John Hoke, Nike's Chief Innovation Officer, to Exit the Company
Another long-time Nike executive will be exiting the company.
John Hoke, the company's chief innovation officer and a 30-plus year Nike veteran, will be retiring.
More from WWD
Nike Is Bringing Its Wavy Patta Air Max Collaboration to a New Sneaker
Charles Barkley's Most Popular Sneaker Is Getting a Nike SB Upgrade
Nike and Lego Are Launching Studded Sneakers, Sneaker Block Sets and a Legoland Space
The handwriting was on the wall, however. Hoke's departure follows a move made earlier this month promoting Phil McCartney to chief innovation, design and product officer. At the same time, Heidi O'Neill, president of consumer, product and brand — who had been with the company for 26 years — also revealed her retirement. Amy Montagne, a 20-year Nike employee, was promoted to president of the Nike brand.
The moves are part of new Nike chief executive officer Elliott Hill's 'Win Now' action plan first unveiled last December. In the company's third-quarter earnings call in March, Hill, who was lured out of retirement to rejoin the company in the top post in October, was vocal about how Nike needs to be more innovative and also reduce the amount of product available in the market. During the call, he said Nike's new priorities will be centered around five fields of play: running, basketball, football, training and sportswear; three countries: the U.S., China and the U.K., and five cities: New York, Los Angeles, London, Beijing and Shanghai.
While that work is going on internally, the company revealed last week that it plans to return to Amazon after a six-year hiatus and raise prices from $2 to $10 on apparel and $5 on footwear in response to tariffs.
The return to Amazon is a sharp contrast to former CEO John Donahoe's strategy to cut wholesale distribution and focus on its own stores and digital channels. In addition to Amazon, Nike is returning to DSW, Macy's, Foot Locker, Urban Outfitters, Zappos, Belk and others.
As Hill said in December: 'Wholesale….provides a very strong footprint, both physical as well as digital.'
These major moves are an answer to criticism that Nike had lost its edge as competitors such as Hoka and On made inroads, particularly in the footwear space.
While the company is making some progress, there's still a lot of work to do. Net income in the third quarter was $794 million, down 32 percent from $1.2 billion in the year-ago period. Diluted earnings per share were 54 cents, a decrease of 30 percent from 77 cents at the same time last year. Net sales in the period were $11.3 billion, down 9 percent from $12.4 billion, on a reported basis, compared to the prior year.
The company also projected at that time to expect a steeper-than-expected drop in fourth-quarter sales.
A Nike spokesperson confirmed Hoke's retirement Thursday but declined further comment.
Hoke grew up playing sports and running cross country, where he noticed that all the racers wore Nike waffle trainers. He went home and sketched those sneakers — Hoke has dyslexia so he used drawing as a way to navigate the world — and began to envision how they could be better. He came up with the idea of adding cushioning to the shoe, a sketch he sent to Nike cofounder and former CEO Phil Knight.
Knight responded, saying it was an intriguing idea and Hoke should consider joining Nike when he got older.
After getting a degree in architecture, Hoke did just that — he joined Nike in 1992. Initially, he worked on image and brand design at trade shows, global exhibits and the Nike stores and he also created the first website as well as physical and digital catalogs.
Among his roles at Nike were eight years as vice president of footwear design, two years at Converse and 15 years as Nike's chief design officer. He was elevated to chief innovation officer in 2023.
Hoke will remain with Nike until October to complete some projects and the company plans to announce a successor for the chief innovation officer role, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg.
Best of WWD
All the Retailers That Nike Left and Then Went Back
Mikey Madison's Elegant Red Carpet Shoe Style [PHOTOS]
Julia Fox's Sleekest and Boldest Shoe Looks Over the Years [Photos]
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The USWNT basks in the return of Naomi Girma – their ‘security blanket'
Compared to the past few windows, Saturday's 3-0 win was a game where the U.S. women's national team looked in complete control. The attack kept the pressure on China, continuing to threaten their defense as it frequently adjusted the height of its line of confrontation. Catarina Macario provided a goal and an assist; Lindsey Heaps and Sam Coffey scored from their midfield roles. Advertisement However, head coach Emma Hayes' post-match press conference started with a question about the long-awaited return of Naomi Girma and how the team benefited from her 90-minute shift. 'We've missed her, we really have,' Hayes said. 'Just in terms of the way we control the game; her, in a deeper space, just making decisions when to play forward, when not to.' As the first million-dollar transfer in women's soccer history, this year has only intensified the scrutiny that comes with being one of the world's best players in her position. Her time at Chelsea was not as smooth as the club and player had hoped. She exited her debut in early March with a calf injury, feeling the strain having gone nearly four months without playing a club match. Her first minutes back with Chelsea came in mid-April and this international window marked her first with the U.S. in 2025. 'I gave her a hug after the game,' said midfielder Coffey, who scored her second U.S. goal against China. 'Having her on the field is like having a security blanket, and just like being wrapped in it.' Advertisement After some tense and at times disjointed performances against Japan in the SheBelieves Cup and Brazil in a pair of friendlies, the USWNT dominated the entire match on Saturday. The defense played its part, with Coffey shuttling around to shield the back-line and the partnership between Girma and Emily Sonnett giving goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce ample coverage whenever China reached the final third. Those threats were few and far between. The USWNT dominated the chance-creation game, generating 3.01 expected goals (xG) while holding China to 0.18 xG. 'It does feel natural now,' Girma said of returning to the national team. 'I mean, I was able to watch what we did before, and I think a lot of what Emma wants to do is layer on what we had done in the past year. I think the changes are good and easy for me to kind of adapt to, with that base knowledge of how we want to play. 