation like Vimero 18 or utilized our geography express lane to tell hyper local stories. Consumers continue to have strong reaction to brand activations in the marketplace. Running returned to growth in the quarter, offset by declines in sportswear and Jordan. Inventory was down 11% versus the prior year, driven by aggressive actions to clean and reset the marketplace. Digital remains highly promotional across the marketplace, and we have taken initial steps to reposition our own platform with plans to extend our efforts to the broader ecosystem in fiscal twenty twenty six.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

Our priority in Greater China is to refresh the monobrand marketplace, creating greater brand distinction through sport led consumer concepts and full price growth. We have launched a pilot across select doors. However, our actions to energize and reset this marketplace will take time. In APLA, Q4 revenue declined 3%. Nike Direct declined 1% with Nike Digital down six percent and Nike Stores up 4%.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

Wholesale declined 5%. EBIT declined 33% on a reported basis. APLA delivered mixed results across countries with further work required to clean up inventory. The team has also taken initial steps to reposition NIKE Digital. In the fourth quarter, our performance business returned to growth driven by running and training.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

This momentum was more than offset by declines in sportswear and Jordan. Our teams took aggressive actions to clean up the marketplace and further tighten the buys on NIKE Digital. However, inventory remains elevated. Okay. Let me spend a few minutes talking through our approach to the newly issued tariffs.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

Over the past fifty years, NIKE has built a globally expansive supply chain that is responsive and resilient. We have strong relationships with our factory partners and our leadership team is experienced in managing through disruption. Nike has consistently been a top payer of U. S. Duties with an average duty rate on footwear imported into The United States in the mid teens range.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

Therefore, these tariffs represent a new and meaningful cost headwind, and we are taking actions that balance the consumer, our partners, our WinNow actions as well as the long term positioning of our brands in the marketplace. First, we will optimize our sourcing mix and allocate production differently across countries to mitigate the new cost headwind into The United States. Despite the current elevated tariffs for Chinese products imported into The United States, manufacturing capacity and capability in China remains important to our global source base. Currently, China represents roughly 16% of the footwear we import into The United States and we expect this to reduce to the high single digit range by the end of fiscal twenty twenty six with supply from China reallocated to other countries around the world. Second, we are partnering with our suppliers and our retail partners to mitigate this structural cost increase in order to minimize the overall impact to the consumer.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

These partner arrangements will come into effect at different times throughout fiscal twenty twenty six. Third, as part of our regular approach to seasonal planning, we have implemented a surgical price increase in The United States with phased implementation beginning in fall twenty twenty five. And last, we will evaluate corporate cost reduction as appropriate. However, our highest priority right now continues to be reigniting brand momentum through sport and stabilizing our business. With the new tariff rates in place today, we estimate a gross incremental cost increase to NIKE of approximately $1,000,000,000 We intend to fully mitigate the impact of these headwinds over time as we implement and annualize the actions I've outlined.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

For fiscal twenty twenty six, we expect the financial impact net of the actions described earlier to be approximately 75 basis points to gross margin with a greater impact in the first half. We will continue to monitor developments closely and I am confident in our ability to lean on our strengths, our experience and our scale to navigate through this disruption. Looking forward, we intend to continue to provide specific quarterly guidance during this period of transition. Today, I will also share some additional insights for how we expect our WinNow actions to shape elements of our financial performance throughout fiscal twenty twenty six. Momentum is building in our new product franchises.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

And with the holiday order book in hand, we are beginning to see more clearly around the corner of our product portfolio transition. In fiscal twenty twenty five, we made significant progress managing down our classic footwear franchises with year over year declines of more than 20%. In Q4, these declines accelerated to more than 30%, representing almost a $1,000,000,000 headwind to revenue. We also finished Q4 down approximately 10 points from the peak as a percent of our total footwear mix. We expect these headwinds to continue through the first half of fiscal twenty twenty six, with signals that the Air Force One is stabilizing, while we plan for larger reductions for the Dunk.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

We remain on track for a healthy and clean market by the end of the first half of fiscal twenty twenty six. Over the next two quarters, NIKE will continue liquidating excess inventory through our value stores and select value partners. In the second half, we then expect to see a modest headwind to revenue as we lap aggressive clearance activity in the prior year. We continue to expect digital traffic to be down double digits in fiscal twenty twenty six as we reposition NIKE Digital as a full price model and reduce the mix of our classic footwear franchises. At the same time, we see encouraging signals of progress in the marketplace with our wholesale partners.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

