Good morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thanks so much for rocking with your boy today.
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Not now, Under Armour
(Photo by Brandon Erlinger-Ford on Unsplash)
There’s never a “right” time to lay people off. It always sucks. But right now? News of more layoffs coming down the pipe from Under Armour just doesn’t sit right. It’s happening, though.
The company is laying off 600 employees globally as part of a restructuring plan that is expected to cost the company anywhere from $550 million to $600 million.
The initial cost of the company’s makeover was expected to be between $475 million and $575 million, per the Baltimore Sun. But a recent S.E.C filing from the company revealed that number jumped by $75 million.
The company wouldn’t say where the cuts were specifically being made or when they were going down, per the Sun.
Add this to the running list of awful things coming out of Under Armour in 2020. It comes on the back of them furloughing thousands of employees earlier this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s also unclear how many of the positions they’re planning on cutting were part of that initial furlough.
Look, there’s something to be said about restructuring. It benefits companies like Under Armour in a number of ways.
Under Armour has lots of arms and lots of complex decision trees to get through before shoes are ever released to the public. In this new direct-to-consumer world, that’s all considered extra. UA is cutting down some of those branches just like Nike did.
These things happen. This is what business is — especially when you usher in new regimes. This is Patrick Frisk’s new vision for Under Armour, not Kevin Plank’s.
Under Armour is strapped for cash. It makes total sense that this is happening. Their financial numbers all year have been horrific. There’s a reason why they’re trying to get out of massive deals with UCLA and Cal — they’re trying to save money and put it elsewhere.
These cuts are another cost saving measure. Sure, they’ll have to dish out $75 million in reduction costs. But in the long term? They’ll save hundreds of millions more. Under Armour says these cuts were planned before the pandemic put business around the globe in a stranglehold. But the thing is that doesn’t really matter. Cuts are cuts.
The reality is we’re still in a pandemic. The economy is still utter garbage and there’s no relief for the workforce in sight. Evictions are spiking. And, if we’re being real, whatever relief we do get will probably come far too late for lots of people.
Laying people off — whether you already planned to or not — in this moment feels gross. It could mean someone loses a roof over their head or health coverage in a moment where insurance is so essential. It feels so callous. Especially for a multi-billion dollar corporations like Under Armour and Nike that can foot these bills.
Restructuring is fine and good. But there’s always time to restructure. COVID has put everything in people’s lives on hold. Why not something like this? Yes, companies are trying to save money. But saving good will with people goes a long way, too. And that’s something UA really needs right now.
Timing is everything. And, quite frankly, so far in 2020 it just seems like Under Armour isn’t that good at it.
End of an era
(Photo by Michael Jasmund on Unsplash)
Talk about getting out while the getting is good. StockX co-founder and former CEO Josh Luber is exiting the company nearly five years after creating it.
This isn’t surprising at all. This is kind of what startup founders do. Build something up, turn it into a profitable operation, make money then dip out to do it all over again. But the writing was on the wall, in Luber’s case. We knew this was coming.
When Luber stepped out of his CEO role last year and the company hired Scott Cutler away from eBay, folks speculated about other plans he may have had.
Luber told The Business of Fashion that his intention was always to create another startup at some point. This is step one in that.
The timing makes sense, despite how odd it is. He leaves after the company released a remarkable mid-year report with big sales numbers in May and June. They’re blowing their aftermarket comp away.
With that said, things weren’t exactly going perfectly.
The company had its authentication center employees working in completely unsafe environments amid the pandemic.
They also had their biggest scandal in 2019 when StockX had a massive data breach that they either lied about it or weren’t completely forthcoming on. Either way, it was a big L. Luber talked about that here.
At the end of the day, there were lots of ups and downs through the years, but ultimately they’ve changed the sneaker game forever.
That’s a pretty impressive thing to have on your resume.
Here’s your Yeezy schedule
Listen. I know some of y’all still love Kanye West to death and I will never take that away from you.
But what I will say is that he is not trustworthy at all when it comes to his content. Y’all know this. How many bad album release dates has he giving you over the years? Exactly. That’s what I thought.
Anyway, he tweeted out his “$1.5 billion plan” which is really just a Yeezy release schedule.
The fact that he’s calling himself a “rouge Maverick” here is hilarious. But just move passed that for a sec. There’s a pretty busy Yeezy quarter coming up.
A couple big retros coming up in December with the Zebras and the Bred joints coming back. I’m sure dude who spent all that money on the Zebras is sick.
There are also more foam runners coming down the line in October — not too far away. I still hate those, btw.
A new Yeezy QNTM colorway is coming for Christmas! Nice.
Anyway, take these with a grain of salt. A lot of these have dropped on time and a lot of these are schedule to drop soon, but y’all are still waiting on “Donda” right? Right.
Mamba Week was a disaster, but…
There was at least a little bit of good to come out of it. A Dad reached out to Nike about how badly his daughter wanted some WNBA socks that weren’t available.
Nike sent those socks and a pair of the “Girl EYBL” Protro 5 Kobe’s that dropped during Mamba Week. This is pretty dope, man.
This is the good, wholesome content you needed to start off your week. It is here. You are welcome.
What’s droppin’, bruh?
GOLF Wang Chuck Taylor Hi — Monday, September 14
Fragment x Jordan 3 — Thursday, September 17
Yeezy Boost 380 “Pepper” — Friday, September 18
Nike Dunk Hi Pro “Michigan State” — Friday, September 18
Air Jordan 14 Royal — Saturday, September 19
That’s a wrap for Monday, folks! We’ll chat Wednesday on the KYW Forum! Cannot wait to speak to you then!
Don’t forget to tell a friend to tell a friend to subscribe to the Kicks You Wear! They might have a pair of shoes waiting on em! 2,000 subs is right around the corner!
As always, peace and love. Be easy. Be well. Be kind.
Signing off.
—Sykes 💯
Feel bad for those folks at UA getting laid off. I remember a few years ago there was a lot of community folks mad about the way UA was acting around building their Baltimore campus, like UA expected to get whatever they wanted w/o community input.