Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to NIKE, Inc.'s Fiscal 2024 First Quarter Conference Call. For those who want to reference today's press release, you'll find it at investors.nike.com. Leading today's call is Paul Trussell, VP of Investor Relations and Strategic Finance. Now I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Paul Trussell. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss NIKE, Inc.'s fiscal 2024 first quarter results. Joining us on today's call will be NIKE, Inc. President and CEO, John Donahoe; and our CFO, Matt Friend. Before we begin, let me remind you that participants on this call will make forward-looking statements based on current expectations, and those statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in NIKE's reports filed with the SEC. In addition, participants may discuss non-GAAP financial measures and nonpublic financial and statistical information. Please refer to NIKE's earnings press release or NIKE's website, investors.nike.com, for comparable GAAP measures and quantitative reconciliations. All growth comparisons on the call today are presented on a year-over-year basis and are currency neutral unless otherwise noted. We will start with prepared remarks and then open up for questions. We would like to allow as many of you to participate as possible in our allotted time, so we would appreciate you limiting your initial question to one. Thanks for your cooperation. I'll now turn the call over to NIKE, Inc. President and CEO, John Donahoe.

Thank you, Paul, and hello to everyone on today's call. NIKE's foundational competitive advantages are the envy of the industry. As the global athletic market leader, our scale and portfolio allow us to create an impact that only NIKE can. Consumers all over the world recognize NIKE as the number 1 champion for athletes and sport as we fuel inspiration and push the limit of human potential with the industry's most innovative products. Over the past few years, we've navigated through an unprecedented external environment. We've worked through many challenges: societal, geopolitical, global health, supply chain and more. And during this time, NIKE has grown larger and stronger. In fiscal '19, NIKE's revenues were $39 billion. Today, we're over $50 billion. And what's more, our growth has outpaced the overall industry during this period. Let me offer a few examples of how we've redefined the game over the past two years. The consumer told us they wanted lifestyle product, and we delivered, growing Air Force 1, AJ1 and Dunk to be the three largest footwear franchises in industry history. We continue to set the bar in key global sports like basketball and global football. Jordan is now one of the leading brands in North America with potential for so much more. We've accelerated digital capabilities that fuel engagement with our brands and deepen direct consumer connections around the world. The list could go on and on. But we have a saying here at NIKE: There is no finish line. We never settle. We always measure ourselves against our full potential. NIKE has always been synonymous with sport. We're at our best when we deliver breakthrough ideas by lining up innovative product with distinctive storytelling delivered through differentiated marketplace experiences. And when we do it well, we expand and grow the market. Today, as I've just mentioned, we're succeeding in many areas of our business, but we expect more of ourselves and others. For example, over the past few years, we launched new product innovations in running, but we need to drive more meaningful consumer connections among everyday runners and scale these innovations more effectively across the marketplace. Our storytelling has driven energy in many areas, but we have the opportunity to cut through with more sharpness and clarity around the performance benefits and distinction of our products. And we built a best-in-class marketplace with unrivaled scale and reach. But we have the opportunity to deliver more compelling assortments, particularly when it comes to serving our women consumers. So across our company, we are focused and mobilized to address areas where we need to raise our game while continuing to drive competitive separation across the board. We're aligned. We're confident, and we kick into a new gear. One recent example: a couple of weeks ago, we had over 300 leaders from across the globe gathered here in Beaverton to immerse ourselves in our fall '24 lineup. Now our teams have been back together in person over the past 15 months, and our innovation pipeline is strong, and it was on full display. The excitement and alignment of our leadership team was clear as we continue to obsess over the product and storytelling we'll be bringing to life for consumers at the Paris Olympics and into the fall. Simply put, our teams are on the offense as we compete to win in all segments. And so today, I'd like to offer three examples where NIKE showed our best this quarter, where we brought together product, storytelling and marketplace to connect with consumers and drive results. Let's start with this summer's World Cup. At NIKE, as I've said before, it always starts with great product. And in football, that's led by Phantom Luna and Mercurial, our most innovative football boots as well as our array of national team kits designed for elite female players and last but not least, our style-driven collections that stood out so well this summer. We brought our culture of innovation to life through our storytelling as we dominated the conversation with a leading share of social voice. In particular, we were incredibly effective in reaching Gen Z women through our lens of sports, style and culture. On TikTok, our priority channel for Gen Z, our engaged audience, meaning those who actively interacted with our content, was up 172%, a huge statement of NIKE's ability to connect with authenticity to this important demographic. And we also extended the tournament's energy through our stores. I was in Australia this summer and got to experience our Dream Arena, the immersive retail