As Elliot said, our holiday order book is up versus the prior year with growth in North America, EMEA and APLA partially offset by Greater China. We expect SG and A to grow low single digits in fiscal twenty twenty six. We are investing to reignite growth in the business, particularly demand creation and sports and Commercial Offense. At the same time, we recognize that SG and A has deleveraged relative to historical levels. We are focused on returning to sustainable organic sales growth with improving gross margins and disciplined expense management over time.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

We have moderated our share repurchases in the near term due to a more dynamic and uncertain environment as well as the impact of the WinNow actions on our financial results. We have a strong balance sheet and it remains a competitive advantage for our business. Overall, we are pleased with the progress our teams are making against our WinNow actions. As I said last quarter, these are the building blocks for NIKE to return to sustainable profitable growth. Last, I'll finish with our first quarter guidance.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

We will continue navigating through several factors that create uncertainty in this operating environment, including for the consumer. And so our outlook reflects our best assessment of these factors based on the data we have available today. We expect Q1 revenues to be down mid single digits. We expect Q1 gross margins to be down approximately three fifty basis to four twenty five basis points. This includes approximately 100 basis points negative impact due to the new tariffs based on the rates that are in place today.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

We expect Q1 SG and A dollars to be up low single digits. We expect other income and expense, including net interest income, to be 0 to $10,000,000 in the first quarter. And we expect the tax rate for the full year to be 19% to 20%, due primarily to anticipated changes in earnings mix. With that, I'll pass it back to Elliot.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

Before taking questions, I want to share some final thoughts on another historic sports moment this past quarter, Rory McIlroy's Masters win.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

I was lucky enough to be at Augusta earlier that week and I couldn't help but relate Rory's experience to NIKE's recent journey. To me, his final round performance was a master class on the power of the athlete mindset. And I've been asking my NIKE teammates to hold on to some of the lessons he taught us. For those of you that don't know, Rory has been chasing a Masters victory for fourteen years. It would complete his career grand slam, the holy grail of golf, something only five others have ever accomplished.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

He was also battling a decade long drought of winning a major. He's had his share of close calls and heartbreaks and more than enough doubters. Sunday's final round at Augusta was no different. What made it so fun to watch was how aggressive Rory was playing. He was taking the shots that others wouldn't, putting the pressure on the rest of the field.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

The one time he did play it safe, he laid it up on the thirteenth and rolled it into Ray's Creek for a double bogey. Lesson learned. He played better when he was attacking. Despite another up and down round, the wind was still in his grasp. All he needed to do was sink a five foot putt on the eighteenth.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

He stepped up and missed wide left. He was heading to a playoff. His caddy, Harry Diamond, his lifelong friend and biggest supporter knew just what to say. You would have given your right arm to be in the playoff at the start of the week. And that was it.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

The mindset shift Rory needed. He didn't have to play a playoff. He got to play a playoff. It was his for the taking. An amazing reminder for NIKE that no matter the situation we face, we're the leader in an exciting industry.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

It's a privilege to get to compete every day. And with all of our advantages we have, we're in control of our own destiny here. Rory went back to the eighteenth, stuck his second shot four feet for the pin and this time he sank the putt dead center. Rory finally had his green jacket and his career grand slam. And we were all treated to one of the most memorable Sundays in golf for over a decade.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

His patience was tested, but he stayed the course. Whether it was Rory, Alcaraz, Shay or Faith these past ninety days, we worked alongside some of the most mentally tough human beings on the planet. And lately, I've been talking a lot about the athlete mindset, that special ability to keep believing, to keep competing. I'm asking my teammates at Nike to do just that, to show up with passion, commitment and determination and to compete every day. I think we're on our way.

Paul Trussell
Paul Trussell
VP of Corporate Finance & Treasurer at Nike

We're ready for questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question will come from the line of Matthew Boss with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Matthew Boss
Matthew Boss
Equity Research Analyst at JP Morgan

Great, thanks. So Elliot, could you maybe elaborate on the accelerated actions under your sport offense realignment and maybe speak to the phasing of innovation into the back half of the year in FY 2026? And then Matt, if you could just speak to the cadence of revenues this year or puts and takes to consider in terms of items impacting the first quarter revenues relative to the back half of the year?

