Colin Kaepernick, a former NFL player that’s been in a lot of controversy for over a year now has been chosen as one of the faces to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Nike brands iconic “Just do it” motto.
Colin Kaepernick’s picture also had a quote, “Believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything.” With this, a few questions arise: why Colin, and what does this mean for the brand of Nike.
Nike is a dominant force in the footwear industry, and they have just made another chess move to solidify that position and capitalize on an opportunity. Though the publicity may not all be good, publicity is publicity.
Nike’s chess move was so big that the news, sports anchors, and people in power will shift gears from Kaepernick to Nike. Nike has now taken some of Colin’s thunder and it puts them in a high position when talking about the issue of racial injustice and discrimination in our country.
However, in turn this can help Colin as well. First off, he’s getting paid from Nike, which is not a bad start at all. But when you compare Colin going up against the NFL versus Colin and Nike going up against the NFL, his argument and point of view on his decision to kneel during the national anthem becomes much more formidable with a billion dollar company endorsing him.
This also helps his case because of the big push of his message that has now gone mainstream again thanks to Nike.
This decision by Nike believe it or not is what they’ve always done. They always like to embrace the underdog and embrace someone that seems to have all the odds stacked against them, like Colin does.
Colin lost his professional career, he has had to deal with many people not agreeing with him to the point of receiving death threats because of what he stands for. And though his decision to kneel is not one that many like, it feels as if we as a nation have forgotten to respect another person’s beliefs and stance on social issues.
When people are seen burning and destroying Nike gear due to Colin Kaepernick being the new member of the Nike culture, it really questions the level of respect people have on this issue.
Nike is truly seizing this opportunity. Let’s think as a business: a business runs on money, and Nike’s running fast with this one. Nike is a corporation that has a consumer audience of many minorities, especially in the world of sports.
So, when Nike can relate to their consumers and pick the side of their consumers, they will continue to get that revenue from the black and Latino community. And who can blame them? It’s a marketing idea, and a pretty good one at that.
