Let’s Talk About Nike

Or is it Kap I’m supposed to be talking about? Either way this is me trying not to trip over myself in praise of how this week has gone, mutilated apparel and all.

Hannah Dugan
Sep 8, 2018 · 3 min read

In this week’s Kaepernick campaign, Nike bet it all on the liberal-leaning Americans. And the stakes could not have been higher. Literally– you would be hard-pressed to find a more divisive issue in the country right now.

Yes, it’s only an ad.

But let’s remember, Nike has a considerable portion of the world’s top athletes and celebrities as partners– Kaepernick and Serena Williams are freshest in the mind– and this is incredible cultural influence. This ad isn’t just Nike speaking for itself, but on behalf of all of the athletes they sponsor. Now that’s a powerful show of solidarity.

I’m afraid the people tearing out Nike logos from their tube socks will find the amount of friendly faces in the sporting world increasingly limited. Tragic.

Yes, it’s only an ad. But with the ad’s indisputably giant impact, Nike signals a turning point for corporate America.

Nike now joins the ranks of such companies as Patagonia and 84 Lumber who have dared to enter into the realm of politics and speak up on some of America’s thorniest issues. Maybe speaking up was not the right phrase; it’s more like fusing the beliefs into their marketing strategy, and hence, their identity.

Conservation, immigration, police brutality, gun control, racism… With Nike now in this arena, I wonder what’s next. Who’s next.


I can picture the execs at Nike last year, poring over data and market research. Knowing that the consumers they’ll lose over this campaign they’ll lose for life. And knowing that at the end of the day, no amount of research or waiting to see how public opinion evolves will ever be enough to guarantee a solid landing. That at some point, you have to say let’s just do it. And they did it.

Part of the genius of the simple campaign is that Nike is doing what their campaign is calling for, simply by releasing the ad. They’ve already stood for something, risked losing millions of customers, and have now set themselves up as leaders in this movement, pioneers whose trail individuals and companies alike can follow with a little less bushwhacking because of Nike.

Having worked at Nike, I can tell you that the same drive, organization, and passionate culture we saw on the national platform this week is found in the most foundational levels of the company– singular drive from the bottom to the top. And watching them execute at this level has been incredible. Enough to give you the chills.

But if there’s one implicit challenge lurking in the campaign– in the nature of advertising itself– it’s this: we should not wait to be represented to stand for the things we believe in.

Stand for something, even if it means sacrificing everything.

We cannot hold off until we’re 100% sure the majority is on our side to speak up. Sometimes silence is complicity. Let’s not let something as important as our most foundational beliefs about society and humanity be dictated by a company’s advertisement.

At best a powerful campaign like this can be a starting point. Or a continuing step, an affirmation for yourself. But already established personal conviction has to be the basis for your support of something, otherwise we’re feeding into the loss of independent thought. And I think we can all agree this is dangerous, no matter how noble we deem the cause.

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