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

I'll take the first part of this around product. What I will say, we will lead with a sharp focus on sport. That's why we're moving to the sport offense. But before I dive deeply on product, I just want to make certain that we hit on the unmatched portfolio that we have with depth and dimension, three brands, Nike, Jordan and Converse. And what we're doing, Matthew, is we're organizing into sport obsessed teams through our sport offense, which will drive a relentless flow of innovative product across all three of the brands: performance, sportswear, men's, women's, kids, footwear, apparel, accessories and up and down price points.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

We will differentiate each brand by sport and create a which we believe will create sharper distinction and dimension. And we do know, Matthew, when we focus on sport, we win. The best example that we have right now from a product perspective is our running, which is up high single digits. We have innovated and coveted products across our nine box matrix that we've been talking a lot about, three silos, Pegasus, Fomero structure times three price points. We also have Trail and Race.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

In terms of performance, PEG Premium, Vomero 18, our Swift and Stride apparel, they're all selling well at retail and we're getting positive feedback from our partners. I mentioned it in my script that the Vimero has already become a $100,000,000 business with growth in all geos. And so in addition to the what I just touched on, have Romero Plus and Romero Premium come in, both those shoes are beautiful shoes and incredibly innovative and distinctive. So best example is running, continuing on in our focused sports, Training would be next in line with momentum and sell through in Metcon and 20 fourseven apparel collection. In basketball, we've got signature athletes, Shay for Converse.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

I'm sure you guys saw Shay at the NBA finals with his gold shoe around his neck, adding dimension to the men's or to Nike basketball with Sabrina in Asia, Tatum and Luca in Jordan. Best example in terms of performance this quarter was Asia 1, and I hit that in the prepared remarks, lined up beautiful products, storytelling and it's sold through at retail. Global football. Two weeks ago, we had a summit with over 200 of our partners from around the world to share with them our World Cup offering and we have exciting innovation coming to the game across our three football silos, Mercurial, Tiempo and Phantom. And we have some really interesting innovation coming in our national team kits that we'll be able to leverage across other sports as we move forward.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

So feeling really good with our sport performance and with each season it continues to get stronger. As it relates to sportswear, we continue as you heard throughout the prepared remarks to right size the Air Force One, the AJ1 and the Dunk. But we do know that we've got to have a portfolio that extends beyond those large franchises in sportswear. We've got in air and we will continue to leverage air because it's a proprietary technology that we have. Air Max Muse for women and Air Max 95 are really good examples this quarter.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

And then we see those continuing throughout FY 2026. Look of running, Vomero five P6000 shocks doing well and we will take the consumer somewhere new in 2026 with the Eva Rover and family. So in the end, it's going to take time to flow into the market, but we're confident in the product pipeline. It's getting stronger with each season.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

And Matt, I would just add that, as Elliot said, we're pleased with the progress we're making on the WinNow actions in the fourth quarter reflected the largest financial impact of our WinNow actions.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

And so our guidance for Q1 in revenue down mid single digits. It's really reflective of a continuation of some of the trends that we see in Q4 such as the classics, our classic footwear franchises. We expect to continue to see headwinds from the franchise management actions that we're taking there. We expect to continue to be liquidating excess inventory through our factory stores and through some value partners on the wholesale side and we expect digital traffic to be down, as we spend less money on performance media and also manage our classic franchises. That's being offset in the first quarter by what I highlighted last quarter, which was our fall order book.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

We said last quarter that our fall order book almost offset the declines that we were managing in our classic footwear franchises. And now with our holiday order book being up, with North America, EMEA and APLA, only partially being offset by, by Greater China and newness across performance in sportswear that Elliot just referenced offsetting our classic franchises, we're seeing improvement in the revenue trend. As we look to the back half, I highlighted that we expect that the franchise management headwinds will heavily be focused on the first half, but we do expect our actions on the dunk to continue throughout the full year. We expect digital to continue to be a headwind for the full year as we reposition the channel. And I highlighted that we expect a modest headwind to revenue as we lap aggressive clearance activity, in the second half of the prior year.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

But we do expect to see continued momentum building with our wholesale partners. And our wholesale partners, momentum with our wholesale partners is indicative of us cleaning the channel and confidence in our product portfolio. And it's two important elements of the building blocks of us returning to growth.

