The timing is awkward. Elliott Hill has been Nike’s CEO for two years and is trying to pull off a turnaround that has not yet come together. A shrinking side brand is one more problem on a list that is already long.
The Chuck Taylor problem
Analysts point to the same cause again and again: Converse leans too hard on one shoe. The Chuck Taylor made the brand famous, but there has been little new product to carry it once demand for the classic cooled.
Laurent Vasilescu, an analyst at BNP Paribas, said he had never seen demand for a brand drop 44%, the size of Converse’s decline in the fiscal quarter that ended in November 2025. He added that he would not be surprised if Nike ended up selling it.
Vans already showed how this goes
Converse is not the first sneaker brand to hit this wall. Vans, owned by VF Corp, has struggled for years for a similar reason. It built its identity on skate shoes with a recognisable checkerboard look, and it had little else ready when that look fell out of fashion.
An icon is an asset until it becomes the whole strategy. Converse still has one of the most recognisable products in footwear, but recognition does not refill a pipeline. For Nike, the question is whether fixing Converse is worth the time and money while its own core business still needs repair. If the answer is no, a sale starts to look like the simpler choice.
