Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 21, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● B7 BUSINESS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2025 U.S. athletic wear giant Nike turns to high-performance, chunky sneakers to win back runners, customers’ attention O N the first Sunday in November, Nike CEO Elliott Hill was at the finish line of the New York City Marathon in Central Park, greeting the sport’s elite athletes. But runners in Nike sneakers weren’t at the top of the podium. Benson Kipruto won the men’s race in a pair of Adidas; Hellen Obiri, wearing Ons, took the women’s race. Nike Inc. has a problem on roads, tracks and treadmills where its sneak- ers used to dominate. Hill knows the world’s largest sportswear company has fallen behind and he has made re- viving the running division an urgent priority since rejoining Nike last year. “We expect more of our running team,” he says during a recent visit to Nike’s sport research lab at headquar- ters in Beaverton, Oregon, where test- ing facilities include an indoor track and sprint lane. “It is critical to the suc- cess of our company.” Nike has lost market share in the US$7.4 billion running shoe market, which represents about eight per cent of the footwear market, according to research firm Circana. Previous management focused on selling life- style sneakers such as Air Force 1s and Dunks and moved away from offering its products through third-party stores. Now, Nike is trying to course-cor- rect. The company is designing new shoes geared toward performance, reaching out to run clubs to build the brand back up and getting its products back into the specialty running stores that dedicated runners frequent. Kristyn Smith, a 43-year-old New Yorker who coaches other runners, was once a hardcore Nike devotee. In 2018, she began running in the brand’s Zoom Vaporfly 4%, the US$250 mass-market version of the super-shoes made for marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge, and she adored the new technology. But over time, Smith began hoarding old versions of Nike shoes because she didn’t like the changes to the brand’s new releases each year. Rivals had de- veloped their own super-shoes, giving her plenty of alternatives to choose from, and she’d test them out at run- ning events. These days Smith, who works in en- tertainment and runs about 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometres) per year, wears a ro- tation of brands including Adidas and Puma. “I used to be a huge Nike fan. I would basically only wear Nike shoes,” says Smith, who pays close attention to elite runners and the shoes that help them win. “They have to come up with some- thing that is really good again.” The comeback effort begins with new super-shoes designed for the best ath- letes. Inside one building at headquarters, about a dozen of Nike’s recent running shoes are laid out on a table, some sur- gically sliced open to reveal their guts: foams, plates, leathers and synthetic fibres. One of the track spikes was created for Faith Kipyegon, a middle-distance professional runner who attempted to break the four-minute mile in June while wearing a custom pair of Nikes. Staff say it’s the lightest and most propulsive energy-returning spike they’ve ever developed. It has a curved carbon fibre plate and the tallest air unit ever put into a track spike in order to return as much energy as possible with each step. This means the air pocket in the shoe does a better job of cushioning runners’ feet and helping to propel them forward. Nike engineers take the advanced concepts and integrate them into products that eventually land on store shelves. “The best way we can do it is put on a Hoka, put on our shoe, price for price,” says Tony Bignell, Nike’s chief innov- ation officer. “Close your eyes. Which one do you think is better?” Under Hill, Nike has rearranged its running products into three core lines. Pegasus road running shoes are ver- satile and responsive daily trainers suit- able for a variety of runs. Vomero is the comfort-focused offering, with plush pillows of Nike’s proprietary ZoomX foam to dampen the impact to the feet and legs on longer easy runs. The Struc- ture line provides the most support and stability. Each has versions at different prices, from US$140 to US$230. Last month, Nike released the Vomero Premium, stacked high with foam, two air units and a waffle out- sole, a follow-up to the slightly slim- mer Vomero Plus that launched over the summer. Both look much more like chunky Hokas than their predecessors. “I’m spending more time on the prod- uct, making certain that we do have the innovation moving forward,” Hill says. “I have a high sense of urgency and a high degree of impatience.” It’s not just about performance but about style, too. Sneakers, he says, are “the silhouette of choice right now out on the streets, beyond just running.” Executives at headquarters repeat a common refrain: running is the heart of Nike. They speak of co-founder Bill Bower- man, a former track and field coach, as a folk hero. The new LeBron James In- novation Center on campus has a waf- fle pattern on its