The situation: Even as Nike ranks as the fourth-largest retailer globally by D2C sales and sixth in YouGov’s latest global brand power survey, CEO Elliott Hill faces a growing list of challenges.

The details: Nike is being pressured by regulatory scrutiny and rising global competition.

• In the US, Nike is under investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over allegations that its diversity policies discriminate against white employees.
• Adidas, which ranked just ahead of Nike in the YouGov global brand power survey, is gaining ground, posting 13% currency-neutral revenue growth for the second consecutive year on double-digit growth across all markets and channels.

Meanwhile, Chinese sportswear group Anta is pressing Nike on multiple fronts, having taken a 29% stake in Puma and opened its first US flagship store in Beverly Hills. The store features a curated assortment of footwear and apparel and doubles as a community and cultural hub, hosting run clubs, athlete-led activations, and programming celebrating the intersection of Chinese American heritage, sport, and performance innovation, per WWD.

Nike’s challenges are most acute in China, where the brand is losing cultural relevance, in part due to Gen Z’s embrace of the “Guochao” movement, which celebrates Chinese heritage and homegrown brands. Revenues in the market fell 17% on a reported basis and 13% in constant currency in the most recent quarter, prompting Hill to acknowledge the need to “reset our approach to the China marketplace.”

Turnarounds take time: Hill described Nike as being in the “middle innings” of its turnaround, noting progress rebuilding its wholesale business and boosting North American sales while laying groundwork elsewhere.

Nike is leaning into innovation and culture to regain momentum. The company is relaunching All Conditions Gear (ACG) as a standalone, high-performance outdoor brand and will open its first dedicated ACG Base Camp flagship in Beijing this month, positioning the store as a “physical manifesto” of the brand.

It is deepening ties with women through its Skims collaboration, blending Nike’s technical expertise with Skims’ body-first philosophy.

Nike is also experimenting with unexpected cultural moments. Its recently launched Kirkland Signature x Nike SB Dunk Low collaboration generated a surge in demand that drove up resale prices from $134.99 at Costco to as high as $1,000 on secondary markets.

Implications for Nike and other brands: Nike hasn’t lost its brand power, but that pull has limits when the company is dealing with multiple, unrelated pressures at once. The US EEOC investigation risks dragging Nike into a culture-war debate it has little incentive to fight. In China, it faces a difficult macro environment and intensifying competition from domestic players like Anta and Li Ning.

Navigating that mix requires a “yes-and” approach to marketing and execution. Nike needs to maintain its decades-long global brand equity—through partnerships with superstars like LeBron James, whose Forever King Tour stopped in Shanghai and Chengdu last year—and find ways to build local credibility through stores, community engagement, and region-specific brand messaging.

Doing both at the same time—and doing it consistently across regions and generations—is hard, but that balance will be critical to sustaining Nike’s relevance in an increasingly fragmented global marketplace.