Overview
- Nike, which issued a statement Saturday, said it is "deeply committed" to SNKRS and is merging its engineers with the main Nike app team.
- Multiple reports said about 90% of staff tied to SNKRS launches were laid off, and a principal engineer wrote the team was "obliterated" as former staff said only a few people remain to keep it running.
- Nike did not confirm headcount figures and described the changes as part of an April technology overhaul that affected about 1,400 operations roles across regions.
- Industry coverage has speculated that future high-demand drops could shift to third-party services such as EQL or Shopify, though no plan has been announced.
- SNKRS, launched in 2015 to run limited-release raffles and queues at huge scale, has hosted drops an engineer said drew up to 100 million would-be buyers for 5,000 pairs.