Nike has announced its replacement for former VP/GM Ann Hebert following the resell controversy that was unearthed just a matter of days ago.
For those unfamiliar with the matter, Ann’s son, Joe Hebert — aka WestCoastStreetwear, was featured in a Bloomberg story detailing his massive resell business. The story mentioned that Joe’s mom has worked for Nike over the past 25 years and was the Swoosh’s VP/GM of North America. The revelation of Joe’s business and his mother’s role with Nike led to a widespread lash out within the sneaker community. Ann Hebert stepped down from her role after working with Nike for a quarter of a century.
Members of the sneaker community are demanding an explanation, transparency and future course of action regarding the Hebert fiasco as well as a change in business practices by upping production numbers to limit the allure of resale.
Nike CEO John Donahoe addressed the situation to Complex on March 9.
There’s no value more core to who we are than the trust our consumers put into us and our brand and our products. And the fact of the matter is, this incident has sparked questions in some of our consumers about whether they can trust us, particularly around launch product.
We’ve been working on anti-bot technology for the last several years. That is part of the solution, but we need to double down our efforts
John Donahoe, Nike CEO
In addition to the statement, Nike has announced Ann Hebert’s replacement.
Nike named Sarah Mensah as its new VP/GM of North America. Nike also named Amy Montagne the brand’s newest VP/GM of the Asia Pacific and Latin America (APLA) region. Mensah and Montagne will report to Heidi O’Neill, Nike’s president of consumer and marketplace.
Keep it locked on Nice Kicks as we await to see what other measures the brand looks to implement in its business model as well as how it combats bots and resell culture.