destination we created for the World Cup by transforming our Sydney flagship store, just the latest example of how we can amplify global sport moments at retail. The experiences inside Dream Arena included the best of NIKE, jersey customization, local co-creator workshops, NIKE trainer-led workouts, exclusive product launches and more. The response to Dream Arena surpassed our expectations with some great learnings we plan to use at scale moving forward. And all this led to results. In both footwear and apparel, we beat our sell-through plans with strong double-digit growth across men's, women's and kids in Global Football. In EMEA, all our key boot franchises, Mercurial, Phantom, Tiempo and Phantom Luna saw double-digit growth in Q1, leading adult Global Football to grow double digits in the region. And in APLA, football also grew double digits with strong growth in kid-sized kits as we continue to inspire the next generation of fans to fall in love with the sport. And whether it was from this summer's World Cup and the Euros last summer or the WNBA and our investment in coaching, we are committed to growing the game for women's sports. Next, let's touch on basketball, another area where you can see our end-to-end offense driving accelerated competitive advantage. In basketball, we have an unprecedented portfolio of product. Earlier this month, we announced our latest signature shoe, Devin Booker's Nike Book 1. It's a shoe built for comfort and performance with clean on and off-court style. The Nike Book 1 will hit retail in December with consumer energy already building. And the Sabrina 1 continued its very strong sell-through this quarter, with both women's and men's interests high. And just a few hours ago, we launched the LeBron XXI. The XXI built on the success of the XX by keeping its low profile design and adding premium lightweight materials designed to connect with younger generations. Q1 also saw the official introduction of the Kobe Brand. We commemorated Kobe Day on August 24, with re-releases to very strong demand. In fact, demand's so strong that we only fulfilled a fraction of it. Along with Vanessa Bryant, we also selected six schools to be honored as Mamba programs for the upcoming college basketball season, with both their men's and women's teams having the opportunity to wear Kobe Brand player exclusive footwear. We see huge potential with the Kobe Brand both on and off the court as we continue to honor his legacy. And this quarter, we brought the energy of basketball directly to the consumer. We hosted tournaments in cities like L.A. and Chicago, culminating with the Nike World Basketball Festival in New York. These events created an electric atmosphere, especially during the NBA off-season like only NIKE can. In a quarter where Jordan footwear grew double digits, the Jordan Brand demonstrated its power by bringing Zion, Luka and Jayson Tatum to Paris for Quai 54, which is one of the world's biggest streetwear and streetball tournaments that doubled as a showcase of the culture and growing community of basketball. Moments like these don't just grow competitive separation for NIKE and Jordan; they also grow the game and the broader market. Finally, I'll walk through the geography where our overall vision comes to life best, Greater China. In Q1, Greater China grew double digits for the second straight quarter, and we're taking share in the market. It's in Greater China that we offer the consumer NIKE's most premium and elevated retail. The team gets the most out of our innovative product through world-class and locally relevant storytelling and strong marketplace execution. A great example is our women's business, which outpaced overall growth in the quarter. The work the team has done to serve our women's consumer in Greater China is proof of what NIKE can do when all the pieces are aligned. A highlight in Q1 in Greater China was our 3-day sport festival, Sportchella, where we welcomed thousands of women to connect with our three brands through movement and mindfulness. The team amplified the impact of the festival by partnering with Tmall to create the first Nike Super Brand Week, which drove more than 2 billion impressions. This partnership seamlessly integrated the events with a digital shopping journey that generated strong consumer response and engagement. Our Greater China team also brings our brands to life through our best retail experiences fueled by strong and meaningful storytelling. These breakthrough retail experiences highlight our innovations and marketing in a clear package for the consumer. For example, in Q1, our seasonal presentations and curated head-to-toe style guides had very favorable consumer response. Once again, this combination of innovation, storytelling and marketplace execution led to results. We took share in women's in Greater China this quarter, with strong growth across a wide range of products, from footwear with the Motiva and Free Metcon to apparel with our statement bras and leggings. Across our entire portfolio, the Greater China team has orchestrated a fully connected marketplace. They continue to transform digital commerce, launching China-specific versions of our apps, which are faster for consumers and more personalized, including a new Jordan destination to the Nike App in Q1; and their expanding connected partnership, which after just a few quarters is now live in 350 doors across 102 cities, driving substantially higher member demand compared to last quarter. Simply put, Greater China sets the execution standard for us, and our goal is to scale their success across all of our geographies, every sport and every dimension of our business. That's how we win over the long term. In the end, we're focused on moving with great confidence against the opportunities we see. Our teams feel energized, united by our shared passion and urgency for competing at the highest level. We set high expectations for ourselves at Nike. That's what winners do. Now more than ever, we're ready to bring our very best and demonstrate what NIKE is capable of. Let me turn the call over to Matt.

