Yes. Converse is a wholly owned subsidiary of NIKE, Inc. Nike bought 100% of it on 4 September 2003 for about $310 million in cash, including acquisition costs, and today reports it as its own operating segment, run from Boston. Whoever owns Nike owns Converse: control of Nike sits with Swoosh, LLC, the vehicle co-founder Philip Knight formed in 2015, which held 78.8% of Nike’s Class A stock as of 30 June 2026.
Nike's fiscal 2004 10-K allocates $246.2 million of the price to unamortized trademarks and $69.1 million to goodwill. In other words, the deal was mainly a purchase of the Chuck Taylor and All Star brands.
02
Its own segment inside Nike
Nike reports Converse on a stand-alone basis, separate from the four NIKE Brand geographies. Converse's own stores and websites sit inside the Converse segment, not inside NIKE Direct.
03
Three ways to earn
In fiscal 2026 (the year to 31 May 2026) Converse earned $605 million from wholesale, $477 million direct to consumer and $92 million from licensees who pay royalties to use its trademarks. Footwear was $1,013 million of the $1,174 million total.
04
Control sits with the Knight vehicle
Class A shareholders elect eight of Nike's eleven directors at the 2026 annual meeting, and Swoosh, LLC holds most of the Class A stock. Converse decisions therefore roll up to a board that the Knight vehicle controls.
Converse revenue fell 31% to $1,174 million in fiscal 2026, and its EBIT fell from $240 million to $18 million. Nike’s 10-K says Converse is “in the midst of a strategic reset of the brand and marketplace” and expects negative impacts to continue throughout fiscal 2027.
Margins squeezed
Converse gross margin was 43.8% in fiscal 2026, against 48.7% in fiscal 2025 and 52.5% in fiscal 2024, according to the same filing.
Still shrinking this quarter
In the quarter to 31 August 2026 Converse revenue was $263 million, down 28%, with declines across all territories, and EBIT was $25 million against $39 million a year earlier (Nike Q1 fiscal 2027 release).
Folded into Nike's Pace programme
On 1 October 2026 Nike announced Pace, an operating model programme that realigns the company into three geographies, adds a new campus in India for enterprise capabilities and targets about $2.5 billion of cumulative savings through fiscal 2031. Nike has not said in the filing how Converse will sit in the new geography model.
Converse inside Nike: the sourced numbers
Owner
FigureNIKE, Inc., 100%
Period and sourceSince 4 September 2003, Nike 10-K fiscal 2004
Period and sourceIncluding acquisition costs, Nike 10-K fiscal 2004
Revenue
Figure$1,174 million, down 31%
Period and sourceFiscal 2026, Nike 10-K
EBIT
Figure$18 million (fiscal 2024: $474 million)
Period and sourceFiscal 2026, Nike 10-K
Converse stores
Figure60 in the US, 54 outside
Period and sourceIncluding factory stores, Nike 10-K fiscal 2026
What it means for you
Investors: there is no Converse share to buy; exposure comes only through Nike, where Converse was about 2.5% of fiscal 2026 revenue.
Watch Converse gross margin each quarter: a recovery on smaller sales means the reset is working, a flat margin on falling sales means the brand is fading.
Retailers: expect Converse to stay selective on wholesale while the reset runs; its wholesale revenue fell 31% in fiscal 2026.
Licensees: the $92 million royalty line is the cleanest read on the trademarks' value; it fell less than wholesale in fiscal 2026.
Operators: Converse shows that an acquired brand can stay a separate segment for over twenty years when the asset is the trademark, not the factory.
The Business Engineer lens
Converse is a trademark asset that Nike runs as a separate business, and its value rests on how well the Chuck Taylor and All Star names hold price. When product discovery shifts to AI assistants and agents that compare and recommend, heritage names with clear meaning are the brands most likely to be asked for by name, so the reset of price and distribution matters more than volume.
$1,174 million in fiscal 2026, the year to 31 May 2026, down 31% from $1,692 million in fiscal 2025 and $2,082 million in fiscal 2024.
Who controls Nike, and so Converse?
Swoosh, LLC, formed by co-founder Philip Knight, held 78.8% of Nike's Class A stock as of 30 June 2026; Class A shareholders elect eight of Nike's eleven directors.
The complete explainer, cleaned up and reformatted for mobile.
In short
Yes. Converse is a wholly owned subsidiary of NIKE, Inc. Nike bought 100% of it on 4 September 2003 for a cash price of about $310 million, including acquisition costs. Today Converse is a separate reporting segment inside Nike: in fiscal 2026 (the year to 31 May 2026) it made $1.17 billion of revenue, down 31%, and $18 million of EBIT, as Nike resets the brand.
