Nike’s online sales jumped 31% after company unveiled Kaepernick campaign

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/nikes-online-sales-jumped-31-after-company-unveiled-kaepernick-campaign-2018-09-07?mod=mw_share_facebook

After an initial dip immediately after the news broke, Nike’s NKE, -0.12% online sales actually grew 31% from the Sunday of Labor Day weekend through Tuesday, as compared with a 17% gain recorded for the same period of 2017, according to San Francisco–based Edison Trends.

“There was speculation that the Nike/Kaepernick campaign would lead to a drop in sales, but our data over the last week does not support that theory,” said Hetal Pandya, co-founder of Edison Trends.

Nike’s stock has also held up after its initial slump. The stock was up 1% on Friday and remains in the black for the month. It has gained 29% in 2018, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.31% , which since 2013 has counted Nike as a member, has gained 5%, as the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.22% has risen about 8%.

The news generated plenty of online buzz, with social engagement around Nike and Kaepernick rising sharply this week, according to 4C Insights, a marketing technology company. Mentions of and comments about Nike on social-media platforms rose 1,678% on Sunday and Monday, according to 4C data. Mentions of Kaepernick spiked 362,280%, the data showed.

The athlete has become the face of player protests against racial injustice and police brutality, since he started sitting and later kneeling during the national anthem, inspiring others to follow suit. The action has irked President Donald Trump, who weighed in on the Nike campaign in a series of tweets this week.

Honestly, did conservatives really believe that Nike - a multibillion dollar company did not do their market research first?

As they say: money talks.

Considering that their profit doubled relative to last year's holiday sales, it's pretty clear where the opinion of the country lies. And this isn't "oh only so-and-so buys Nike, it's not an accurate sample" no no no that's BS because just about everyone buys Nike stuff (not everyone literally, everyone demographically speaking).

What has happened to Kaepernick is not right, I hope he wins his lawsuit against the NFL (collusion was the charge I believe) and continues his good work.

So what you're saying is that Nike signed Kaepernick not out of some righteous motivation to appeal to social justice causes, but because they figured that they could make a bigger profit appealing to people that support those causes?

Yeah, totally. 100%.

Sarcasm aside, I’m just calling it like I see it.

By the way, I support his right to kneel 100%. I may not totally agree with him protesting in that way, but his First Amendment rights trump my feelings.

Yup. And it worked. How conservatives were so dumb to think it wasn't part of a marketing strategy, makes me wonder where their heads are at.

John Carlos and Tommie Smith were revolutionaries. Kap is just trying to emulate that. No originality.

@blackballs: Good for Nike.

They got what they wanted, a 14% increase in online sales if we assume the sales increase last year would have been the same this year without this ad.

Of course they have. Companies like Nike were the ones who commissioned studies for decades that have showed us the that young black and Hispanic men are 20-40% more likely to spend their money on visible goods (clothes, cars, jewelry etc.) than young white men. That's why ads in general tend to target POC's; they're targeting the bigger consumer while appearing all hip and progressive. Win-win.

Nike couldn't care less about social justice. Nike cares about police brutality against blacks about as much as they care about their non-white child labor force.

Lol at those people who thought this would hurt Nike financially and give a big business win to Addidas.

This was a carefully planned business move and I am not surprised it worked. Nike is a really successful corporation, they know how to gamble.

Exactly. The stupid people protesting and thinking it world hurt Nike. Again stupid people, a multi-billion dollar company would not create such controversy if they did not do a market study, which they did clearly did.

Well I'm proud that you stated that. I worried about your oath in regard to your love of trump. Also was that a trump pun above? Kudos if so. Wordplay is fun.

Nike balanced their ideology with their market of course. No matter what they believe they won't jeopardize profit.

Yeah but it's funny to see idiots that spent all that money on Nike burning their own money.......that alone tells you how incredibly stupid they are.

Like I've said several times here to deaf ears, middle ground exists, and it's not all or nothing with what Trump believes. The people that think the players should be arrested or kicked out of the country totally forget what the First Amendment means. At the same time, if the NFL says don't do it, then that isn't a violation of the First Amendment like some people claim because the NFL is a private company, although they can still file a grievance (which is what happened with the NFLPA jumping in).

As for the kneeling itself, I get why they were doing it at first, which was to bring attention to police brutality. The problem is that when you are trying to get someone's attention and make them join your cause, a really horrible way to do so is to perform an action that they find offensive, since they are going to put more emphasis on the action that offends them than the cause you are trying to steer them to.

A player would probably have a better chance bringing people to his side by kneeling at the one yard line before a potential game winning touchdown than they would by kneeling during the National Anthem. But they won't do that because they would piss off their team and potentially risk being penalized or fired. Also, another problem with the kneeling is that while it started for a good cause, it evolved from being about ending police brutality into being a middle finger to Trump, which made even less people empathize with them.

Trump blew it up when he got involved. There are always going to be those that don't like how one protests. But it wasn't as much of a mess into trump opened his nasty mouth with insults.

@LJS9502_basic: Trump wasn’t the only person that complained about the kneeling, he just happened to be the person that helped the left rally behind it even more because they wanted to be against anything he was for. Even though I support their right to kneel, I find it pretty sad that some people are now comparing patriotism to racism. You can be patrioitic and reject bigotry at the same time, it doesn’t have to be one or the other.

