Nike gamble pays
People walk by a Nike advertisement featuring Colin Kaepernick on display in New York. Nike this week unveiled the deal with the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, who's known for starting protests among NFL players over police brutality and racial inequality. Picture: Mark Lennihan AP People walk by a Nike advertisement featuring Colin Kaepernick on display in New York. Nike this week unveiled the deal with the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, who's known for starting protests among NFL players over police brutality and racial inequality. Picture: Mark Lennihan AP
Online sales of Nike apparel and shoes surged in the four days after quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick became the face of a new advertising campaign. Sales dipped in the same four-day period last year.
Nike's Kaepernick ad debuted Monday afternoon, a US holiday, drawing immediate praise and ire from celebrities and customers alike. From Sunday through Wednesday, product orders rose 27%, according to digital-commerce researcher Edison Trends, which collects receipt data from over 200 online vendors. In the same four-day period last year, product orders dropped 2%.
It's an early, if incomplete, look at how the world's largest sportswear company may fare after deliberately wading into a hot political topic. The decision to feature the former NFL player - he claims he's been illegally barred from the league for kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial inequality - has already drawn multiple criticisms from President Donald Trump. On Friday morning Trump tweeted: “What was Nike thinking?”