Nike

Nike sold RTFKT in December 2025 after shutting its NFT unit a year earlier, reversing a 2021 push into digital wearables.

Who they are

Nike appears in coverage as a consumer brand pursuing technology-led commerce and product experiments, from AR fitting, connected footwear and inventory AI to digital wearables, while navigating manufacturing, distribution and leadership challenges.

The recent arc

The coverage’s clearest recent arc is the unwinding of Nike’s RTFKT bet. Nike acquired the NFT and digital-wearables studio in 2021, RTFKT was reported to be closing by the end of January 2025, and the Oregonian reported in January 2026 that Nike had quietly sold the subsidiary on December 16 for an undisclosed sum. That sequence turned the earlier digital-products expansion into a divestiture story.

Other recent reporting has focused on operational reset rather than new digital launches: Bloomberg described Elliott Hill’s appointment as CEO amid revenue misses, while the Wall Street Journal detailed difficulties in Nike and Flex’s effort to automate shoe production in Guadalajara. The Information also reported that Amazon planned to resume direct Nike sales for the first time since Nike exited the marketplace in 2019 over counterfeit concerns.

The tension

Coverage centers on the gap between Nike’s technology ambitions and the hard execution of scaling them. RTFKT’s acquisition, shutdown and sale illustrate the fragility of the NFT strategy; the Flex automation effort exposed manufacturing limits with soft materials; and the renewed Amazon relationship tests whether broader distribution can coexist with Nike’s past counterfeit concerns and control of its brand channel.

Why it matters

If this trajectory continues, Nike’s technology story may be defined less by owning experimental digital businesses and more by applying technology to core retail, fit, inventory and manufacturing while rebuilding growth under new leadership. The Amazon re-entry and RTFKT exit suggest a more pragmatic channel and portfolio posture, though coverage does not establish whether that reset will resolve the underlying revenue and execution pressures.

Related: RTFKT · Amazon · NFT · Apple · Nike acquires RTFKT, an NFT studio founded in 2020, for an undisclosed · RTFKT, the digital wearables NFT startup Nike acquired in 2021, is shu