All About Laughs
A Nike Vice President had to step down this week after it was revealed that her son had been using her credit card to purchase sneakers and resell them at a marked up rate.
Ann Hebert was the vice president and general manager of Nike’s North America business. She stepped down today in the wake of a Bloomberg Businessweek report. In the report, a young man named Joe Hebert was spotlighted for the success of his sneaker flipping business.
Ann’s 19 year old sun Joe runs West Coast Streetwear. He told Bloomberg that in May of 2020 they were able to make over $600000 in profits. He claims to have monthly revenue of more than $200,000 — making profits of at least $50,000 per month in the shoe flipping industry now reported to be worth $2 billion annually.
“We know that Nikes have the most variety in styles and the best discounts on their more select shoes,” his buddy Justin Taliaferro told Bloomberg.
It was the revealed that Joe had used his mothers credit card to purchase over $132,000 in sneakers that he then flipped.
Pressure and scrutiny where high for Ann following the publication of the article. Nike strictly forbids its employees from reselling items. She was left no choice but to step down from her position due to the conflict. Ann had been with Nike for over 25 years.
She had only been promoted to Head of Nike last year, after serving as the company’s vice president of global sales. In a press release announcing her promotion at the time, Nike said Hebert would be “instrumental in accelerating our Consumer Direct Offence”. This is the strategy of selling products directly through Nike’s webpage, flagship stores and mobile apps that helped resellers acquire hot sneakers more efficiently, as Bloomberg noted.
Sandra Carreon-John, a spokesperson for Nike added that Ann had told the company about her son’s business in 2018 and the spokesperson said she hadn’t violated any company policy.
Carreon-John went on to say, “There was no violation of company policy, privileged information, or conflicts of interest, nor is there any commercial affiliation between WCS LLC and Nike, including the direct buying or selling of Nike products.”
Joe’s company, West Coast Streetwear has been relatively quiet on social media. Its business page has not posted in over 18w, and its company website is not active. “We’ll be right back” says their landing page.