Correction (10 Oct 2026): earlier versions of this page gave the price as $305 million and quoted older revenue figures without dates. Nike’s fiscal 2004 10-K (Note 15) puts the cash purchase price, including acquisition costs, at approximately $310 million; all revenue figures are now from Nike’s fiscal 2026 10-K, with fiscal years labelled.
How we source: figures on this page come from the company’s own filings (SEC 10-K, 10-Q, prospectus and earnings releases, or its annual report), with the period stated next to each number; outside estimates appear only labelled, with their source and date. Last refreshed October 2026. Our methodology.
Nike’s fiscal year ends on 31 May. FY2026 = June 2025 to May 2026. Share of Nike: Converse was about 2.5% of NIKE, Inc.’s $46.4 billion revenue in fiscal 2026.
Who owns Converse?
Nike does, outright. Nike’s 10-K calls Converse a wholly owned subsidiary brand, headquartered in Boston, that designs, distributes and licenses casual sneakers, apparel and accessories under the Converse, Chuck Taylor, All Star, One Star, Star Chevron and Jack Purcell trademarks.
There is no separate Converse stock to buy and no outside shareholder in Converse. Whoever owns Nike owns Converse. Nike reports Converse as its own operating segment, so its revenue and profit are disclosed every quarter.
And who owns Nike?
Nike is a public company, but control sits with its co-founder’s family vehicle. According to Nike’s 2026 proxy statement, Swoosh, LLC, formed by co-founder Philip Knight in 2015, holds 78.8% of Nike’s Class A stock, and Class A shareholders elect eight of Nike’s eleven directors. Large index funds such as Vanguard (7.5% of Class B) hold the economic shares that trade. See who owns Nike.
When did Nike buy Converse, and for how much?
Nike completed the purchase on 4 September 2003, at the start of its fiscal 2004 second quarter. Its fiscal 2004 10-K puts the cash purchase price, including acquisition costs, at about $310 million. The $305 million often quoted is the headline deal value reported at the time, before those costs.
The purchase allocation shows what Nike was really buying: $246.2 million of the price went to unamortized trademarks and $69.1 million to goodwill. In other words, Nike paid mostly for the names (above all Chuck Taylor and All Star), not for factories or stores.
Converse under Nike: timeline
4 Sep 2003
Nike buys 100% of Converse
About $310M cash; Converse joins Nike’s ‘Other’ businesses (FY2004 10-K).
Fiscal 2004
First year inside Nike
Converse added about 2 points to Nike’s consolidated revenue growth (FY2004 10-K).
Converse sells three ways. In fiscal 2026, wholesale to retailers brought in $605 million, direct to consumer (its own stores and websites) $477 million, and licensing $92 million, paid by partners who use Converse trademarks in territories Converse does not serve directly.
By product, footwear is almost everything: $1,013 million of the $1,174 million. Apparel ($48 million) and equipment ($21 million) are small. That makes Converse a classic one-icon business: its results move with demand for a handful of sneaker silhouettes.
The Business Engineer view
Why Nike keeps a shrinking brand
Converse is small inside Nike, about 2.5% of revenue in fiscal 2026, and it is shrinking: revenue fell 44% in two years, and EBIT fell from $474 million to $18 million. Gross margin dropped from 52.5% to 43.8%, which Nike’s 10-K attributes to lower prices, heavier discounting and channel mix, plus the costs of resetting the brand, including inventory write-downs and severance.
So why keep it? Structurally, Converse is a trademark asset more than an operating business. Nike paid mostly for the names, and those names still earn licensing royalties and give Nike a casual, heritage brand that does not compete head-on with Nike performance products. When a brand like that is over-distributed and over-discounted, the usual fix is to shrink first: fewer, cleaner wholesale accounts and fewer promotions, then rebuild price. Falling revenue during a reset is part of the plan, not proof that it failed.
The test is margin, not size. Nike told investors to expect negative impacts from Converse to continue through fiscal 2027. If gross margin recovers toward its old 50%-plus level on a smaller sales base, the reset worked; if revenue keeps falling while margins stay near 44%, the brand is losing relevance.
What to watch
Converse gross margin in each quarterly release (43.8% in fiscal 2026)
Wholesale revenue: a planned cut shows up here first
Licensing income: a read on the value of the trademarks themselves
Frequently asked questions
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Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
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