Outgoing Nike CEO John Donahoe is a former technology executive and consultant at Bain who was educated at an Ivy League university. The man who will take his place, Elliott Hill, started at Nike as an intern and spent his entire career with “the Swoosh,” aside from a brief stint as an assistant coach for the Dallas Cowboys football team.

The difference in profiles is striking. Nike hopes to reassure shareholders and motivate employees for the monumental task ahead: overcoming an existential crisis that threatens the company’s position as the world’s largest sporting goods manufacturer and one of its most famous brands. Sales are falling, products are out of fashion and its retail strategy is not in line with consumer preferences.

To restore its authority in the industry, the board decided, Nike needed an experienced insider at the helm, not a professional manager. Despite his history at Nike, however, Hill will still have a lot of work ahead of him.

Current and former employees, people familiar with the leadership transition and early statements from Wall Street analysts indicate that Hill will receive a warm welcome from the workforce when he takes the helm on Oct. 14. The reaction to the rehiring of Hill – who is just coming out of retirement – has been overwhelmingly positive at Nike, according to one current employee. “Elliott is truly a highly valued leader in the company,” they said.

“I’ve worked with so many people during my three decades at Nike, and Elliott was by far one of the most inspiring, supportive and down-to-earth colleagues I’ve ever known,” said Scott Reames, Nike’s internal historian who retired in 2021, in an email. “Judging by how my phone has been blowing up since the announcement, I’m far from alone!”

The abrupt leadership change came after months of speculation on Wall Street about Donahoe’s future at Nike. At the time of his appointment in late 2019, the company had already set goals to reach $50 billion in sales and boost online direct-to-consumer sales – goals that an experienced executive with stints at Bain and eBay could well achieve.

Donahoe has skillfully met these demands, leading Nike through the Covid-19 pandemic and even managing to return to sales growth by the end of 2020, less than a year after taking office. As diversity, equity and inclusion became the focus of major companies, he earned early praise from employees for taking their concerns to heart.

But his downfall was his well-known weakness: Unlike previous Nike executives, such as his predecessor Mark Parker, Donahoe was not a “product guy,” someone who was on the cutting edge of design. Retailers from JD Sports to Foot Locker have been talking openly in recent months about trendier sneakers from Adidas, On, New Balance and Hoka.

Nike’s decision to give up shelf space at partner retailers in favor of its own direct-to-consumer strategy – which began before Donahoe’s tenure but accelerated under his leadership – only opened the door to competitors looking to gain market share.

Even Donahoe’s leadership style marked him as an outsider. From the beginning of his short tenure, he told his staff that he preferred to present new ideas in black-and-white, bullet-point PowerPoint presentations rather than colorful, creative pitches.

Board members actively discussed succession plans this summer, one person said, and also considered two other internal Nike candidates: Craig Williams, president of geography and marketplace, and Heidi O’Neill, president of consumer, product and brand. But Williams, who joined Nike from Coca-Cola in 2019, and O’Neill, who joined Nike from Levi Strauss in 1998, couldn’t match Hill’s decades of experience.

In a post on X, former Nike marketing executive Kyle Stack wrote, “It’s reassuring to have a 30-year Nike veteran leading the company… Hill witnessed Nike’s rapid growth in the ’90s as part of the sales organization. He understands the business like no other.”

Hill, who turns 61 on Oct. 2, will be Nike’s fifth-ever CEO and the third lifetime Nike CEO, following co-founder Phil Knight and Parker. The only Nike CEO before Donahoe to come from outside the company was William Perez, a former SC Johnson executive who held the top job for just over a year.

Nike has rehired other executives with plenty of internal experience over the past year, including Tom Peddie, the former vice president of North America, who will help the company refocus its wholesale partnerships.

Nike’s efforts to turn itself around are entering a crucial phase. The company is scheduled to report its quarterly results on Oct. 1, marking the crucial pre-school period when analysts look for clues about demand for basketball shoes and hoodies. Nike has also scheduled its first investor day in nine years in November, when it will lay out its vision in more detail to shareholders concerned about recent share price declines.

Nike shares are expected to fall more than 20 percent in 2024, although the stock rose 6 percent on Friday.

Jay Sole, managing director at UBS, wrote on Friday that “Hill is an experienced, successful executive who could put Nike back on a growth path.” However, “sentiment could become more pessimistic if the market realizes that Nike’s fundamentals are probably not good and there are probably no quick fixes to Nike’s problems,” he added.

Sole noted that Hill’s experience in sales rather than product development could be a weak point for the company, which has been slow to launch compelling new sneakers in recent months.

The changes at the top of Nike will not stop the flood of competitors eating into the company’s popularity. “What will not change is the intensified competitive environment, characterized by emerging brands and certain resurgent heritage brands,” wrote John Kernan, managing director of TD Cowen.