Nike’s turnaround is stalling, and its Converse brand is a big reason why

Converse makes up just 2.5% of Nike’s sales. Last quarter, it accounted for 20% of the company’s sales decline.

Two years into Elliott Hill’s tenure as Nike’s CEO, the 118-year-old maker of the Chuck Taylor is a big drag on a comeback that isn’t coming together, with Converse sales down 28% in the most recent quarter and analysts openly wondering whether Nike will keep it in its portfolio.

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Converse’s Chuck Taylor high-tops have gone in and out of style over the decades, but the shoe’s vulcanized rubber sole and heavy, stiff profile are out of step with trends right now, and the brand is enduring an unusually long, deep cold streak.

Too dependent on one style

Nike bought Converse for $305 million in 2003, seeing enormous potential to rehabilitate an iconic brand. Converse had dominated athletic footwear for decades, but by the 1990s, it was reeling, and it ultimately filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001. 

Converse started out as a rubber shoe manufacturer in 1908 and early on made items like winterized rubber-soled footwear and galoshes. Then in 1916, it made its first ever basketball shoes, introducing the Converse All-Star the following year. The model became the first real hit in the emerging athletic shoe industry. Converse’s growing popularity accelerated in 1932 when it unveiled a pair redesigned by Chuck Taylor, a semi-pro player and sneaker salesman who worked for the company. The shoes would ultimately bear his name as well as the “All-Star” ankle patch. Generations have worn the style since, from Kurt Cobain to Charli XCX.

But now Converse is in its worst slump since the 1990s. Converse hit its peak in 2023, with sales reaching an all-time high of $2.43 billion. But they had more than halved to $1.17 billion last fiscal year. If its current rate of decline continues for the rest of the fiscal year, sales will fall below $1 billion for the first time since 2010. 

Analysts blame the falloff on Converse’s inability to innovate and its overreliance on the Chuck Taylor model. 

“They’re far too dependent on one item and when that one item cools off, like it is now, there’s no place to hide,” says Matt Powell, a footwear industry veteran now serving as a senior advisor to BCE Consulting. “It’s a fashion business and nothing lasts forever.”

Converse is run separately from Nike with its own CEO who reports to Hill. It has a few other shoe models, such as the Jack Purcell, named for a 20th-century Canadian badminton star, that is having some success, but Chuck Taylors account for the lion’s share of the business. (Vans, owned by VF Corp, has had a similarly hard time in recent years for the same reason: over-reliance on skater shoes in its distinctive checkered patterns.)

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Rivals are winning over the same shoppers

Converse sits in a tricky spot in the shoe market between casual footwear, fashion sneakers, and lifestyle shoes. Over the past few years, that space has become much more crowded, with brands from On Running to APL to Deckers Brands’ HOKA to New Balance managing to meet consumers’ changing tastes.

Powell says Adidas, which has found enormous success tweaking its classic models, can serve as a model for Converse. The German athletic brand has kept its classic Samba shoe hyper relevant by introducing new variations, such as its recent slip-on version.

Still, Converse’s sales hemorrhage raises fair questions about whether this is more than a cyclical decline. “We’ve never seen a 44% decline in demand for a brand,” BNP Paribas Equity Research senior analyst Laurent Vasilescu wrote, citing Converse’s sales deterioration in the fiscal quarter that ended in November 2025. The analyst said he wouldn’t be surprised if Nike ultimately decided to sell off Converse.

Last month, Nike CEO Hill said he was focusing on getting Converse “back to financial health.” A Nike spokesperson said, “Converse remains an important part of the portfolio” and declined to provide specific details on how Hill planned to revive the brand, adding that the company would provide an update at Nike’s investor day next month.

Nike’s last remaining acquisition

In recent years, Nike has sold off most of the brands it acquired: Cole Haan, Umbro, Starter, Bauer, and Hurley, leaving just Converse. Vasilescu says Converse could meet the same fate, given its recent performance and the parent company’s need to focus on fixing other ailing parts of its business, like sales in China and its Jordan brand. 

Powell sees a lot of life left in Converse—as part of Nike or otherwise—especially if it launches versions that are less heavy, less stiff, and more breathable. 

“If and when this shoe hits again, it’s going to be ridiculously successful,” he says.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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