Thanks, John, and hello to everyone on the call. NIKE's first quarter results demonstrated the impact of staying on the offense when we drove a quicker return to a healthy marketplace in fiscal '23 and leading with operational discipline as we begin the new fiscal year. We delivered Q1 results in line with our guidance. Retail sales across NIKE Direct and Wholesale continue to grow on top of extraordinary sales this past year. Both Nike inventory and our total marketplace inventory are healthy. Working capital efficiency is improving with a normalized supply chain. Gross margins are expanding on an operational basis, excluding the effects of foreign exchange and transitory headwinds are abating. In short, we are building on a strong foundation for sustainable and more profitable long-term growth. Before reviewing our financial results, let me first speak to what we are seeing from our consumers in the marketplace and where we are driving focus and attention to unlock even greater potential ahead. In Q1, retail sales across NIKE Direct and Wholesale grew mid-single digits versus the prior year. Our top franchises are driving strong full-price sales and our newest product offerings across Nike, Jordan and Converse are generating positive consumer reception. Looking at inventory, we continue to feel very good about our position. NIKE inventory dollars are down 10% versus the prior year. Our total inventory units across the marketplace, including NIKE and our wholesale partners, are down double digits versus the prior year. Partner-owned inventory units are in line with the previous year, with levels planned to remain lean through our second quarter, a meaningful accomplishment after higher levels of wholesale sell-in during fiscal '23. On the whole, we are very comfortable with the level of inventory in the marketplace in relation to the retail sales that we're seeing as we begin increasing levels of wholesale sell-in in our second half. Overall, we're confident in the health and shape of our marketplace. NIKE Direct continues to lead our growth, up 6% versus the prior year. As we deliver on our strategy to elevate the marketplace through premium physical and digital retail experiences, we continue to see that consumers want to connect directly and personally with our brands. In fact, member engagement within our direct business is up double digits versus the prior year, with increasing average order values. Our stores delivered in an especially strong quarter, with traffic up double digits from last year and members driving an increasing share of our business as consumers shifted from our digital to physical channels. This is similar to what we are seeing across the industry. After seeing this trend build in early July and early June, our team was nimble in transitioning inventory to capture higher full-price sales across our entire store fleet. NIKE Digital grew 2% with nonlinear comparisons to the prior year, including liquidation actions and a higher number of product launches on the SNKRS app in fiscal '23. Looking through all that, what stands out are the underlying consumer trends we see in our digital business. This includes sustained momentum on the NIKE mobile app with growth in traffic and increasing member buying frequency. We continue to see a growing structural advantage as more consumers start their shopping journeys with us on mobile. Meanwhile, within wholesale, we see largely positive results from our most important strategic partners. Specifically, we were pleased to see high single-digit to low double-digit retail sales growth and strong inventory management with many of our key partners, including DICK's Sporting Goods and city specialty partners in North America, JD, Zalando and Sports Direct in EMEA, and Topsports and Pou Sheng in Greater China. We continue the reset of our business with Foot Locker, planning for near-term sales declines as they invest in consumer-right concepts for the future. Ultimately, we have a segmented portfolio of strong partners across price points and channels with no single partner representing more than a mid-single digit of NIKE's total business. Looking across the entire marketplace, we are confident in our brand momentum as we accelerate direct consumer connections, elevate our brands and create capacity for long-term growth. Looking ahead, our priorities start with our product pipeline. Over the coming seasons, we will build on the market share gains that we have accelerated in recent years by scaling newness and innovation across our portfolio, while carefully managing the health of our most iconic product franchises. This year, for example, we will build on the consumer momentum around running and modern comfort with performance and lifestyle franchises such as Infinity, Motiva, Invincible, Vomero 5, V2K and the Air Max 1. We will refresh our basketball portfolio across Nike and Jordan through innovation and style, and grow the Kobe brand. We will ignite the next chapters of Pegasus, the Jordan Game shoe, and Tech Fleece while continuing to grow powerhouses like Dunk and Metcon. As we look towards the second half of this fiscal year and beyond, from the tenth anniversary of Air Max Day to the Paris Olympic Games, we will introduce our next wave of Nike Air innovation. This will bring our most comprehensive evolution of the Air platform in years, one that we expect to catalyze both our brand and business. We will deliver pinnacle performance innovation to athletes while also scaling into new lifestyle franchises over the next several years. Ultimately, we are focused on scaling a deep, diverse and distinct product portfolio, not just for one quarter or one season, but for years to come. Last, we are turning the corner in driving more profitable growth while also recovering from transitory cost headwinds. This includes structural improvements in profitability in areas such as supply chain, with reduced digital split shipments and improved digital fulfillment costs enabled by investments in our regional service centers and a new transportation management system. NIKE Brand ASPs are up across footwear and apparel across all geographies as we focus on the price value of our products. In Greater China, consecutive quarters of double-digit growth, healthy inventory and sequential improvement in full-price sales will enable us to begin rebuilding towards higher profitability in the geography. Finally, we are focused on improving our marginal cost of growth with more modest increases in operating overhead this fiscal year, following two consecutive years of double-digit growth. We are doing this by unlocking speed and productivity as we transform our operating model to build a faster and more efficient Nike. Now let me turn to our NIKE, Inc. first quarter results. In Q1, NIKE, Inc. revenue grew 2% on a reported and currency-neutral basis. NIKE Direct grew 6%, with NIKE stores growing 12% and NIKE Digital up 2%. Wholesale grew 1%, reflecting our proactive decisions to restrain inventory supply and prioritize marketplace health, particularly in North America. Gross margin declined 