Nike loses head of North America girls’s enterprise to Athleta

Hole’s Athleta has tapped the top of Nike’s girls’s enterprise in North America as its subsequent CEO, delivering a blow to the sneaker firm because it tries to win again extra feminine buyers. 

Maggie Gauger, who has spent greater than 20 years at Nike, is the third CEO employed to helm Athleta within the final two years as the ladies’s athleisure model’s gross sales decline. She’ll change Chris Blakeslee, the previous Alo Yoga government who was employed to switch Mary Beth Laughton in 2023. 

Beneath Blakeslee’s course, Athleta partnered with high-profile athletes corresponding to swimmer Katie Ledecky and WNBA star Kate Martin, and gained over new buyers with various kinds of merchandise. Nonetheless, the technique has not translated with Athleta’s current buyer base. For 4 out of the previous six quarters, the model’s income and comparable gross sales dropped, which dragged down its mother or father firm’s total efficiency. 

“Over the previous two years, Chris has led the early levels of Athleta’s reset, recentering the model to win with progressive efficiency product and refining the model’s perspective, serving to to place Athleta for the long run,” Hole CEO Richard Dickson stated in a information launch.

“We’re thrilled for Maggie Gauger to hitch as CEO of Athleta as we glance to speed up the model’s reinvigoration. Maggie blends confirmed enterprise transformation capabilities, deep shopper centricity, product fluency, and a heartfelt dedication to empowering girls and ladies. This mix of abilities and experiences will equip her to guide Athleta into its subsequent chapter of development.”

Gauger’s choice to turn out to be Athleta’s subsequent CEO is a giant win for a model so squarely centered on serving feminine buyers, however a serious loss for Nike at a pivotal time for the sneaker big. 

Since Elliott Hill took the helm of Nike final fall, he has made the ladies’s enterprise a central a part of his technique as he works to flip across the enterprise and return it to development. 

In its first Tremendous Bowl advert in many years, Nike focused feminine athletes in its “So Win” marketing campaign. It later introduced it will be companion with Kim Kardashian’s activewear line Skims because it seemed to get an edge over opponents corresponding to Athleta, Alo Yoga and Vuori. 

Nike has stated beforehand that about 40% of its clients are girls, however most attire manufacturers desire to have extra feminine customers than male as a result of they have a tendency to buy extra and spend extra on garments. Plus, the gender hole has given Nike’s opponents a foothold within the athletic attire enterprise, which could possibly be a development space for the corporate. 

Gauger was answerable for closing that gender hole in Nike’s most vital market, however now that work will fall to a brand new chief, including one other layer of transition at a susceptible time for firm. 

Nonetheless, the corporate’s management bench remains to be effectively stacked. Amy Montagne, the present president of Nike, beforehand served as the top of the model’s world girls’s division and has been with the retailer for 20 years.

Gauger is slated to tackle the brand new position on Aug. 1 and Blakeslee will keep on as an advisor to “help a easy transition,” the corporate stated in a press launch. Nike didn’t reply to CNBC’s request for remark.