Nike knows what it is doing, and it knows its customers which are ethically diverse with the majority under the age of 35. Nike also knows that they will lose some customers short-term, but not the kind of customers that really drive their business. The new Nike campaign is just the first step in renewed partnership with Kaepernick, which features his face along with the slogan, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” Kaepernick hasn’t been on an NFL Team roster since 2016 after he started kneeling for the U.S. national anthem to protest racism and police brutality. This move by Nike sends a strong signal to their current roster of athletes and shows that Nike continues to stand alongside its endorsed athletes and their causes dating back to 1973 with runner Steve Prefontaine, the company’s first athlete endorser. To most recently when the organiz- ers of the French Open banned an outfit worn by long-time Nike athlete, Serena Williams with the company tweeting “You can take the superhero out of her costume, but you can never take away her superpowers” in support of Williams who also appears in the Nike commercial with Kaepernick. 52 years ago another African American who was not Nike endorsed, an athlete stood up for his beliefs by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs, and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War. He was arrested for his action and found guilty of draft evasion charges and stripped of his boxing titles. Like Muhammad Ali, Kaepernick will take the action against him by the National Football League to court. Will he be successful like Ali was in 1971 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction, well that is yet to be determined, but either way both Ali and Kaepernick lost a period of peak performance as athletes to “Just do it” and deserve the opportunity to have their case heard in court.
By Jamie Barrie M any are still wondering was Nike’s new Colin Kaepernick ad just a successful marketing ploy for the brand or was it meant to be an inspirational message for not just athletes, but for everyone to stand up for your cause, well we think that it was both. When Kaepernick Twitted regarding the Nike ad it blew up on social media with the vast majority of the responses to the announcement and campaign either in support or neutral to the move by Nike to ad Kaepernick as a spokes- person for the company. Of course you are going to have your haters, posting videos of themselves burning Nike shoes and apparel or cutting the swoosh logo off their clothing in protest, but whether you like Kaepernick or not as a player we applaud him as a person. A person that has sacrificed his career to stand up for what he believed in and that says something about his character as a person and for Nike to have the courage to stand behind the player and person that they signed an endorsement deal with when he first entered the NFL in 2011.
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SEPTEMBER 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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