10 basis points to 44.2% on a reported basis, primarily driven by higher product costs, and approximately 90 basis points of unfavorable changes in net foreign currency exchange rates, almost completely offset by strategic pricing actions. SG&A grew 5% on a reported basis, primarily due to increased demand creation expenses around the World Cup and more moderate increases in operating overhead benefiting from shifts in timing of technology investments for the remainder of the year. Our effective tax rate for the quarter was 12% compared to 19.7% for the same period last year, primarily due to a one-time benefit provided by the recent delay of the effective date of U.S. foreign tax credit regulations. Diluted earnings per share was $0.94. Now let me turn to our operating segments. In North America, Q1 revenue declined 1%, with wholesale down 8%, in line with our expectations following our restrained sell-in of marketplace supply. NIKE Direct was up 7% as NIKE stores grew 11% and NIKE Digital grew 4%. EBIT grew 4% on a reported basis, primarily due to strong gross margin expansion. In a competitive environment, our retail sales momentum grew throughout the quarter across NIKE Direct and wholesale. NIKE's back-to-school performance outpaced the broader industry with strong sales from our top franchises and clear consumer excitement around newness. Infinity 4 drove strong full-price sales as we partnered with key running specialty accounts to host community activations. Our newest generation of Tech Fleece, amplified by strong investment from key marketplace partners, drove retail sales up double digits from last year across NIKE Direct and wholesale. Zenvy, Go and Universa fueled double-digit growth in statement leggings with Dunk and Free Metcon driving strong sell-through. The Jordan brand continued its momentum with double-digit growth, led by Jordan Women's and kids, as well as performance basketball. In EMEA, Q1 revenue grew 6%, with NIKE Direct also up 6%. NIKE stores grew 17% and NIKE Digital declined 2%. EBIT declined 5% on a reported basis. Global Football and fitness grew double digits, and women's outpaced our total growth in the geography this quarter. New innovations and styles are resonating with Phantom Luna driving strong sell-through, Metcon up double digits and Motiva, our new walking shoe, off to a great start in creating a new performance category for NIKE. Pegasus, Invincible and Vomero also delivered strong results in the quarter. In addition, statement leggings and shorts grew double digits with integrated brand and retail experiences. As we deepen our focus on serving all segments of the running community, trail running footwear grew double digits with new product innovation and brand activations. In Greater China, Q1 revenue grew 12%. NIKE Direct grew 10%, with NIKE stores up 12% and NIKE Digital up 6%. EBIT declined 3% on a reported basis. Throughout the quarter, we saw incredible energy around the return of sport, with thousands of young runners joining our back-to-school kids race, players across cities taking part in our Jordan Flight basketball tournament, and historical highs in social engagement with our neighborhood accounts as consumers joined in hyper-local community experiences to celebrate our newest Kobe release. Retail sales across NIKE Direct and Wholesale grew double digits with another quarter of strong sell-through. In a highly promotional marketplace, we outperformed industry trends with improvement in full-price sales. Our performance dimensions led growth with consumer excitement around G.T. Jump, Sabrina 1 and Invincible. In lifestyle, Vomero and other retro running styles are gaining momentum as we prepare to scale over the coming seasons. In APLA, Q1 revenue grew 3%. NIKE Direct was up 3% with NIKE stores up 10% and NIKE Digital declining 3%. EBIT declined 17% on a reported basis. Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Mexico led our growth this quarter as we accelerated our momentum in international markets. Store traffic in Japan is returning to pre-COVID levels. Sales through our new Myntra partnership in India are already exceeding plan, and Mexico's digital business delivered double-digit growth. Kids led our growth in the geography, up double digits with strong contributions from Mercurial, Court Borough and Fleece. We also saw market share gains in women's lifestyle with positive consumer response to Air Max Koko, V2K and Gamma Force. In addition, Jordan continues its global growth with Luca and Tatum fueling strong momentum in Performance Basketball, and our new streetwear footwear franchise is resonating with consumers. Now let me turn to our financial outlook. As we look forward, we are confident in NIKE's new product innovation pipeline, brand strength, deep consumer connections and the health and shape of our marketplace. Our Q1 results reaffirm our expectation for healthy profitable growth this fiscal year. For the full year, we continue to expect reported revenue to grow mid-single digits. At the same time, we are closely monitoring the operating environment, including foreign currency exchange rates, consumer demand over the holiday season and our second half wholesale order book. As a reminder, this growth outlook includes approximately 4 points of headwinds from accelerated liquidation and higher wholesale sell-in during the prior year as we sold roughly five seasons of supply within four financial quarters. Therefore, quarterly comparisons across marketplace channels and in the aggregate will be nonlinear. We continue to expect gross margins to expand 140 to 160 basis points on a reported basis, which includes 50 basis points of negative impact from foreign exchange headwinds. We are cautiously planning for modest markdown improvements for the balance of the year given the promotional environment. We continue to expect SG&A to slightly outpace revenue growth, more specifically at the high end of mid-single digits. We continue to expect other income and expense, including net interest income to be $225 million to $275 million for the year and we continue to expect our effective tax rate to be in the high teens range. Now let me provide some additional color on our second quarter. We expect second quarter reported revenue growth to be up slightly versus the prior year as we faced our most challenging comparisons from fiscal '23. We expect second quarter gross margins to expand approximately 100 basis points versus the prior year, reflecting benefits from strategic pricing, improved markdowns and lower ocean freight rates partially offset by higher product input costs. We continue to expect a negative impact from 50 basis points of foreign exchange headwinds. We expect second quarter SG&A to grow mid- to high single digits. We expect our second quarter effective tax rate to be in the high teens range. For NIKE, being on the offense means competing to win now and over the long term. We are confident in our strategy, our leadership position and our ability to create even greater opportunities ahead. With that, let's open up the call for questions.