Going back to Nike, while I’m not going to criticize them for wanting to make money, I can’t help but laugh at people who mock conservatives that bashed Nike and destroyed their shoes for this move, when many of those same people bashed New Balance and destroyed their shoes almost two years ago when they said they supported Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, even after they stated that their support of it was not a full endorsement of the Trump Administration.

They're all supporting a brand that has children in sweat shops.

If you're that bent out of shape over kneeling then there is more to it than you don't like kneeling during the anthem. And it's hypocritical anyway. No one watching at home stands up nor do most people in the stadiums even pay attention to the anthem.

Not sure what you’re trying to imply by stating that there must be some unspoken reason why I may not totally agree with the kneeling. I know that some people like to imply that people against the kneeling are racists (or Uncle Toms if they are black themselves) that like seeing black people being victims of police brutality, but I hope that isn’t the direction you’re going.

It comes down to this when people ask my opinion: I will never advocate that they lose their right to kneel because I respect their right to kneel and for the ones that are kneeling in response to police brutality, I understand that it is unacceptable a lot more than many of the other posters here. It isn’t unpatriotic to want able-bodied people to stand for the flag, it becomes unpatriotic when you try to make it illegal to kneel, since forced patriotism is not real patriotism. I only disagree with their method of bringing attention to the problem because there are many other ways to get our attention than intentionally offending people that prefer to stand.

Even if you don’t care about the kneeling itself, anybody that isn’t looking at the situation with bias can see that you are going to have a harder time getting people to champion your cause if you are intentionally offending them in the process. Do you think that a group trying to get backing to reduce the military budget is going to get a lot of support if their method to get people’s attention was to call veterans baby killers? Probably not, since most people are going to be more focused on them calling veterans baby killers than their actual reasons to reduce the budget, just like many people are more focused on the anthem being disrespected than the actual purpose of stopping police brutality. Also, the players that started kneeling just to stick it to Trump are taking even more attention away from the real issue of police brutality.

As for you calling people hypocrites for not standing while the anthem is playing while at home, there is a big difference: the audience. Nobody is going to be watching you sit on your couch with a beer in your hand tomorrow night while you’re waiting to watch the Bengals lose to the Ravens. The players wouldn’t kneel if nobody could see them kneeling.

Republicans must love this because they love capitalism.....right?

That has nothing to do with being a hypocrite. If you're going to complain that x individual isn't doing proper respect for the anthem then your ass best be showing that respect. I don't care where the ****you are.

When you were in the military and on base, did you stand at attention while Reveille or To the Color were playing and you were indoors? If not, did you still correct people that weren't saluting while they were outdoors and not feel like a hypocrite?

I'm not complaining about the football players. Therefore, I'm not a hypocrite. It's not that hard to follow the logic. If YOU complain about the patriotism of others for not standing then your ass should do it every time. Logic..........don't leave home without it.

Fair enough, you aren't the one complaining about the kneeling. While you are free to call them hypocrites for not standing while they are at home, it doesn't change the fact that the kneeling is being done to bring attention to themselves and the cause they are advocating. The players are in front of thousands of fans and are on millions of monitors around the world. The people sitting on their couch aren't, and they aren't trying to bring attention to themselves.

I'm not sure why we are arguing this, since I already stated that I am firmly against denying them their Constitutional right to kneel even though I disagree with that particular method of protest, especially since it is bringing more attention to how they are protesting instead of what they are protesting. Those other people that think that they should be fired need to file their grievances with the NFL or just speak with their wallets since Uncle Sam has no authority to make them stand. The ones that think they should be kicked out of the country need to get a clue about how our right to free speech works.

You do know a lot of the parts to make our systems, computers and phones also come from sweat shops in China. That would make you, me and everyone else here a supporter as well.

I buy used.

Even worse, because at least those who buy products sweat shops get something to eat. Buying used feeds no one.

Then nike should pay them more instead of nickles and pennies.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I contributed with 2 pairs of shoes lol

You're still feeding into the cycle and causing demand for them. You're just as guilty as everyone else.

People don't realize that most developing economies started with child labor and laborers being paid low wages. The entire western world went through it in the industrial revolution. The fact of the matter is, these people are there because they make money instead of starving. But the worst part about these factories is the abuse, which is perpetrated by the people themselves because of cultural differences. If they don't have that factory to go to, then there is another one down the road paying even less wages with zero regulations.

Surprise, surprise. The cultural relevance of aging angry racist white people isn't as big of a sales motivator than the progressive anti-racist model. I'm rather enjoying the fact that I am living in that moment of American history where wypipo finally get the frosty mug of shut the hell up they have been begging for since the 1950s.

Probably a bunch of Republicans buying new Nike stuff to burn.

I take it their marketing strategy is working then.

Haha suck it conservative snowflakes! I bought a couple packs of Nike socks haha.

We control the house, the senate, have a majority in the supreme court, and have a republican president.

I'm glad your socks made you feel good though.

Oh yeah, Bernie sold out to the person who sabotaged him.

LOL NIKE!

Lol. But aren't you then supporting sweat shops ?

Not for long, lol. You've lost Wisconsin and Pennsylvania for sure already.

@sonicare: before those socks, I don't think I had ever bought Nike stuff. And they were on sale and looked real comfortable, so what the hell. And sadly, much of what we by is made by slaves. Every time you buy a candy bar, you are supporting child slavery in africa.