A strategy shift at Nike Inc. translated into a recent wave of layoffs at Costa Mesa-based subsidiary Hurley International LLC. The surf apparel brand parted ways with about a dozen employees and transferred others, including several sales and marketing executives.
In June Nike announced what it called Consumer Direct Offense, a repositioning meant to “serve the consumer faster and more personally, at scale.” The effort includes “accelerating innovation,” cutting product creation cycle times in half, and “editing to amplify” by reducing styles 25%.
The Beaverton, Ore.-based sportswear giant will also concentrate on consumers in New York, London, Shanghai, Beijing, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Mexico City, Barcelona, Seoul and Milan, where 80% of its growth is projected to come by 2020.
“These changes … are really about accelerating our growth potential,” Nike President and Chief Executive Mark Parker said during an earnings call in June. “We’ve never really been about sustaining the status quo—it’s not a winning proposition. This consumer-led offense for us is about getting sharper, it’s about getting more focused.”
Nike reported net income of $4.2 billion on $34.3 billion in revenue in its fiscal 2017, which ended on May 31. It employs about 74,000 globally, an estimated 200 of them at Hurley. Positions cut in Costa Mesa included Global Director of Apparel Materials Doug Bunting and Sales Manager Todd Prestage, according to ShopEatSurf.com, a surf industry news site that first reported the news. Alex Hawkins, former vice president of global commerce, and Chief Marketing Officer Pri Shumate were transferred back to Nike. Vice President of Design and Merchandising Ryan Mangan will replace Hawkins.
“This month, many of our global teams aligned to the Consumer Direct Offense, yet some parts of the organization will complete their transition in the coming weeks and months,” Global Communications Director Greg Rossiter said in an emailed statement, adding that “the organizational alignment will result in an overall reduction of approximately 2% of the company’s global workforce.”
Rossiter declined to provide details about Hurley, including whether there will be more layoffs here. Calls to the brand’s Costa Mesa headquarters weren’t returned.
Bob Hurley founded the company in 1998 after leaving the president role at Billabong USA, the Irvine unit of Billabong International Ltd. in Australia. He sold Hurley to Nike in 2002 for an estimated $120 million but remained at the helm until 2007, and again from 2011 to 2015, when Nike replaced him with Bob Coombes.
