Less than two years after former studio staff made damning allegations against Tom Sachs of a toxic workplace rife with sexual harassment and bullying, the artist has announced a September release date for his Mars Yard 3.0 sneakers with Nike.
The company unveiled the first Mars Yard shoes in 2012, and followed with 2.0 in 2017. Sachs’s most recent release with Nike was the more affordable General Purpose Shoe introduced in 2022—but then the company appeared to end the partnership.
The first rumble of trouble for Sachs came with, of all things, an anonymous job posting for an assistant position to an “high-profile art world family” that would be responsible for everything from childcare to “dog systems” and “closet systems”—language that tipped off Sachs staffers that the listing came from him and his wife, former Gagosian director Sarah Hoover.
The demanding job and its relatively meager pay of just $65,000 to $95,000 met with ridicule. It also sent former staffers crawling out of the woodwork, eager to share—albeit anonymously—their negative experiences working for the couple.
The complaints, first published in Curbed and then in an article by this reporter, were serious, and Nike quickly took notice. One complaint was about Sachs wearing only his underwear in a Zoom meeting with Nike. (The branding Sachs used for Nike hinted at issues with the kind of work environment he maintained, such as the phrase “work like a slave” initially appearing on the Mars Yard 2.0 box.)
A guerrilla campaign on the streets of New York from artist Corey Escoto had encouraged the brand to “Just Drop Him,” a play on the Nike slogan written in Sachs-like lettering beneath a roughly drawn Nike swoosh.
Artist Corey Escoto affixed this call for Nike to drop Tom Sachs on a truck on Broadway in Tribeca. Photo by wetlegz.
Before the accusations, the Mars Yard 3.0 had been rumored for release over the 2023 holidays. But Nike expressed “concern” about the reports and two months later confirmed that “we are not working with Tom’s studio at this time and have no release dates planned.”
At first, Sachs categorically denied the accusations against him. But after his Nike deal blew up, he expressed “regret” and promised to “professionalize our operations” with a formal HR—while insisting “I have never harassed anyone.”
Sachs did not respond to my inquiries about whether he had learned anything from the complaints against him, or what changes he had implemented. But his track record with the company as a consumer favorite likely went a long way toward smoothing over any concerns about his behavior: Complex noted that the Mars Yard 2.0 “is heralded as one of Nike’s best models from the 2010s and unworn pairs can fetch thousands of dollars on the secondary market.”
Just 18 months after the allegations first surfaced, last September, the company announced plans to once again work with Sachs, issuing a statement that “Tom has demonstrated and recommitted to fostering a culture of respect and inclusivity. We can confirm that our work with Tom will continue and this next chapter of NikeCraft will uphold our shared passion for team, product, and storytelling excellence.”
Two years on, Sachs and Hoover have clearly bounced back from the bad press. Hoover kept her book deal, and published The Motherload: Episodes From the Brink of Motherhood, about her struggles with postpartum depression (and a warts-and-all account of her marriage), in January. (The couple had a second child, a daughter, last year.)
Without directly addressing the way she and Sachs have treated their staff, Hoover recently spoke about hiring caretakers for her children to the New York Times, saying “Isn’t spending money to give someone a job and help make parenting more of a delight the whole point of working hard?”
The resumption of the Nike partnership, and the glossing over of all the allegations of bullying, abuse, and harassment, feels like something of a sign of the times. In the year 2025, are there any repercussions for anything, ever, anymore?