'It was just nice to be back on the field.' Advertisement As was often the case during the triumphant run to Olympic gold last summer, Girma was at the heart of the team's build-up. She logged a staggering 138 touches, per TruMedia, 41 more than the team's second-most involved player (Avery Patterson, with the right-back notching 97 touches). Girma completed 95.3 percent of her 129 pass attempts, helping determine how the USWNT worked to break through China's defensive structure. She also put in a defensive shift that embodied working smarter, not harder. She was not throwing herself into many challenges, though much of that work was done well before the ball even reached the U.S. defense. Still, she was quick on mop up duty, leading the USWNT with seven ball clearances (nobody else had more than three) while winning all three ground duels and her only aerial duel. Having her in the back-line only helped the midfield feel more confident as they engaged defensively, with peace of mind that she was in position if they failed to win the ball. Advertisement 'I can't put into words what she means to this team,' Coffey said. 'I think everybody sees it on the field, but off the field as well. She's just a joy in this environment and such a light for us. We have missed her so much. I thought she was exceptional today, as she always is.' In a year characterized by frequent rotation across Hayes' squads and lineups, Girma's return represents a different type of variable for the team. Throughout 2025, Hayes has called on a number of center-backs, each auditioning to be Girma's primary partner. Sonnett represents a vital holdover from the team's last World Cup win in 2019, having established herself as a hard-nosed veteran along the back-line. Emily Sams came off the bench against China, while Tara McKeown has earned five caps this year. The latter two in particular are emblematic of Hayes' examination of her broader player pool, with both stepping into more important roles given positional absences. Not only has Girma been missing, but so has her partner last summer, Tierna Davidson, who tore her ACL in April. While Sams, McKeown, Sonnett and others have stepped into their roles, none can quite match the same comfortable benchmark established by Girma. Advertisement 'I mean, she's a world-class player,' Hayes said. 'I thought she brought something to our performance that we're looking for, so I'm delighted to have her back.' Once she returned to playing regular minutes for Chelsea in mid-April, she was eased back into the fold. While Chelsea kept clean sheets in each of her final four performances of the WSL season, only two of those matches saw Girma play all 90 minutes. 'It was a lot of transition for me,' Girma said on Friday regarding her first months with Chelsea. 'I think it was a huge learning experience for me. You always have those moments in your career where you're up and down, up and down, up and down, so it was definitely like that. 'But I think it was a good five months of getting settled, getting to know my team-mates, getting used to playing there, playing with a new team, and living in a new country. So it's been really positive so far, and I've really enjoyed it.' Advertisement Girma logged her 46th cap, an impressive total for a 24-year-old defender who seems destined to be the bedrock of this team for years to come. With its world class center-back in the lineup, the United States put together its most composed performance of the year. Then again, that revelation hardly comes as a surprise given Girma's floor-raising performances since her debut in 2022. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. US Women's national team, Soccer, NWSL, UK Women's Football 2025 The Athletic Media Company
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
2025 Memorial Tournament weather: Will sun stick around for final round? The latest forecast
While the Memorial Tournament's second round featured gray skies and plenty of rain, the sun made an appearance for the third round on May 31, and it looks like the tournament's final round on June 1 will be marked by plenty of sun. The National Weather Service in Wilmington forecasts it will be sunny at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, with a high near 70 degrees. There will be a northwest wind blowing between 6 and 10 miles per hour, according to the weather service. How to watch the 2025 Memorial Tournament If you want to avoid the weather altogether but still want to enjoy the Memorial Tournament, there are a handful of viewing options if you have the right channel (or streaming network). TV broadcasts Dates: May 29 to June 1 Final round, June 1: Live coverage 1-2:30 p.m. on Golf Channel; 2:30-6:30 p.m. on CBS June 2: Final round replay 2:30-6 a.m., 2-5 p.m. on Golf Channel Streaming ESPN+ (PGA Tour Live) plus all streaming apps that carry Golf Channel and CBS, including Paramount+, YouTube TV and Hulu Live Advertisement Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@ at ShahidMeighan on X, and at on Bluesky. This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 2025 Memorial Tournament weather update: Will sun stay for final round?
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Raising awareness of prostate cancer has given me purpose, says Sir Chris Hoy
Raising awareness of prostate cancer has given Sir Chris Hoy 'a purpose', he has said. One of Scotland's most decorated athletes, Sir Chris announced his diagnosis last year, shocking the sporting world. But far from slowing down, the 11-time world champion track cyclist and six-time Olympic gold medallist has turned his hand to campaigning, urging more men to be aware of the dangers of the disease. The inbox on his Instagram account, he told the Sunday Times, is 'stacked' with men saying news of his diagnosis had spurred them to get tested and they had managed to catch it early. 'That gives me a huge lift,' he told the newspaper. He works alongside Prostate Cancer UK, which provides an online risk-checking tool that has been used by more than 180,000 men. 'That campaign has saved lives,' he said. 'And you know, in all the chaos and all the fear and all the horror of first being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, you can never imagine any positive outcome coming from that situation. 'So to know that there is one has given me a purpose. 'In difficult moments you remind yourself, actually there is a net positive from this whole situation. And I'm lucky because I have a platform.' Since his own diagnosis, it was announced his wife Sarra had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Asked about his wife's illness, Sir Chris says she 'doesn't talk about it a massive amount'. 'I think she's just determined to try and not allow it to get its feet under the table,' he said. 'It fluctuates, so she gets good days and bad days. 'When the days are difficult, she doesn't ever admit to it, but clearly the thoughts are, 'is this the start of a decline? Is this how it's going to be from now on?' 'It's very difficult, and she's so stoic and strong, and not willing to ask for sympathy.'
