While it’s clear that Nike has a long way to go in its turnaround, there are several parts of the company’s business that are “working” and helping to right the ship.
Indeed, on the company’s first-quarter 2027 earnings call on Thursday, Nike Inc. president and chief executive officer Elliott Hill told analysts that its Sport Offense strategy is “driving results.”
These positive gains are mostly seen in the Swoosh’s performance business, which grew to $16 billion in fiscal 2026. Hill noted that Nike performance increased by another high-single-digit percentage in the first quarter of fiscal 2027.
Within that growth, Nike running, global football, basketball, training, tennis and golf all contributed positively in the quarter.
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“Running is up double digits again with consistent share gains,” Hill told analysts on Thursday’s call. “Global football benefited from World Cup energy to drive strong double-digit growth in all four geos. Training grew globally, led by EMEA. Basketball was up double digits in North America with expectation that the sport will continue its momentum in the second quarter, and both tennis and golf grew double-digits.”
The CEO said its training business is one of Nike’s “largest untapped performance opportunities because every athlete trains.” He called out the Nike Mind offering as quickly becoming one of the brand’s “top-selling franchises.” There was also good demand for the Nike Pro and Metcon franchises in the first quarter.
As for basketball, Hill pointed to women’s as the category’s “most powerful” growth opportunity, adding that Nike has grown its women’s basketball signature shoe business nearly 500 percent from fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2026. He also praised the launch of Caitlin Clark’s debut signature shoe, the Caitlin 1, calling it the “largest women’s signature shoe launch in Nike’s history.” The rollout included distributing the new shoe across 5,000 doors, twice the average for a Nike basketball signature shoe, Hill explained.
Given this cross-category success, Jefferies equity analyst Randal Konik said in a new research note that the Sport Offense may be working after all and suggested “momentum is broad based across sport categories rather than reliant on a handful of franchises.”
Nike has also seen growth in North America in the first quarter, increasing 2 percent from the same time last year. The CEO said that the growth in the region was driven by performance led by running, global football and basketball.
“We are seeing good sell-through across all channels,” Hill mentioned on the call. “In North America specifically, whether it’s at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Academy, Scheels, JD, Foot Locker or athletic specialties, performance product is selling.”
For his take, Konik added in his research note that “as performance becomes a larger mix of the business, underlying demand trends in North America increasingly look healthier than consolidated headline results suggest.”
Still, despite these successes, Wall Street is getting tired of waiting for the turnaround efforts to bring Nike back into growth mode.
BNP Paribas Equity Research senior analyst Laurent Vasilescu recalled in a research note on Friday that Nike management explained two years ago that its Win Now strategy would be done by the end of 2025.
“Then it was pushed out to the end of 2026,” Vasilescu wrote. “[Thursday night] we didn’t hear anything about the Win Now strategy or at least an acknowledgment of a new timeline or goal post. This would suggest that the right-sizing of the business may last for several years to come.”
William Trading equity analyst Sam Poser shares the theory that Nike’s turnaround will take longer than originally predicted.
“While we continue to believe that Nike is taking the appropriate actions to right its business, its problems are greater than we previously believed,” Poser wrote in a research note on Friday. “Sales and margins will likely remain pressured at least through the third quarter of fiscal 2028. We anticipate acceleration in sales and margins in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2028, leading into the L.A. Olympics.”
In its most recent first quarter 2027 earnings report released on Thursday, the Beaverton, Ore.-based company said its net income in the period was $712 million, down 2 percent from $727 million at the same time last year. Diluted earnings per share in the first quarter are 48 cents, down from 49 cents a share in the first quarter of 2026.
Net sales in the quarter tallied $11.2 billion, down 4 percent from $11.7 billion in the first quarter last year on a reported basis and down 5 percent on a currency-neutral basis.
