Nike Inc. reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 net income of $712 million, down 2 percent from $727 million a year earlier, as net sales fell 4 percent to $11.2 billion from $11.7 billion on a reported basis — and 5 percent currency-neutral. Diluted EPS came in at 48 cents versus 49 cents last year.

The Beaverton, Ore.-based company released the results Thursday. On the earnings call, president and CEO Elliott Hill told analysts that the company's "Sport Offense" strategy is "driving results," with the clearest gains concentrated in the performance business, which reached $16 billion in fiscal 2026 and grew another high single-digit percentage in the first quarter of fiscal 2027.

Running, global football, basketball, training, tennis and golf all contributed positively in the quarter, according to Hill.

"Running is up double-digits again with consistent share gains," Hill said. "Global football benefited from World Cup energy to drive strong double-digit growth in all four geos. Training grew globally, led by EMEA. Basketball was up double-digits in North America with expectation that the sport will continue its momentum in the second quarter, and both tennis and golf grew double-digits."

Hill identified training as one of Nike's "largest untapped performance opportunities because every athlete trains." The Nike Mind offering is quickly becoming one of the brand's "top-selling franchises," he said, with demand also solid for Nike Pro and Metcon in the quarter.

In basketball, Hill pointed to the women's side as the category's "most powerful" growth opportunity. Nike has grown its women's basketball signature shoe business nearly 500 percent from fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2026. The Caitlin 1, Caitlin Clark's debut signature shoe, was the "largest women's signature shoe launch in Nike's history," Hill said — a rollout that reached 5,000 doors, twice the average distribution for a Nike basketball signature shoe. The wider door count signals a deliberate channel push into athletic specialty and national retail for performance product.

North America grew 2 percent year over year in the quarter, led by running, global football and basketball. "We are seeing good sell-through across all channels," Hill said. "In North America specifically, whether it's at Dick's Sporting Goods, Academy, Scheels, JD, Foot Locker, or athletic specialties, performance product is selling."

Jefferies equity analyst Randal Konik wrote in a research note that the Sport Offense may be working after all, suggesting "momentum is broad-based across sport categories rather than reliant on a handful of franchises." Konik added that "as performance becomes a larger mix of the business, underlying demand trends in North America increasingly look healthier than consolidated headline results suggest."

Wall Street's patience, however, is thinning. BNP Paribas Equity Research senior analyst Laurent Vasilescu recalled in a Friday note that Nike management said two years ago its "Win Now" strategy would be complete by the end of 2025.

"Then it was pushed out to the end of 2026," Vasilescu wrote. "[Thursday night] we didn't hear anything about the 'Win Now' strategy or at least an acknowledgement of a new timeline or goal post. This would suggest that the rightsizing of the business may last for several years to come."

Williams Trading equity analyst Sam Poser agreed that the turnaround will take longer than originally predicted. "While we continue to believe that Nike is taking the appropriate actions to right its business, its problems are greater than we previously believed," Poser wrote Friday. "Sales and margins will likely remain pressured at least through the third quarter of fiscal 2028. We anticipate acceleration in sales and margins in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2028, leading into the L.A. Olympics."

For sourcing and supply-chain partners, the message is mixed: performance categories are generating broad-based, multi-geo demand that supports order flow in running, football, basketball and training, but management offered no fresh timeline for when total-company revenue returns to growth — meaning capacity planning against Nike volumes should assume continued rightsizing through at least fiscal 2028, with a potential inflection tied to the Los Angeles Olympics.