ceiling, an homage to Bowerman getting the inspiration for the Waffle Racer, Nike’s first breakthrough running shoe, over breakfast in 1971. Despite that, Nike has spent the last several years losing runners in what’s usually a loyal market segment. Its product-development engine slowed at the wrong time — just as people turned to running during the COVID-19 pandemic, sparking a global boom in run culture. There was a major shift underway in sneaker technology as well that Nike missed. A decade ago, the fastest sneakers were minimalistic, slamming against the ground with each stride to spur peak performance. Since then, they’ve ballooned in size and cushioning as de- signers added layers of squishy super- foams and airbags to make them more comfortable while retaining speed. The shift can be seen across brands, including Hoka’s engorged Bondi sneakers and On’s honeycombed Cloud- monster shoes, which feature the latest and greatest innovations: carbon speed- boards, energy-returning foams and heel cushions. The companies accumu- lated billions of dollars in sales while performance products coming out of Nike headquarters slowed to a trickle. Nike also made a crucial misstep with its retail partners. In a survey last year, RunStyle found 75 per cent of runners already have a brand in mind when they enter a store to buy a pair of shoes, ready to re-up to the next version of whatever shoe they’re used to. Most shoppers turn to specialty running shops and sporting goods stores, according to the market research firm. But Nike began pulling back from those locations in 2020 to prioritize its own stores and website. Suddenly, the shelf space at chains such as Fleet Feet and Big 5 Sporting Goods were bereft of Nikes. The void was filled with competitors like Brooks, Asics, Mizuno, Saucony and Salomon that found themselves with more exposure than ever. Hoka be- came a household name and surpassed US$2 billion in revenue in its last fiscal year. On went public in 2021 and now expects its net sales to reach more than US$3 billion this year. Hill has vowed to rebuild Nike’s re- tail relationships. This year, the com- pany resumed selling on Amazon for the first time since 2019. At Foot Lock- er, one of its most important partners, Nike sneakers have regained the spot- light at the front of the stores for the first time in years. “Insights from our retailers are real- ly key,” says Tanya Hvizdak, vice-presi- dent and general manager of global running at Nike. That includes “edu- cation, real feedback and their person- al take on the competitive landscape. We’re hyper-focused on winning back their trust.” Nike is also increasing its outreach to run clubs, where runners meet regular- ly to jog and train together. Many of the big sportswear brands have capitalized on running clubs’ growth through spon- sorships and community events. A big test for Nike’s efforts was the New York City Marathon, where nearly 60,000 runners took to the streets with just about every brand of running shoe on their feet. Kipchoge, 41, and Nike’s top running endorser, stuck with the lead pack for much of the race in prototype shoes de- veloped at headquarters. The next day, Hill went to Nike’s Fifth Avenue flagship, where employ- ees had decked out the ground floor in Nike running gear for an event with Kipchoge, who wore a pair of retro Vomeros. Kipchoge’s endorsement is critical even as his career enters its final stages. Sibel Canlar, a 41-year-old certified running coach who works at a private equity firm, says when Kipchoge unof- ficially broke the two-hour marathon mark while wearing Nikes in 2019, she was sold on the brand and has worn them ever since. “I never tried anything else,” Canlar says. “The fastest people in the world run in them, and I run in them.” The new products are starting to show results. Though Nike doesn’t con- sistently break out sales figures for its running business, executives said last quarter that running sales rose 20 per cent, a sign that Hill is prodding the brand in the right direction. “There are days when I feel like I’m running 150 miles an hour and there’s days when I don’t feel like I’m moving fast enough,” Hill says. “The reality is our consumer and our competition isn’t sitting around and waiting.” — Bloomberg News KIM BHASIN ANGELINA KATSANIS / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Benson Kipruto and Alexander Mutiso cross the finish line in first and second place, respectively, in the men’s elite division of the New York City Marathon on Nov. 2. Both wore Adidas brand shoes. SUPPLIED Clockwise from top left: the 2025 Nike Alphafly 3, Nike Pegasus Plus, Nike Structure 26 and Nike Vomero Premium. GEARING UP FOR COMEBACK EFFORT Verizon cutting more than 13,000 jobs as it works to ‘reorient’ entire company NEW YORK — Verizon is laying off more than 13,000 employees in mass job reductions that arrive as the U.S. telecommunications giant says it must “reorient” its entire company. The job cuts began on Thursday, per to a staff memo from Verizon CEO Dan Schulman. In the letter, which was seen by The Associated Press, Schulman said Verizon’s current cost structure “limits” the company’s ability to invest — pointing particularly to customer ex- periences. “We must reorient our entire com- pany around delivering for and delight- ing our customers,” Schulman wrote. He added the company needed to sim- plify its operations “to address the com- plexity and friction that slow us down and frustrate our customers.” Verizon had nearly 100,000 full- time employees as of the end of last year, according to securities filings. A spokesperson confirmed the layoffs an- nounced Thursday account for about 20 per cent of the company’s management workforce, which isn’t unionized. Verizon has faced rising competition in both the wireless phone and home internet space — particularly from AT&T, T-Mobile and other big market players. New leadership at the company has stressed the need to right the com- pany’s direction. Schulman became CEO just last month. In the company’s most recent earnings, he stated Verizon’s trajec- tory was at a “critical inflection point” — and said, rather than incremental changes, Verizon would “aggressively transform” its operations. For its third quarter of 2025, Verizon posted earnings of US$4.95 billion and US$33.82 billion in revenue. The carrier reported continued subscriber growth for its pre-paid wireless services, but it lost a net 7,000 postpaid connections. News of coming layoffs at Verizon was reported last week by the Wall Street Journal. The outlet says the 13,000 job cuts mark the largest-ever round of layoffs at the company. Beyond the cuts across Verizon’s workforce, Schulman said the New York company would also “significant- ly reduce” its outsourced and other out- side labour expenses. It’s a tough time for the job market overall — and Verizon isn’t the only company to announce sizeable work- force reductions recently. More and more layoffs have piled up at compan- ies like Amazon, UPS, Nestlé and more. Some companies have pointed to ris- ing operational costs spanning from U.S. President Donald Trump’s bar- rage of new tariffs and shifts in con- sumer spending. Others cite corporate restructuring more broadly — or are redirecting money to artificial intel- ligence. Regardless, such cuts have raised worker anxieties across sectors. Schulman on Thursday recognized “changes in technology and in the economy are impacting the workforce across all industries.” He said Verizon had established a US$20 million “Re- skilling and Career Transition Fund” for workers departing the company. Shares of Verizon fell just over one per cent by Thursday’s close. — The Associated Press WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS Abbott Labs announces US$21B deal to buy Cologuard-maker Exact Sciences ABBOTT Laboratories announced a US$21 billion deal on Thursday to acquire Exact Sciences, the maker of Cologuard — its largest acquisition in a decade. The deal will allow Abbott — which makes medical tests, baby formula and continuous glucose monitors, among other products — to enter the cancer testing space. Exact Sciences focuses on early cancer detection and person- alized treatments, and is perhaps best known for making Cologaurd, an at- home colon cancer screening test. “Exact Sciences’ innovation, its strong brand and customer-focused execution are unrivaled in the cancer diagnostics space, and its presence and strengths are complementary to our own,” said Robert B. Ford, chair- man and Abbott CEO, in a news re- lease. “We’re excited to bring Exact Sciences’ people and know-how into Abbott so that together, we can take on the global challenge of cancer.” Exact Sciences is expected to gener- ate more than US$3 billion in revenue this year, and once it joins Abbott, Ab- bott’s diagnostics sales are expected to exceed US$12 billion a year. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, pending regu- latory and shareholder approval. Ab- bott’s stock closed down 1.73 per cent on Thursday. Abbott is paying US$105 per com- mon share in cash, a 51 per cent pre- mium to Exact Sciences’ closing price of US$69.68 on Nov. 18, a day before Bloomberg reported the two compan- ies were nearing a deal. Exact Sciences’ headquarters is in Madison, Wis., and it plans to maintain its prescence there once the acquisi- tion closes. Abbott has 114,000 employ- ees worldwide, and is headquartered in the north suburbs. On Thursday, Raymond James ana- lyst Andrew Cooper wrote the deal would be the largest diagnostics ac- quisition to date. The acquisition could help “revital- ize” Abbott’s diagnostics business, wrote an analyst Joshua Jennings for TD Cowen. Abbott could also help to extend Cologuard’s reach internation- ally because Abbott already has re- lationships in areas of the world that Exact Sciences “has lacked the com- mercial scale, reimbursement infra- structure, and political capital to pene- trate,” he wrote. With the acquisition, Abbott would move into a rapidly growing area of interest. In addition to making Co- loguard, Exact Sciences also makes Cancerguard, which can help detect 50 types of cancer through a blood test. Such tests have been gaining mo- mentum as one way to help detect can- cers early. — Chicago Tribune LISA SCHENCKER ;