Operator

Our next question will come from the line of Brian Nagel with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Brian Nagel
MD & Senior Analyst - Consumer Growth & eCommerce at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. So I'm gonna I'm just gonna put two questions together, if I could. They're they're, I guess, relatively short. Mean, first off, with respect to the the continued, so to say, cleanup of the marketplace that you're telegraphing now through the first half of of fiscal twenty six, the question I have is that consistent with your prior plans? Or have you found something new as you've continued to work on the business? Then the second question I have, with regard to tariffs, the way that you described it is to be an impact here in Q1.

Brian Nagel
MD & Senior Analyst - Consumer Growth & eCommerce at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

But then over time, you'll be able to mitigate that. I think it was $1,000,000,000 you said. Is that as simply saying that it takes time for these mitigation efforts to take hold? Is that why we were expecting this, the Q1 impact? Thanks.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

Yeah, Brian. So as it relates to inventory, we remain on track. No change relative to what we communicated ninety days ago. We remain on track for a healthy and clean marketplace by the end of the first half of twenty six. And, and, you know, as I highlighted, North America and EMEA have made more progress.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

We've made significant progress managing down our classic footwear franchises as I highlighted. And so, all I'm trying to say is that we are, we will continue to be liquidating that extra inventory, but it's consistent with the plan that we had before. The quality of the inventory in the marketplace has improved relative to where we were ninety days ago. And just to reiterate something I said in that, the fact that our holiday order book is up, I think, in wholesale also shows that, that the channel is getting clean and our partners are investing behind the newness that we're bringing into the market. As far as your second question goes on tariffs, yeah, I think you summarized it well.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

Larger impact in the first quarter primarily because as I laid out the four, different actions that we're going to take to offset the billion dollar headwind, We're we're implementing those at different points in time throughout the fiscal year based on taking into, into consideration the consumer, the back to back to school holiday season, the conversations we're having with both our our suppliers and our retail partners. And so, we're we're we're confident in our ability to, fully mitigate these over time as these actions that we're talking about are fully implemented and annualized. But just within the confines of this fiscal year, it'll be a 75 basis point impact on our gross margin.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Lorraine Hutchinson with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Lorraine Hutchinson
Lorraine Hutchinson
Managing Director at Bank of America

Thank you. Good afternoon. I wanted to focus on gross margin for a minute. Are you expecting the pressures to abate sequentially as the year progresses? And can you talk about the back half if there's an opportunity to return the gross margins to growth?

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

Yes Lorraine, taking all of the comments that we've made into consideration, we do expect our margins to remain under pressure in the first half of twenty twenty six as we finish executing our win now actions. We expect that our first half to be impacted from the strategic actions we've outlined, but also the timing of the tariff implementation relative to the actions that we're implementing. But we do expect that to moderate in the second half of the fiscal year. When I think about our 26 margins, I sort of step back and think of three dynamics that we have. One, we've got short term product and channel mix headwinds that we're gonna navigate through the year as we manage our product portfolio and shift our marketplace portfolio towards our wholesale partners.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

We've got the transitory impact of the WinNow actions, which are largely impacting the first half of fiscal twenty six. And then we've got the newly implemented tariffs. And I said that's a 75 basis point impact on the year. It's a 100 basis point impact in the first quarter. And we expect to see those headwinds begin to moderate from there.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Jonathan Komp with Baird. Please go ahead.

Jonathan Komp
Senior Research Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co

Yes. Hi, good afternoon. Thank you. I want to follow-up. There's obviously too many dynamics to think about guiding past Q1.

Jonathan Komp
Senior Research Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co

But just given that wholesale is the largest driver of your business today and you are seeing the inflection in order growth. Are there any scenarios where you could get back to total growth at any point in this year? Just trying to get a sense of how you're looking out on the horizon here.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

I'll take that Jonathan. Let me start with what I would start with is I've been here now eight months and I'm even more convinced that the path back to sustainable profitable growth is through our win now actions and now implementing our sport offense. We're seeing signals that the actions are working. Our teams are energized, inspired and competing. The actions are resonating with our partners.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

Matt already touched on the order book and the reaction we're getting from our partners. And it's with our consumers. We're having good sell through as well. We've walked through some signals. Inventory actions are back on track.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

We're elevating NIKE Digital, the user experience, less promotional, etcetera. We're having good brand impact during Sport Moments and product launches. The product pipeline, which I already hit on, we're feeling good about that. And then it gets better with each season. And we're having improvement in our order book.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

