Fox Business Briefs: Nike Donates $ 5.5 Million Products to Healthcare Workers Facing a Coronavirus Pandemic; Pfizer is now testing an experimental vaccine to prevent COVID-19 in healthy volunteers.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Nike is abandoning plans to make soles for its Nike Air shoes in a suburb of Phoenix, the world’s largest sportswear maker announced Tuesday.
The company had decided to invest $ 184 million in its third American-made line for Nike Air sneakers in Goodyear, Arizona.
“We are experiencing unprecedented times and due to the impact of COVID-19, we will no longer invest in our Goodyear facilities,” said Greg Rossiter, Nike spokesman.
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Nike said last year that it planned to open the plant in 2020.
Rossiter did not tell The Associated Press if the plant had started operating.
Nike lost $ 790 million in the fourth quarter as increased digital sales failed to offset the loss of revenue from closed stores in most parts of the world. The company said last month that its revenue fell 38 percent to $ 6.31 billion in the three-month period ended May 31.
The company grappled with costs associated with reducing accumulated inventory, including wholesale sales and factory order cancellations. Product shipments to wholesale customers fell 50% during the period. CFO Matthew Friend said the company expects its inventory, which increased 30% in the fourth quarter, to be adequate size by the end of the second quarter.
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Nike’s Goodyear facility was controversial last year when Arizona Governor Doug Ducey threatened to withdraw state incentives because of the company’s decision not to sell the Nike Air Max 1 USA shoe, which featured an era emblem. revolutionary known as the Betsy Ross flag.
Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has a high-profile sponsorship deal with Nike, told the company that the flag is reminiscent of a time when American blacks were enslaved and white nationalist groups took it from him. They appropriated, a person familiar with the conversation told the AP. last year.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
