Hidden within the depths of the Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., is a specialized team tasked with preserving artifacts important to the brand’s history. But despite the nature of their work, time stops for no one—and even they are subject to the testing ties facing the retail world.
The team, named the Department of Nike Archives (DNA), collects and catalogs items from Olympic memorabilia to more than 200,000 pairs of shoes—including the very first Air Max sneakers.
The archives aren’t open to the public but can be visited by researchers and designers. However, glimpses of the team’s work can be found online, courtesy of articles celebrating the brand’s earliest designs and reflecting its current position in the market.
As Nike puts it, the department’s role is to “find inspiration from the past to imagine the future.”
Unfortunately for the DNA, the future looks like a smaller team.
According to Bloomberg sources, the team has been hit by the brand’s multiyear cost-cutting plan, which will remove $2 billion from the business.
On a December earnings call, Nike’s finance boss, Matt Friend, outlined cost-cutting measures that would include “simplifying our product assortment, improving supply-chain efficiency, leveraging our scale to lower the marginal cost of operations, increasing automation and speed from data and technology, streamlining our organizational structure, reducing management layers, and enhancing our procurement capabilities.”
A matter of months later, Reuters reported the brand was planning to cut 2% of its 80,000-plus staffers. By June, some 740 roles will have been eliminated in what management has called the “second phase of impacts.”
While Nike may be the world’s biggest sportswear brand, the headwinds facing other retailers are still strong.
When the business announced the cost-cutting measures last year, Friend explained: “We are seeing indications of more cautious consumer behavior around the world in an uneven macro environment.”
Nike did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
2024 has brought some marginally better news for the brand, which reported revenues “were slightly up” in March, standing at $12.4 billion for the quarter.
Inside the vaults
While few people know the full extent of the Nike archives, fashion and beauty outlet Coveteur received a sneak peek in 2018.
As a result, Serena Williams fans learned where the tennis star’s famous black-leather-and-denim ensemble worn for the U.S. Open in 2004 went after her match, along with a bedazzled black tennis dress worn by Maria Sharapova.
Elsewhere in the archives is a jersey worn by Team Brazil to the Rio Olympics in 2016 and the very first Air Max shoe produced in 1987.
Newer innovations are also included in the archive, such as the Nike VaporMax, an extension of the brand’s Max Air trainers, which have a springy platform for comfort and dynamics.