Nike gutted the team behind its own sneaker-drop app during a turnaround

SNKRS, the app Nike built in 2015 to run limited-edition sneaker drops, raffles and launch events, was central to how the company sold hype product directly to collectors. On April 23, 2026, Nike announced its second layoff round of the year — about 1,400 roles, mostly in technology — as part of CEO Elliott Hill's "Win Now" turnaround after the company's third-quarter net income fell 35% to $520 million.

Nike did not disclose how many of those cuts hit SNKRS specifically, but reporting citing people close to the team put the toll at roughly 90% of SNKRS staff across product, engineering, program management and launch operations, fueling speculation the app would be handed off to third-party platforms like Shopify. A principal engineer who had worked on SNKRS since a prior 2026 layoff round described the team as "obliterated" in a public LinkedIn post.

Nike responded to the speculation by saying it remained "deeply committed" to SNKRS, folding the app's engineers into a single team also responsible for the main Nike app, its website and its Nike By You personalization tool, based at company headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. The company gave no figure for how many SNKRS-dedicated staff remained.