Elliott Hill became Nike's President and CEO on October 14, 2024, and Nike's October 1, 2026 first-quarter results show a reset that is working in some places and not yet in others. North America wholesale revenue grew 9%, while total revenue fell 4% to $11.2 billion and Greater China fell 22% as reported. Nike says its Sport Offense is driving progress and that a new program called Pace will reduce costs.
What do Win Now, Sport Offense and Pace mean?
Win Now is the name Hill gave to his first set of actions, which Nike's September 30, 2025 prepared remarks describe as focused on culture, product, brand, marketplace and the ground game. The Sport Offense is the operating model that organizes Nike, Jordan and Converse into focused teams by sport. Nike said it realigned about 8,000 employees to it in the quarter ended August 31, 2025, and that Nike Running grew more than 20% in that quarter.
Pace is the operating model transformation Nike announced on October 1, 2026 to scale the Sport Offense. According to Nike's first-quarter fiscal 2027 release, it covers supply chain modernization, a new campus in India, a realignment to three geographies and further streamlining of the organization.
What did Hill take over, and where is Nike now?
Nike's first-quarter revenue was $11.6 billion in fiscal 2025, the quarter that ended before Hill started, and $11.2 billion in fiscal 2027. The table lines up the same quarter, the three months ended August 31, from Nike's three releases, with reported percent changes.
Wholesale sales to retailers rose from $6.4 billion to $6.8 billion and have held there for two years, while sales through Nike's own stores and digital fell from $4.7 billion to $4.1 billion. Gross margin is 2.6 points below the 2024 quarter and 0.6 points above the 2025 quarter, and Nike credits the latest gain mainly to lower warehousing and logistics costs.
Where is the reset working and where is it not?
North America is the one region where Nike's revenue grew in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, up 2% to $5.1 billion. Nike's release says the brand's decline came primarily from Greater China and Europe, Middle East and Africa, partly offset by North America.
| Area | Revenue | Change (reported) |
|---|
| North America wholesale | $2,981M | Up 9% |
| North America Nike Direct | $2,146M | Down 6% |
| Europe, Middle East and Africa | $3,176M | Down 5% |
| Greater China | $1,180M | Down 22% |
| Asia Pacific and Latin America | $1,463M | Down 2% |
| Converse | $263M | Down 28% |
Hill said in the October 1, 2026 release there is "more work to do in NIKE Sportswear, Jordan Brand and Greater China." Nike Brand footwear revenue was $6.95 billion, down 6%, and apparel was $3.38 billion, up 2%. Demand creation expense, Nike's marketing line, rose 5% to $1.3 billion, which Nike attributed to higher investment in key sports events.
What is Pace and what does it cost?
Pace is expected to deliver about $2.5 billion in cumulative savings through fiscal 2031, with about $1.0 billion in pre-tax charges through that year, mostly employee-related costs. Nike also recognized about $0.3 billion of severance in fiscal 2026 and expects about $0.3 billion of charges in fiscal 2027.
Nike states that these figures are estimates, subject to assumptions and local law requirements, and that actual savings and charges may differ, possibly materially. For fiscal 2027, Nike expects revenue to decline by a high-single-digit percentage and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.15 to $1.35.
What can communicators learn from how Nike framed the quarter?
Nike's October 1, 2026 release pairs each progress claim with a named area still to fix, which gives a reader the full picture from the three opening bullets alone. One bullet reports Sport Offense momentum, the next announces actions to reposition Sportswear, Jordan Brand and Greater China, and the third introduces Pace.
- Name the weak areas in the CEO's own quote, as Hill did with Sportswear, Jordan Brand and Greater China.
- Publish the cost beside the savings, as Nike did with $2.5 billion in expected savings and about $1.0 billion in charges.
- Set the pace of progress early, as Hill did in 2025 when he said progress would not be perfectly linear but the direction is.
- Compare the same quarter across years, so a reader sees a trend instead of a single result.
For earlier Nike coverage on this site, see Nike's public relations profile, Nike's digital marketing case study, Nike's Dream Crazy and purpose-driven campaigns and ten footwear marketing campaigns.
The through-line is that Nike reports the reset by area, with numbers beside each claim. Nike's next quarterly release will show whether the performance gains carry into Sportswear and Jordan Brand, and whether Pace savings arrive on the timeline Nike stated.