We'll take our first question from Bob Drbul at Guggenheim Partners.

Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. I guess the first question really is, when you talk about the innovation pipeline for fall of '24. Can you just expand a little bit more in terms of the focus or the categories or really sort of what you see driving the business that you laid out at the most recent meeting? And I have a follow-up.

Great, Bob. As I said in my remarks, we cannot underestimate the impact of having our teams back together in person over the past 15 months, and we absolutely see that kicking into gear with our product pipeline. In this past quarter, you heard a couple of great examples of performance innovation around Phantom Luna, our World Cup kits, the Infinity 4, which had one of our latest foam platforms, React X foam, highest energy return and lowest carbon footprint, that will sustain for many quarters and years. Over the next six to nine months into the Paris Olympics and beyond, there are several areas we're very excited about. Both Matt and I talked about basketball; I don't think we've ever had a stronger portfolio of basketball shoes, whether it's the Sabrina 1, the LeBron 21, Book 1. Jordan has Tatum, Luka, Zion and a great game shoe coming. Of course, we have Kobe. We see real growth in our basketball business and the growing game and market of basketball on and off the court. In running, we feel good about the Invincible 3 and Infinity 4, Vomero 5, OPeg 41, and we feel very good about coming into Paris as well as the Motiva, which we think have real legs. Air is an area we're putting a huge amount of focus on, and we're very excited about the innovations coming in Air, both performance and lifestyle. The tenth anniversary of Air Max Day in the spring coinciding with the Paris Olympics will be an important opportunity both in performance and lifestyle. We see several opportunities to build real scalable innovation and growth.

