In early September Nike made Colin Kaepernick their face of the newest campaign for their 30th anniversary of "Just Do It." However, many customers were dismayed by their choice of celebrity. Many people were angry that Nike would choose Kaepernick due to his own line of protest.
In 2016, Colin Kaepernick was a quarterback for the San Francisco NFL Team the 49ers. He outraged many United States citizens when he kneeled for the National Anthem before the football game. Americans were so angry that they tried to force the NFL to penalize any player who kneeled. Many claimed that he was disrespecting the flag and all that died for it. Many stood by him such as President Obama and millions of Americans who were in the military themselves, but others still disagreed with what he was doing. His motive was the hundreds of innocent African-Americans who were killed by people who were supposed to protect them.
Two years later and Kaepernick no longer plays for any NFL team and was thought to be jobless until the new Nike ad. Once the ad came out many were thrilled that Nike took a stand and gave Kaepernick a huge platform. However many were not too thrilled. Several unhappy customers decided to film themselves destroying their Nike items. After those videos went viral others followed and a wide spread of customers was destroying all of their own Nike items, some even went on to buy Nike items from the store to destroy it later. News outlets have tried to support the Nike protest by comparing it to past protest such as the civil rights movements.
This entire situation is hilarious to me. These protests are wasting their own money to buy items and burn them or cut them up. Why would you go out and spend twenty dollars on socks just to turn around and cut the Nike symbol off? You could boycott Nike and never buy from them again, but instead, you are helping Nike by purchasing their products. The protesters have actually made Nike Sales go up by 31% which is hurting themselves and helping their enemy. I do not believe that this is a good way to protest, but if you want to buy something then go around and destroy it then go ahead.
I completely support Nike's decision by giving Kaepernick this great opportunity and believe that is something that will help the entire situation. I hope that soon other companies will stand up and support the Black Lives movement and will hopefully give America a wake-up call and see what wrong is going on so it could fix it and make a change. Nike, I applaud you and what you have accomplished. To the supporters of the Nike Protest I question your motives, but please buy from Nike and help them make money so they can give Colin Kaepernick more opportunities like this.