So overall, what I would tell you is that each geo is in a bit different stage of executing those actions. North America and EMEA began executing them the earliest and they are demonstrating the clearest progress and Matt hit on some of those financials. We're making good progress in APLA. It does, Jonathan, vary a little bit by country. And then in Greater China, we're still cleaning up the marketplace with the nuance of it being a mono brand marketplace, but we continue to work closely with the team to drive progress there.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

So we're seeing momentum. Matt's already hit it in our holiday. Order book is up. And right now, just because of everything that's going on, we're going to take it ninety days at a time because we believe full recovery will take time.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Adrienne Yih with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Adrienne Yih
Adrienne Yih
MD & Consumer Discretionary Analyst at Barclays

Great. Thank you very much. It's nice to see the progress at wholesale. Elliot, I guess I'm going to start on that topic. Can you talk about the marketplace at a high level, kind of where DKS, Foot Locker, JD kind of sit in that specialty retail and then the segmentation with the newly added Amazon expansion of distribution? And then that along the same lines, when did you start shipping, or recognizing wholesale revenue? I know you're gonna be onboard there in late July. So just wondering how that revenue is that part of the revenue wholesale order book being kind of having more visibility as we go into the back half of the addition of Amazon? Thank you very much.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

Okay. Adrian, our biggest competitive advantage is our ability to elevate and grow an entire marketplace. And again, we are challenging our teams to make certain that we're serving consumers wherever and however they choose to shop for our brands. I will say this, we do have an unbeatable footprint, 40,000 points of distribution, nearly 190 countries, digital, physical, wholesale and direct.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

What we are doing, we are making certain we are moving across multiple channels, our own Nike direct channels, specialty, sporting goods, athletic specialty, department store, family footwear. As you know, each one of those channels and the partners that sit in each of those channels, they all serve different consumers. And so we with this new flow of innovative product, we're segmenting and we're differentiating the marketplace. When we do that across wholesale partners to serve different consumers, that's how we drive growth and profitability. And again, it does start with our own Nike Direct and elevating that, making it less promotional.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

But we are working closely with our partners across the entire marketplace, our three year growth plans, translating that into annual plans and quarterly plans. And we continue to invest in elevating the presentation of our assortment. So I'm feeling good about where the how the teams now are embracing, looking across the entire marketplace to serve different consumers at different points of distribution. In terms of Amazon, they serve a very focused consumer and we're using them as part of and partnering with them as part of to grow the overall integrated marketplace. And we're excited about the partnership.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

You heard it in my script. We're working on the right assortments that will go in there. We'll have a featured brand store on the platform. We'll be offering footwear, apparel and accessories through running, training, basketball and sportswear.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

And I would just add Adrian that as Elliot said, as we're serving consumers across the for the examples that he gave in terms of of how we've expanded distribution.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

We typically start small. So, you know, we will go live on Amazon in Q1, but it's it's it's not a material needle mover. What I would say is that wholesale overall and the commentary around our order book, think is an important leading indicator of the progress our teams are making to transition our product portfolio and also, get get our get our business back to growth. There's obviously going to be some non comp items like I've highlighted the liquidation in the first half, the work we're doing in order to continue to work through our classic footwear franchises. But wholesale and the progress that we're making in wholesale I think is a strong indicator of the progress we're making in our winnow actions.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Jay Sole with UBS. Please go ahead.

Jay Sole
Jay Sole
Managing Director at UBS Group

Great. Thank you so much. Matt, you just talked about a modest headwind to the second half of twenty twenty six revenues as your lab promotions. Can you just talk about maybe what modest means and talk about the trade off between boosting gross margin as you get back to full price selling lap those promotions versus what it means for unit volumes as you try to run a more full price business? Thank you.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

Sure, Jay. What I what I was specifically referring to there is, you know, we started our win now actions as Elliot came back eight months ago. And we highlighted them on our q two call, and it set us on an accelerated path to to change the trajectory that the company is on. And one of the things that that required us to do was to move quickly to to shift our product portfolio and address some of the aged inventory that was sitting in the marketplace. And so we started to move more aggressively with that through, sales related returns, through, more discounts to our retail partners so that they could markdown, that inventory and move it through.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