Got it. Thanks. And I just have a question. In North America, I guess, in the current quarter, what's the bigger tailwind to the business right now? Is it the Travis Kelce jerseys or the Colorado football merchandise?

Oregon Ducks jersey.

We love the NFL, and we continue to see a lot of momentum with Coach Prime, so both.

Up next is Adrienne Yih, Barclays.

Thank you very much. My question is about the shaping of wholesale. Matt, could you clarify whether we expect direct to be similar to the current quarter and if the slight increase in the current quarter guidance will come from North America wholesale? Additionally, John, you mentioned regaining market share in China, but also highlighted the ongoing promotional activities. It's encouraging to see that you're recovering full price. What kind of demand creation efforts are you implementing there? How does the promotional environment look as we exit the quarter? Any insights on exit trends? How should we view the trends over the next couple of quarters in relation to your long-term expectations? Thank you very much.

All right. Well, John, why don't I start on the marketplace? So, Adrienne, when we look at our performance this quarter, I'd be remiss not to reiterate what I said on the call, which is we saw very strong retail sales in the marketplace, up mid-single digits. In particular, we're very pleased with the performance across a range of our most important wholesale partners, delivering growth high single-digit to low double-digit. What I said last quarter in terms of the way that I was thinking about channel growth for this year, I said that NIKE Direct would lead our growth. It did this quarter, and we do expect NIKE Direct to continue to lead our growth throughout the remainder of this fiscal year. The period that we're heading into in Q2 and Q3 is really the higher levels of sell-in that we did last year as we proactively focused on returning our marketplace to a more healthy level. As an example, you might recall our Q2 wholesale revenue last year was up 30% versus the prior year. As we face those comparisons, we do expect that NIKE Direct will be the best indication of the growth that we're driving in the marketplace, while we comp those nonlinear comparisons in the prior year. But we feel very good about the health and the shape of our overall marketplace, including North America. We're continuing to focus on driving growth across dimensions, across channels, up and down price points and are very focused on building a product pipeline to enable us to do that over the coming years.

Adrienne, in China, it's interesting. I've been to China twice now in the past four months. We feel good about the market there and our position. A couple of things stand out. One, sport is back in China, which gives us great confidence about the future and the Chinese consumer in our segment, regardless of the macroeconomic outlook there. You saw we had strong double-digit growth in Q1 and Q2, and we're helping to drive momentum in sport there. I talked about Sportchella. I think Matt mentioned the back-to-school kids race. Giannis had a tour there this summer that got a huge response to outdoor basketball. We're doing what we do best, which is driving energy and excitement around sport, which then translates into our brand connection and our consumer connection being as strong as it's been in a long time. It's perhaps the best example currently where we bring this great innovation with distinctive storytelling and distinct marketplace reaction. Even in a promotional period, our full-price sell-through and our innovations are connecting well and doing well. We got inventory in shape much sooner than the market in China, so we're playing on the offense. We feel good about the opportunities in China in the coming quarters and into the medium to long term.

Yes. I would just add that the retail sales growth that we referenced in our two biggest wholesale partners is a great indication of the health of our inventory and our ability, especially in this first quarter, to flow a complete assortment and season into our retail stores in the marketplace. That's NIKE at its best. Our most premium elevated retail experiences, high levels of seasonal assortments where we can tell stories and really bring the breadth and the dimension to consumers. We saw that momentum build throughout the quarter. We feel really good about the decision we made to move fast. Even though the marketplace is promotional, we're on our front foot in terms of the way we're able to present our brand and our stories and our products to consumers in that market right now.

Next, we'll take a question from Alex Straton, Morgan Stanley.

Perfect. Thanks so much. I just wanted to focus on kind of the running innovation that you guys highlighted a number of times on the call across areas. I think you had said you launched some running in the last few years, but perhaps it didn't connect as much as you wanted or you wanted to scale it more effectively. So could you just touch on maybe what changed in NIKE's approach in the last few years? What you plan to do differently to reignite that? Thanks a lot.

