Dear Nike
I’m writing to let you know that I’m disturbed by your selection of Colin Kaepernick as the face of Nike and I’m now embarrassed to be seen sporting the Nike ‘swooch’. It’s a shame that you had to go this way, after all, you’re in the business of sports apparel and I happen to like the Nike line of clothing. The tech fabrics and fit have been the best for as long as I can remember. I’m of an older generation now and only doing walk runs now but for almost 20 years, I was also into adult competitive skating. I’m familiar with your brand. When I went on a walk run earlier this week, I put on my Nike headband wrap, $10 for a ten cent swatch of cloth basically, tied it on my head, logo facing out front and center and went about my exercise. On today’s walk-run, I again tied it onto my head, but with the logo facing in. I no longer want to be identified with Nike.
I’m not one of those people that will go out and burn cloths at the provocation of a headline. I’m a pragmatist, I keep my shopping consumer focused and separated from politics. Life is already complicated enough. I’ve mostly ignored the hubbub around the NFL kneeling protests even though I believe it’s bringing about subtle but material degeneration to the NFL product; distracted players, lost fan buzz, fleeing audiences. I know both sides of the argument but don’t believe employees have a right to use their employer’s platform for personal statements. Let them do it on their own time and their own dime. Cameras and reporters will be sure to follow. That is all.
As for the selection of Kaepernick, he is not a true hero. He is an exploiter. The memes are right; you passed up many true heroes, apparently to pander to an assortment of addled constituencies, many of them having nothing to do with the purchasing of your product. But what I hate most about your selection is that you’ve politicized yet another aspect of our existence. You’ve waded into the cultural war up to your neck and we, past, present, and future customer base, are the losers, the serfs of you’re choosing sides in defiance of those of use that have no voice in this fucking game.
It’s not about the money, but it is, as you spent a boatload on the ‘victim’ – ‘martyr’ Kaepernick. It’s not about his message, but it is, as he appropriated the entire NFL to make a personal statement, whereas, it would have been perfectly reasonable for him to speak as an individual. It’s not about the ads as they are and will assuredly be feel-good, but all the more to leverage the underlying assumptions and flawed ideologies of Colin Kaepernick that go unquestioned by masses that you pander to.
It is this; you violated your own brand and the tens or hundreds of millions of people that have been associated with it. It’s not so simple to say – go buy something else. Your brand is a little more pervasive then that. A lot of people have been associated with the Nike brand in the past but don’t want your present endorsement hung on them. A lot of athletes now don’t have a choice but to wear Nike if it’s an official sport wear. A lot of people are like me, that are simply pragmatist, have to reckon with a billion interactions with people that we run past on the trail and elsewhere, wondering if we really bought into the Kaepernick travesty, all because you – the management of Nike got out of your lane, your day job, and chose sides in a political dog fight. Damn you.
Lee Jones