Bye Bye (Not Buy Buy) Nike

Bye Bye (Not Buy Buy) Nike

It makes absolutely no sense for a corporation which earns billions of dollars by selling to people regardless of their political beliefs to take sides in a contentious and ongoing political debate. Doing so ensures that they're going to (to one degree or another) alienate roughly half the voting and buying public.  This is not rocket science, either. At age of soon-to-be 67, I can't recall ever seeing the country I love so politically-divided.  Sure, we had a close Presidential race in 1992 (thanks to Perot, it was a three-way race, and no candidate got a majority), and again in 2000 when the Supreme Court had to decide who won (it wasn't Chad, who was apparently hanging wrong).

However, the election of politically indefinable billionaire populist Donald Trump at the expense of the unwilling-to-admit-she's-really-a-socialist-progressive Hillary Clinton has divided the country in ways – and at a level of volatility and vitriol – that I don't think has prevailed since the Civil War.  All we need now are the smooth-bore cannon, saber-wielding horsemen and rifled muskets firing Minie Balls and we’d be back in 1861.

Into this debate having nothing to do with sporting gear or clothing, Nike has thrust themselves by boldly siding with anti-American (or at least anti-Traditional American) progressives against those who, by a solid Electoral College (but not raw vote total), achieved a stunning victory in 2016.  This may make Nike’s decision-makers feel all warm and politically correct in their Manhattan solons, and might also help Nike sell more branded college football gear to university teams whose institutional masters are wracked with fear of micro-aggressions and eager to avoid virtue shamings. But regardless of the reason, this act is going to hit Nike where it really hurts – in their sales, profits, market share and bottom line. 

No "sane" company would willingly decide to alienate half of the entire potential US market, yet that's what Nike just did. This makes me wonder if they are, in fact, sane – or if, perhaps – those decision-makers live and work in that Manhattan/Hollywood/San Francisco bubble that doesn't recognize that more Americans hate them than support them.

Just what is this all about, anyway?

As a believer in the bottom line, Nike’s action left me breathless with surprise. The executive management and the board of Nike have made the decision to use America-hating (or at least Traditional-America-hating) Colin Kaepernick the new “face” of Nike’s “Just Do It” multi-million-dollar ad campaign.  Kaepernick, is, of course, the first NFL player to publicly “take a knee” rather than to stand respectfully during the singing of the National Anthem.  The leaders at Nike are apparently intent on profiting from the dubious fame garnered by a former (benched) NFL second-string football player who became the face of anti-American efforts to turn the NFL games away from being sporting events and into part of an ongoing, far-left progressive political campaign. 

What the good folks at Nike haven't counted on is the backlash that will be so profound and pervasive that – even without a formal boycott.  Just for the record, I am NOT calling for a boycott – I don’t like them, and in this case, a formal boycott’s not necessary.  Boycott or not, Nike has just taken an action – one they can’t easily walk back – that will cost them a huge segment of the American market.  And not just for now, but for a long time to come.

This should come at no surprise, for two reasons – one scientific, the other logical without being easily proven.  First, published surveys showed that half or more of all those Americans who watched less football in the 2017-2018 season did so primarily or exclusively because they strongly disapproved of the actions of Kaepernick and his followers.  This statistical backlash cost the NFL hundreds of millions in unsold tickets and un-sold (or sold for far lower prices) ads on TV networks carrying games which couldn't attract a live, in-stadium or a live, at-home audience.

There are other examples of how Americans react to other Americans who seem intent on hating America.  Perhaps the most well-known celebrity who spoke out against America was "Hanoi Jane" Fonda, who – 50 years after her flirtation with North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gunners whose job it was to kill American servicemen – remains a hated figure who is (personally – not formally) boycotted by millions, reducing her box office draw in movies and TV shows.  While Kaepernick's name will soon be forgotten (he doesn't the family Hollywood "Royalty" cache that has helped Hanoi Jane's name remain well-known) Americans who don't like what Kaepernick and his ilk are doing will be remembered, by the name "Nike."

I am an American who believes that standing respectfully during the National Anthem is an appropriate way of beginning sporting events, governmental meetings and other gatherings.  Others are free to hold a different perspective ... but I don't have to do business with them.  Converse All Stars is going to benefit from my commerce at the expense of Nike, who has just lost my custom – for shoes, golf shirts, baseball hats and other Nike-branded gear that I might otherwise have worn.  Taking advantage of the laid-back nature of my home city for the past 30 years (Las Vegas), I've recently made a "business move" to dress more casually – including substituting jeans, t-shirts, baseball hats, loud Hawaiian shirts or "polo" shirts ... and athletic shoes in place of button-down Oxford Cloth dress shirts and highly-shined wing-tips ... or even dressy-casual Bass Weejuns.  For years now, I’ve been changing my wardrobe from three piece suits and Florshiems to the more casual gear Nike brands and sells.

Well, thanks to their move to interject themselves into a national political debate that’s got nothing with athletic shoes, ball-caps or sport shirts, they've just lost me for a client.


Ned Barnett is a branding and marketing expert, ghost-writer and writing coach working in Las Vegas as founder of Barnett Marketing Communications.  He can be reached at 702-561-1167 or ned@barnettmarcom.com.