Ron Faris, who served as vice president and general manager of Nike Virtual Studios, has joined Experience SVP, Marketing, Disney Consumer Products as SVP of marketing, Disney Consumer Products.

His exit was revealed in a LinkedIn post from Faris.

Faris joined Nike in June 2016 as VP, SNKRS Digital Product and GM, s23NYC Digital Studio after Nike acquired Virgin Mega. Previously, he was founder and CEO, Virgin Mega. He was global VP, SNKRS, NBHD, & S23NYC Digital Studio from November 2020 to June 2025 and has been leading Nike Virtual Studios since March 2022.

Faris’ exit comes as Nike shut down its virtual sneaker and fashion brand RTFKT last December and as reports arrived in May that Nike’s technology department was undergoing layoffs as part of restructuring efforts implemented by recently-hired CEO, Elliot Smith.

The Nike Virtual Studios team will report to interim leader Dave Vericker and will be nested under the Energy and Nbhd team, according to an internal memo attained by Retail Dive.

 Faris’ LinkedIn post announcing his Nike exit is below.

 Hey Friends,

It’s surreal for me to say this, but after nine amazing years, I’m leaving hashtag#Nike.

I’ll get into more about where I’m going in a little bit, but first I’d like to honor the teams and work that have shaped the best years of my career at a brand I love so much.

It’s rare to be at a place where you can innovate and shape culture at scale. Throughout my journey at the Swoosh, there were many people across SNKRS, NBHD, and Nike Virtual Studios who helped shape my perspective to grow both as a leader and as a storyteller. I thank all those teams deeply (across global and across the geographies) for partnering to help shape our path forward for nearly a decade. I also want to thank all the functions in legal, HR, comms, operations, and finance that kept us safe and helped execute our ideas in a way that never diluted the essence of our stories. And lastly, I’d like to thank the senior leaders (past and present) who championed out work, especially those who were the very first to trust our team and believe in us. I’m looking at you Dirk-Jan van Hameren and Adam Sussman.

To the SNKRS and NBHD teams, thank you for imagining and executing bold experiences that chang the game. Thank you for amplifying diverse, hyper-local voices and communities that inspire our authentic storytelling. And thanks especially to the stewards of the culture who have taught me the most at street-level, especially Nico Fearn Charles Williams Tonia Jones Dave Vericker Jonathan Joseph Masaki Yamane Dan Sunwoo

And to my most recent team at Nike Virtual Studios, led by the incomparable Sonam Dhingra, Nik Rupp, Isaiah Andrew, Nick Remlinger, and Nikhil Pandit (held together and kept honest by Veronica Morales Frieling!), I thank you and all your teams for your tenacity, your rigor, and your imagination. It’s been a wild ride and the connection to our community is only getting stronger. We’ve built a playbook that will energize a next generation consumer through powerful brand concepts and stories, audacious products, immersive experiences, and surreal consumer journeys. I can’t wait to see where you all take it next!

One last thing before I dip stage left:

Nike is an incredibly special place to work. And it manifests in the strangest of ways. Many years ago, when we were creating the vibe of our studio in NYC, I remember Erin Kelly and Jason Moy describing the art direction conceptually as “HIGH/LOW” – “think of it as premium aspiration with an undertow of street-level hustle to keep us real and grounded”. The below photo taken at our studio (which also serves as my wallpaper) shows a Jordan 1 hanging from a crystal chandelier. This is the essence of “High/Low” – it requires equal parts delusional aspiration and street hustle and grit to tell our stories. This is the soul and spirit of our working teams at Nike, especially those committed to shaping the culture of sport authentically.

Thank you all for the ride of my life…

With love and gratitude,

r