Nike take a punt on the NFL rebel
STORM AS KIT GIANTS BACK KAEPERNICK
It IS always money, and never sentiment, which drives Nike’s decisions about which athletes they choose to make the face of their products. Colin Kaepernick is no exception.
In the two years since the then San Francisco 49ers quarterback crossed a rarely breached line — kneeling when the US national anthem was played before an NFL game, in protest against a string of police killings of unarmed black citizens in the United States — he has discovered how it feels to be ostracised.
President Donald trump appropriated the counterprotest against what some Americans felt was Kaepernick’s lack of patriotism. So he found no side would sign him and that thousands denigrated him. His name even mysteriously vanished from an EA Sports NFL computer game, which the gaming company claimed was an innocent mistake. Nike quietly retained him on their roster, where he has been since 2011.
the advent of the new NFL season has coincided with their decision to ‘activate’ him, as the face of an advertising campaign marking the 30th anniversary of their ‘Just Do It’ motto. It was an edgy decision from a company who have liked to make noise that way ever since the 1981 John McEnroe advert, ‘McEnroe’s favourite four-letter word’. they timed things for Labor Day, on Monday, which always brings advertisers big profile.
they could surely have not foretold what a storm would be unleashed. Nike were maintaining a silence last night after a day which saw their apparel burnt, 30,000 people tweet #Nikeboycott yesterday and the company’s share price fall by more than two per cent.
Kaepernick’s protest was a hugely significant and relatively rare example of sport playing its part in effecting change. He knelt to make a stand against the casual way in which African Americans like terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott had been shot dead by police.
then trump entered the ensuing controversy, making it a part of the culture wars which have characterised his presidency. He challenged NFL owners to sack any player who disrespected the American flag and the military.
Kaepernick fits precisely with the kind of athlete Nike like to use. ‘they always pick the outsider and like to adopt the counter-cultural identity,’ says Richard Gillis, managing partner of the Havas agency. ‘they like to contrast with Adidas, who are the official partner of the Olympics and World Cup. Despite being one of the most capitalistic companies in the world, they self-identify as outsiders. the role models they choose reflect that.’
A conscience has never come into it. Nike had no compunction about taking two-time drugs cheat Justin Gatlin back on to their payroll a few years ago, at a time when athletes such as Britain’s Jo Pavey, Greg Rutherford and Steph twell were being dropped.
‘they like the brash, stylish, talented individuals who get them attention,’ says Julie Strasser, a former senior Nike executive. ‘they are not going to drop any individual bad boy unless it is a catastrophe — a murder — he’s committed.’
this is the company who sponsored Lance Armstrong, tiger Woods and Oscar Pistorius when those individuals plumbed the depths of notoriety. It took the company a full six days after the publication of a damning 1,000-page dossier exposing the cyclist as a serial drug cheat, in 2012, before the company cut links with him.
the customers they lose now could be more than made up for by attracting younger ones who back brands that take a political stand. Athletes including basketball’s LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Chris Paul and Serena Williams showed support yesterday. Bizarrely, former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad weighed in to say he felt Kaepernick should have an NFL club.
Nike may even be hoping to extract leverage out of a position that opposes trump. Both the New Balance and Under Armour brands have had image problems in the past because of their perceived support for the president. B
Ut the counter-prevailing social media view included one twitter post — retweeted 16,000 times — declaring: ‘Now @Nike forces me to choose between my favorite shoes and my country. Since when did the American Flag and the National Anthem become offensive?’
this move certainly constitutes the firm’s biggest calculated risk. Gillis said that with the NFL owners very much in trump’s court, the company’s advert has put their colossal $1.1bn (£858m) contract to supply kit to the NFL at the centre of the debate.
‘All NFL kit is sold centrally through Nike,’ he said. ‘that’s the surprising part of this. It goes to the heart of Nike’s business. they are masters of being interesting. And with that comes an escalation of commercial risk.’
Kaepernick announced his role in the campaign by tweeting the message: ‘Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.’ this time, Nike might actually need to believe their own propaganda.