Next Nike CEO Hill brings bootstraps mentality By Reuters

By Nicholas P. Brown

(Reuters) – Elliott Hill started at NIKE (NYSE: ) as an intern in 1988, but he steadily grew, relying on the values ​​of grit and hard work ingrained in him as the son of a single mother in a working-class neighborhood in Texas.

Those qualities may come in handy again when Hill becomes the top boss of the global sneaker and sportswear brand next month, helping to revive the company where he has spent his entire career.

Nike announced Thursday that Hill will become its next chief executive on Oct. 14, replacing John Donahoe, who is retiring.

Its sales have fallen in recent months as more nimble and innovative brands such as Deckers’ On and Hoka have gained market share. Nike is in the midst of what it says will be a three-year effort to cut costs by $2 billion.

Where Donahoe was an outsider — brought in in 2020 after serving as CEOs at eBay (NASDAQ: ), Bain Capital and cloud company ServiceNow (NYSE: ) — Hill is Nike to the core. He joined it after graduate school at Ohio University in 1988, lobbying a company representative who had spoken in his sports marketing class.

“I bugged him for six months until he finally hired me,” Hill said on the FORTitude podcast in December. “I said ‘everyone in my class has a job but me.’

His blue-collar bona fide goes back even further than that. Born in Austin in 1963, Hill’s father left the family when he was three. His mother set “an incredible example of commitment and work ethic,” he told the podcast. Sports, he added, became a key part of his childhood.

At Nike, he held stints in sales, including in the Dallas office. “I did 60,000 miles a year two years in a row in an old Chrysler minivan,” he said, describing his early years selling shoes to retailers.

After numerous other roles—including leading Nike’s team sports division and serving as its vice president of global retail—Hill became president of Consumer & Marketplace in 2018. He retired in 2020.

Hill remembers a time when Nike represented innovation. He was in the room when the company unveiled its iconic “Just do it” ad in 1988. Employees watching the internal presentation erupted in cheers, he said on FORTitude, a podcast featuring people like Hill who have lived and worked in Dallas- Fort Worth. “If you can inspire people inside your company, you know you’re going to inspire people outside your company,” he said.

Hill did not respond to a Reuters email seeking comment. But Nike said Hill was well-regarded internally and believed his hiring would be popular among employees.

MICHAEL JORDAN’S SHOE

The Texas Christian University graduate helped lead Nike’s Dream Crazy campaign, narrated by NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, in 2018. He also built relationships with key athletes, including Michael Jordan.

When Hill wanted to take Jordan Brand global, the basketball star was nervous about the move and said he would leave one of his size 13 shoes on Hill’s desk. “I want you to think about that shoe, and if our revenue comes back, I’m going to come put that behind you,” Hill recalled Jordan saying.

Hill laughed as he described the moment on the podcast. “It was mainly in jest,” he said, “but you know I got the sense that he believed in us and was going to take a risk.”

Hill and his wife, Gina, created a scholarship at Central Catholic High School in Portland, Oregon, where the couple’s children attended school. Hill raised money for the scholarship by auctioning off the collection of sports memorabilia he had amassed over three decades at Nike.

Laundry — a Portland clothing store that primarily sells vintage sports team apparel — has partnered with Hill on the 2022 auction, its owner Chris Yen told Reuters on Thursday.

Yen had no idea who Hill was when she received a cold call from him. Hill told Yen he learned about the store through his son and wanted to work with him. The auction raised $2.1 million between memorabilia sales and private donations, Yen said.

“Elliott is the best possible person for the job and to help Nike win again,” he said.

Wall Street analysts hope Hill can bring excitement to the Nike brand.

“There is still a lack of product innovation within the company,” said Brian Nagel, an analyst at Oppenheimer, adding that “management has been averse” to restoring partnerships with key retailers.

Jessica Ramirez, an analyst at Jane Hali and Associates, put it bluntly: At Nike, she said, “the culture has collapsed.”