Elliott Hill, the newly named chief executive officer of Nike, acknowledged that things have been rough for the world's largest sportswear brand in his first message to staff on Thursday.

His departure is overdue if you ask most people at Nike’s world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, where the general sentiment is that Donahoe mismanaged the brand , ruthlessly cut jobs, and oversaw a stale chapter in Nike design that favored reliable retros of old products rather than genuine innovation.