Brands Briefing: Inside Nike’s revamped New York City flagship, part of its ‘Sport Offense’ and bigger bet on running

Now, as Modern Retail saw up close, New York City’s House of Innovation is focused much more on these ideals. Running, a major priority under Hill, takes center stage — not only on the first level, but also on the second level (women’s) and third level (men’s), where giant posters of athletes cover the walls and the carpet looks like a track. The fourth floor is entirely sports-specific, with an area for basketball, an area for soccer and a third area that will shift with the seasons. Right now, that third area is football, but it could be golf, tennis or another seasonal sport in the future. The Jordan brand has its own level (the entire top floor), with performance products and lifestyle products alike. Kids’ products are in the basement.

It’s a stark change from the previous New York City House of Innovation, which opened in 2018 amid Nike’s bigger bet on direct-to-consumer shopping. Back then, there was only one level for shoes (the fourth floor), with apparel on the other floors. Shoppers had to run up and down the stairs to build an outfit. (Now, they can get all categories on all floors.) There also weren’t full-fledged concept areas, like there are now for Nike Skims and the brand’s ACG (All Conditions Gear) line. And, Nike didn’t stress its value proposition as much — namely, its role in running, as well as its relationships with top athletes and teams.

With the old store design, “there was really no storytelling,” remarked Tim Rupp, Nike’s senior creative director of retail and experiences, who took Modern Retail on a tour of the building. “You couldn’t really feel the sport, and on top of that, it was very light in terms of product. Now, we’re bringing sport and the athlete back into it.” He added that Nike is crucially “leading with running.”

“Nike started by just talking to runners, saying, ‘Here are our shoes, and here’s why we’re better,'” he said. “It’s really good to get back to that.”

Leading with running, in fact, is something Nike will be doing in more of its stores. The House of Innovation in New York City will be a bit of a litmus test in this way, Rupp said. “We’ll take a lot of learnings from this and move it into the fleet,” he said. Nike has two other House of Innovation locations, in Shanghai and Paris, but hundreds of stores worldwide.

Nike is already making progress in running. Earlier this year, it redesigned a store in Austin, Texas to focus on running and training, and sales “significantly increased,” Hill said on last month’s earnings call. Nike will refresh its flagship in Portland, Ore. in a month, and that will “really lead with running in a bigger way,” Rupp said.

What’s more, Nike will soon host medal engraving and athlete chats at the New York City House of Innovation, timed to the New York City Marathon in November. It’s also started holding more run clubs and races near stores, a call back to its past. “I would say Nike started the running club culture, but we completely stopped, and then everybody else took it over,” Rupp said. “We’re slowly coming back into it.” In October, Nike came to the Chicago Marathon, hosting a relay race, launching a special collection of merchandise and installing out-of-home ads across the city. Approximately 50 million Americans participated in some form of running or jogging in 2024.

Tom Nikic, who covers Nike for Needham & Company, sees all of these changes as Nike getting back to its core competency. Under previous leadership, Nike ramped up its casual sportswear and “off-field” products like athleisure. Today, Nikic calculated, sportswear and the Jordan brand are responsible for about two-thirds of overall revenue, much bigger than a decade ago.

“Running, training, basketball [and] team sports all shrunk as a percentage of total revenues very materially,” Nikic said. “Nike, first and foremost, is a sports brand and a performance brand. Very clearly, the pendulum swung too far in the other direction, especially in the years post-Covid. It’s a smart decision to swing the pendulum back toward sports.”

All these changes are part of another, larger transformation at Nike. When Nike first opened its House of Innovation in New York City, the company was actively pulling back some of its biggest wholesale partnerships to focus on DTC. But, as analysts told Modern Retail at the time, Nike may have underestimated the power of wholesale — especially at a time when shoppers were looking for the best deals possible and weren’t tied to particular brands. In addition, during the pandemic, running shoe brands like Hoka and On stepped in to woo Nike’s customers. In early 2024, the Nike brand posted its first digital decline in nine years.

Now, Nike is looking to rebuild with its “Win Now” plan, under Hill, which includes the “Sport Offense” piece. Hill, a Nike veteran who returned in 2024, plans to revitalize Nike by restoring relationships with wholesale accounts, segmenting teams by sport (rather than men’s, women’s and kids’) and strengthening product innovation and design. Already, Nike is making some progress on the turnaround. Last month, Nike reported $11.7 billion in first-quarter revenue, up 1% year over year and above analysts’ expectations of $11 billion. –Julia Waldow

Mejuri’s latest wholesale play

Direct-to-consumer jewelry brand Mejuri opened a 300-square-foot shop-in-shop inside Nordstrom’s New York City flagship store this month, gearing up for the holiday sales rush and bringing a fresh look to the traditional jewelry counter. Courtney Hawkins, the brand’s director of retail, told Modern Retail that the location made sense given that Mejuri has several successful stores in NYC, but none in Columbus Circle, where the flagship is located. “This was a void in our demo, and we know we have a consumer there,” Hawkins said.

It’s not Mejuri’s first foray into concessions, but it is its first in the United States. The brand launched a similar concept last year inside several Canadian Holt Renfrew department stores. Now 12 years old, Mejuri operates 56 standalone stores globally and has sold to more than 3 million customers.

In designing the Nordstrom shop-in-shop, Hawkins said Mejuri wanted to maintain the same accessible feel found in its own stores. Items are displayed on branded counters, complemented by mirrors and window displays. Mejuri products will also be available through Nordstrom’s website. “Being able to keep our brand expression within such an iconic department store in the U.S. is something we felt really strongly about,” Hawkins said. –Melissa Daniels

Reddit hires its first vp of global agency and partnerships

Reddit announced that advertising vet Sharb Farjami is joining the platform to help grow its advertising business. 

Sharb’s arrival coincides with Reddit’s rapidly growing advertising business since going public in March 2024. In the past few years, the company has been courting e-commerce brands to leverage the social platform’s growing suite of advertising tools. In the second quarter of 2025, the company’s ad revenue grew 84% year-over-year to $465 million, with its total active advertiser count increasing by over 50% year-over-year.

Sharb comes to Reddit from the advertising group WPP. According to Reddit, he will lead the development of agency relationships and third-party partnerships. “Sharb will be responsible for growing Reddit’s ads business with agencies of all sizes around the world, as well as ecosystem partners like Smartly and Sprinklr,” according to the announcement. Sharb’s official start date is November 4, and he will report directly to Reddit’s chief revenue officer, Mike Romoff. 

“Sharb brings a wealth of perspective and firsthand experience of how creative, media and advertiser teams operate,” Romoff said in a statement. “Having led global agency networks, he’s a trusted and prominent voice across the industry who understands all sides of the business — from driving advertiser impact, to managing partnerships across global markets, to uniting teams at an impressive scale.”  –Gabriela Barkho

What we’re reading

• Mammoth Brands, the holding company behind Harry’s, has officially acquired Coterie. The diaper brand did $200 million in net revenue in the last 12 months, a press release revealed. 
• Kendra Scott is officially expanding beyond jewelry with a line of cowboy boots; the brand got more into Westernwear in 2023 with the launch of its subbrand, Yellow Rose. 
• Bombas is opening its own stores for the first time, with plans to open three brick-and-mortar locations within the next month. 

What we’ve covered

• Dagne Dover is expanding its wholesale presence in college bookstores, Midwest department stores and registries as it seeks to reach more new customers in secondary or tertiary cities where it has less brand recognition. 
• How kids’ apparel brands like Carter’s, Primary and Motette plan to woo budget-conscious parents this holiday season. 
• Kenneth Cole’s new CEO lays out his vision for the brand.