A senior Nike vice president resigned on Monday amid doubts about her family’s role in the turbulent tennis resale markets. Ann Hebert resigned as head of Nike’s business in North America just days after the company defended her and said it had not violated any company policy.
Bloomberg Businessweek magazine reported on February 25 about his 19-year-old son Joe Hebert and his fast-growing tennis company.
The article is full of anecdotes about Joe Hebert’s exploits in the secondary tennis market. His company, West Coast Streetwear, figured out how to use technology and boldness to buy hot sneakers in bulk before the rest of the market. Then, they routinely resell the shoes with considerable profit margins.
The secondary tennis market has become huge. He has the power to turn a disappointing shoe into a great salesman. The big companies that actually design the products and build them, like Nike and Adidas, seem to tolerate this.
Joshua Hunt wrote the original story for Bloomberg. He’s no stranger to Nike. He wrote “The University of Nike”, a hard-hitting look at the close relationship between Nike co-founder Phil Knight and the University of Oregon.
“I didn’t plan on writing another Nike story,” he told The Oregonian / OregonLive on Monday. “I knew something interesting was going on in this expanding secondary tennis market, so I started looking for a character to tell this story and I found Joe.”
Hunt writes that one day, on the phone with Joe Hebert, he saw Ann Hebert’s name on the caller ID. He did a little research and found out that she was Nike’s vice president.
He finally asked Joe Hebert about his mother. The young businessman insisted that his mother was not involved and then stopped communicating with Hunt.
Hunt then went to Nike for comment. Nike spokeswoman Sandra Carreon-John said Ann Hebert released relevant information about West Coast Streetwear to Nike in 2018.
“There was no violation of company policy, inside information or conflicts of interest, nor was there any commercial affiliation between WCS LLC and Nike, including the purchase or direct sale of Nike products,” said Carreon-John.
Everything changed on Monday. After more than 25 years at the company, Ann Hebert was out. She had gotten a big promotion just eight months ago, becoming vice president and general manager of operations in North America, one of Nike’s most important positions.
In this role, Ann Hebert led the sales, marketing, merchandising and other departments.
Asked to comment on Monday, Nike’s Carreon-John said only that “Ann Hebert made the decision to resign from Nike”.
The story comes almost a month after Errol Andam, a former Nike marketing executive, was charged in federal court with fraud and money laundering while working for the company. He allegedly directed Nike’s work to the company of a friend in which he was secretly interested.