And, as well as, selling off price product to our whole to to our value partners. When we get into the second half of fiscal year twenty six, we expect to be in a clean marketplace and healthy marketplace. And so, that business in the second half will be more full price. It will be more profitable, but there will be a revenue headwind from the compare to the higher level of off price liquidation in the prior year.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Brook Roach with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Brooke Roach
Brooke Roach
Vice President - Equity Research at Goldman Sachs

Afternoon and thank you for taking my question. Elliot, I'm curious on your thoughts on the China marketplace and the opportunity to drive full recovery there over time. Understand that there's some unique characteristics of the marketplace that are making it a little bit more difficult to clean it up as quickly as the other geos. Can you talk about the timeline and the cadence of what we should see over the course of the next fiscal year as you look to return that to growth? And how are you thinking about the competitive and operating environment for the brand there today? Thank you.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

Thanks, Brooke. Let me start with making certain that you hear this, that we do believe in the long term opportunity in China. There are some structural tailwinds, which will continue to unlock further opportunity. And I think our biggest opportunity is from a brand perspective to inspire and invite the 1,300,000,000 consumers into the world of sport, the lifestyle of sport and to fitness. That said, we're not happy with where we are.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

And Matt went through the results. They are in line with what we planned. I want to make sure you guys hear that as well. We're confident in the WinNow actions. But as you've already pointed out, Brooke, China is on a bit of a different timeline and part of it is because of the structural differences in the marketplace.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

It's mono brand. The good news is we've been operating in China for more than forty years. We have deep relationships there. Matt and I both been involved in turnarounds in China and we're working closely with the team there. The team's focus on taking the right actions to clean up the marketplace, similar to what you've already seen in North America and EMEA and now it's taking place in APLA, cleaning up the big three, elevating digital.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

The key here is we're investing and testing some new retail concepts. At the same time, we are resetting some of our consumer led concepts in existing doors, but we have work to do. The key to winning and I am confident in team, the key to winning is that we need to connect locally. We've got to elevate the consumer led product concepts. Performance running, we touched on, is working there, but we also have some China specific product through outdoor basketball, the ST flare and that we're leveraging our Geo Express Lane to create China specific product.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

And you will see more of that from us as we move forward. And then it is getting the right consumer led retail concepts in place. We've got a plan around renovating and upgrading throughout 2026, launching new concepts and getting the right assortments, consumer right assortments and the right depth, presentation and storytelling. That's how you return to drive revenue and profits there. It's through driving productivity.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

And so we're doing it. The team's hustling. But here's what I'd say, the changes are going to take time, but we're focused on pulling the right levers to return to growth.

Operator

Our final question will come from the line of Alex Drayton with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Alex Straton
Alex Straton
Equity Research Managing Director at Morgan Stanley

Perfect. Thanks so much. Maybe for Elliot or Matt, as you think about kind of once the smoke clears through this year, just structurally, is there any reason why this business like should not be a double digit margin business? Or maybe just high level, can can you walk us through perhaps what's changed? And like, as you think about clearing these actions and those all getting behind you, if if anything's really changed in in like the structural margin of the business longer term?

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

Well, Alex, we've consistently been a double digit margin company over our history regardless of the size of our business or the composition of our portfolio. And so I think we believe that that is still, you know, a goal that's worthy of of pursuing. I highlighted the actions that we've got that we've taken in '26 associated with WinNow and the timing of them between the first half and the second half. And, you know, we believe the WinNow actions are the right actions to reposition Nike as a full price brand, in a healthy pool market, and they're the right actions to reignite brand momentum and growth. And so, when I think about, when I think about the longer term, you know, our goal is to return to sustainable organic revenue growth and, to see the recovery of these transitory impacts that we've been talking about as we've been repositioning the business.

Matthew Friend
Matthew Friend
Executive VP & CFO at Nike

And, and with disciplined expense management, we should it should yield operating leverage as we return to growth. And so that's where we're focused.

Elliott Hill
Elliott Hill
President & CEO at Nike

I think I think the only thing that I would add to it is our teams leadership team and teams around the world have embraced the win now actions. We believe by lining up against the sport offense that will further accelerate those actions. And over time, we absolutely have the ambition to get back to double digit operating margins.

Paul Trussell
Paul Trussell
VP of Corporate Finance & Treasurer at Nike

Thank you.

Operator

And that will conclude our question and answer session and our call today. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

Executives
Analysts
Powered by Quartr