Yes, Alex. We're at our best when we align innovative product with distinctive storytelling through a differentiated marketplace. In running, we have three different categories: racing, trail running, and road running or everyday running. In racing, we take our performance innovation, which sets the bar in the industry with the Alphafly, the Vaporfly and NEXT%. We have compelling breakthrough storytelling, whether it's breaking to or reaching the elite runner through a differentiated marketplace. We're doing well there. The Peg trail is doing very well in the trail running segment, which is the fastest-growing segment; and we feel really good about our innovation pipeline. We're increasingly leaning into the trail running community and to marketplace connection with that trail runner. In terms of road running, we clearly prioritize the everyday runner who wants newness and consistency, focusing on some key models and ensuring we get in the path of the runners. We've had very good innovation in the last couple of years, such as the Invincible bringing performance benefits from our road racing shoes, particularly ZoomX and great cushioning. Similarly, the Infinity 4 brought the React X foam platform, which has low carbon footprint and better energy retention, but we haven't been combining those innovations with getting in the path of the everyday runner effectively yet. So that's what we're focused on. That starts with distribution to ensure we're breaking through to everyday runners' shops. This includes our direct channels, wholesale channels, and running specialty doors play a really important role. You may have noted we launched the React 4 with running specialty doors, which is a step in the right direction. We're really working to break through in these channels and connect with runners in their community through Nike Run Club, our mobile apps, and being present in marathons and races.

There's also a meaningful opportunity as running influences lifestyle and sneakers. As we've seen tremendous success from a Classics perspective over the last couple of years, we have a rich heritage of products in our pipeline related to running for decades. We're also accelerating our opportunity in running lifestyle with some of our best franchises, capitalizing on the trend and the consumer shift towards modern comfort. We feel that one-two punch of innovation, performance combined with lifestyle will position us well to take greater advantage of the running marketplace holistically.

And next up is Matthew Boss, JPMorgan.

Great. Thanks. So John, maybe could you speak to underlying demand trends as the first quarter progressed? Any early fall trends that you're seeing in both North America and China? I'm curious what you see as the next leg of the Consumer Direct Acceleration strategy or any initiatives that you see to drive further market share gains as we look forward.

Sure. We saw mid-single-digit retail sales growth this quarter. We have a unique dynamic because we saw a difference in what we're reporting from a retail sales perspective versus where NIKE's reported revenue is, due to the restriction of sell-in that we put in place the last couple of quarters of last year. We expect retail sales growth to be in line with what we delivered this quarter from a mid-single-digit perspective. Regarding big consumer moments this quarter, 618 seems like so long ago; however, we were the number 1 sports brand on Tmall and saw impressive double-digit growth there. Within back-to-school, we outperformed the industry. We saw momentum building throughout the quarter, leading into back-to-school. We are encouraged by what we're seeing from a consumer perspective. Sport is growing, and the consumer is proving to be resilient. There are dynamics in terms of shifts happening from channels; we observed it with our partners a couple of years ago. This quarter, we are seeing consumers spend more time in physical stores, although 90% of their shopping journeys still start with digital. We believe our digital and physical strategy serves demand well moving forward.

As for the longer-term view, we still see the same fundamentals, which are some structural tailwinds in our industry. The definition of sport is expanding, with movement towards health, wellness and fitness including new areas like dance. We've had excellent interaction with breakdancers who will compete in the Paris Olympics. This expanding definition of sport places us at the center of that trend. The moving towards athleisure signifies that comfort, performance, and style don't have to be traded off—it combines all. Our leading portfolio of digital assets gives us a significant advantage as sport and commerce become one click away. In short, we believe we will drive real strong growth with great opportunities in women's, Jordan, running, and basketball, along with many other areas.

Jay Sole from UBS has the next question.

Great. Thank you so much. Matt, you talked about seeing underlying structural gains and profitability and margins. Can you just talk about how you're feeling about the long-term opportunity for margin in the context of the long-term guidance you gave a couple of years ago for NIKE's ability to get to a high teens EBIT margin over time? Thank you.

