In the wake of Nike’s decision to make Colin Kaepernick the face of their latest advertising campaign, sales for the brand didn’t experience the adverse effect that some had hoped for.
According to Edison Trends, “Nike sales grew 31% from Sunday through Tuesday over Labor Day this year, besting 2017’s comparative 17% increase,” The Guardian reports.
The Nike ad, released this past Monday, features the currently teamless 30-year-old quarterback and the slogan: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. Just do it.”
Kaepernick has been without a team since leaving his contract with the San Francisco 49ers in March of 2017. The following year, he spearheaded protests by NFL players speaking out against police brutality and racial inequality in the form of kneeling during the National Anthem at the beginning the football games.
The protests grew wide condemnation on conservative social media and were seized upon by President Trump, who characterized NFL players who choose to “take a knee” as un-American.
Speaking to The Daily Caller this Tuesday, President Trump said the Nike ad sends “a terrible message.”
Trump conceded that the protests are “what this country is all about,” but he added that he’s “on a different side of it.”
The Nike ad sparked a small protest movement of its own, where people posted to social media showing themselves burning Nike clothing and memorabilia. Most of the protests took place in Twitter and included the hashtag #JustBurnIt, a play on Nike’s “Just Do It” slogan.
.@Nike Due to your support of C.K. in your coming adds, I as an American can no longer support your company. #boycottNike #IStandForOurFlag pic.twitter.com/5JxSMD8SSO
— AlterAtYeshiva (@alteratyeshiva) September 4, 2018
First the @NFL forces me to choose between my favorite sport and my country. I chose country. Then @Nike forces me to choose between my favorite shoes and my country. Since when did the American Flag and the National Anthem become offensive? pic.twitter.com/4CVQdTHUH4
— Sean Clancy (@sclancy79) September 3, 2018
Although it’s unknown how things will play out in the long run, Edison Trends’ report shows that Nike’s decision to promote Kaepernick defintely created a “Trump bump.”
“Nike’s 2018 late summer sales show much the same trend as last year’s, with order volume decreasing slightly going into late August,” the company wrote. “The similarity decreases coming out of Labor Day weekend, however, with sales seeing a bigger bump on Monday and Tuesday than in the past.”
Edision trends based their data on “anonymised and aggregated e-receipts from more than 3 million consumers.”
Featured image via Nike/screen grab
