Ann Hebert, Nike’s NKE vice president and general manager of North America, has left the sportswear giant after 25 years, the company announced in a two-sentence press release, after a Bloomberg article on Feb. 25 detailed the business dealings of Hebert’s son Joe, who buys and resells sneakers.
Bloomberg reported that 19-year old Joe Hebert used one of his mother’s credit cards — her American Express corporate card — to buy over $200,000 worth of sneakers in an effort to resell them for a profit.
New KAWS x Air Jordan IV sneaker buyer kisses his shoe during the limited sale in Berlin, Germany.
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Sneaker resellers buy sneakers from retailers like Nike and Adidas ADDYY, -0.73% and resell them on the secondary market on sites like Facebook FB, -0.57%, eBay EBAY, -1.52% and StockX. The global sneaker reseller market was $6 billion in 2019 and is likely higher now, according to Cowen Equity Research.
Joe Hebert claimed that “he’d never received inside information” from his mother. Nike spokesperson Sandra Carreon-John said in Bloomberg’s Feb. 25 article that Ann Hebert told Nike about her son’s business in 2018 and that it did not violate any “company policy, privileged information or conflicts of interest.”
Nike’s media relations team told MarketWatch, “Ann Hebert made the decision to resign from Nike.”
Ann Hebert did not immediately respond to our requests for comment.
Nike’s stock is up 52.3% in the past year, compared to an 30.2% increase for the S&P 500 SPX, -0.30% over the same period.
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