Sure, Jay. We remain confident in our ability to drive our long-term financial goals. Those long-term goals of profitability are still achievable, though the timing is difficult to predict. Fiscal year '24 is a turning point for us and a proof point for NIKE to drive more profitable growth. The structural drivers begin with creating value for consumers through our products. We're continuing to see benefits in gross margin from strategic pricing and managing our price value across all geographies. We're seeing opportunities in lowering supply chain costs as we focus on greater efficiency in serving consumer demand across channels. We've increased the size of our supply chain in the last few years to address the growth we've seen, both overall and in digital. We believe we'll become a more direct company and a more profitable one, supported by channel mix and profitability. We remain confident that these goals are achievable. Based on our gross margin plans this year and our Q1 performance, we believe we are turning the corner toward greater profitability.

The next question comes from Piral Dadhania, RBC.

Hi. Evening. Thank you for taking my question. Most have been answered. I could just ask a follow-up, a clarification. Matt, I think you said that in Q1, your partners registered a high single-digit to low double-digit sales growth in the period. I just wanted to understand whether that was their sell-out number or whether that was your sell-in number. Any clarification would be very helpful.

Sure. That was a sellout number. That was the sales to consumer number.

We'll take our next question from Jonathan Komp, Baird.

Yes, hi. Good afternoon. Matt, could I ask a follow-up, just as you think about the second quarter, given some of the unusual comparisons, would you be willing to share any shaping guidance across some of the segments? Then bigger picture, could you comment on the shape of the recovery of the sales and profitability that you're seeing in China?

Sure. As it relates to the second quarter, we expect our growth to be up slightly versus the prior year. I mentioned we expect retail sales to sell out to the consumer to be in line with the mid-single-digit delivered this quarter. The second quarter is the last season we've managed the sell-in to a more restricted level to ensure the marketplace was set right. In terms of comparisons, Q2 is comping about 27% currency-neutral growth from the previous year. We focus more on the quality of growth than just the numbers provided. We expect to see improvements in gross margins in the second quarter and believe we can deliver even better results moving forward. Regarding profitability recovery in China, when we have a healthy marketplace and drive full-price sales while being productive in our retail formats, we create an environment ripe for profitability improvement. We're increasingly confident we will rebuild towards higher profitability in that marketplace. Although we'll have challenging reported numbers in China for the next few quarters due to foreign exchange headwinds, we remain focused on driving a healthy, profitable business in that market where growth fundamentals are strong.

We'll go next to Aneesha Sherman, Bernstein.

Thank you. As a result of your direct-to-consumer strategy, you've shifted more than 20 points of sales mix from Wholesale to NIKE Digital over the last seven or so years. You're seeing shoppers returning to stores this year. You did make some adjustments by adding physical distribution points. Do you feel like you are in enough physical retail doors today to appeal to a rebalancing of shopping habits? A quick follow-up on overheads. You talked about lowering some of the specific costs of direct split shipments and fulfillment costs. Can you give us more color on the investment cycle to support the direct business, as well as centralized investments like ERP and where you are this fiscal year and next fiscal year? Thank you.

Matt, I'll take the first part, you take the second. Aneesha, our entire marketplace strategy is driven by giving consumers what they want, when they want it, how they want it. That starts with our digital properties and our own direct retail, which Matt will talk about in the second part of the answer, but wholesale plays a critical role in giving depth and breadth of access to our consumers. We've sharpened our wholesale focus over the past few years to invest in fewer multi-brand partners, where we're delivering elevated retail experiences while connecting with digital membership at scale. We have key partners in Nike Direct and specialty partners, where we perceive value. In areas where there are product or price gaps, we selectively add wholesale partnerships in different segments and geographies to enhance our marketplace. This will always be consumer-driven. Our direct connections are the strongest in the industry, allowing us flexibility in which channel to leverage. I was very pleased with the performance of our direct channels, which are on the front foot and serve as a connected, wide marketplace in this dynamic landscape.

Yes. The growth we've seen in digital does not change our mindset of meeting consumers where they are—whether it's in digital or physical stores. Our stores provide valuable experiences and touchpoints. Our investment focus is strategically aimed at enhancing these experiences. The digital fulfillment costs that we mentioned affect our gross margins; we've invested in regional service centers to serve demand and may reduce fulfillment costs. We are also implementing ERP across North America and have already gone live with our retail business. We aim to bring our wholesale side online later this year, which will further modernize our supply chain. I'm excited about this opportunity to serve consumers efficiently and to optimize our growth.

And everyone, that does conclude our question-and-answer session. It also concludes our conference for today. We would like to thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.