Nike Customers View Kaepernick Favorably

This Thursday evening Nike is launching its Dream Crazy campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, the former 49ers quarterback, for the start of regular season football. Kaepernick has not been picked up by any team since kneeling during the National Anthem last year to protest police shootings of unarmed black men in the United States. He is currently pursing team owners in court, alleging that owners colluded to keep him from getting picked up by any team after he became a free agent. Last week an arbitrator denied the NFL’s request to throw out Kaepernick’s collusion grievance. The incident has become a firebrand issue, stirring debates about free speech and racial inequality.

A poll conducted by YouGov reveals that recent Nike customers view Kaepernick more favorably than the general public does. Recent Nike customers were about three times more likely than the general public to have a positive view of the former quarterback.

Sports Infographic

Nike’s Still on Top of the Sneaker World

Source: Statista

Contrary to what their name might suggest, basketball, tennis and running shoes are in no way confined to courts and tracks these days. Athletic footwear, less formally known as sneakers, can be found anywhere from boardrooms to fashion runways and companies such as Nike and Adidas are making billions feeding the sneaker frenzy.

With annual footwear sales of $21.1 billion, Nike is still number 1 in the global sneaker market, even if Adidas has recently gained some ground on the U.S. sportswear giant. Having risen from an enterprise licensing Japanese running shoes for the American market, Nike quickly developed a name of its own in the 1970s when some of the company’s most iconic silhouettes were introduced.

Interestingly some of the models released in the 1970s are still among Nike’s most popular shoes today. The sneaker market is probably unique in the way that it is constantly moving between innovation and nostalgia with shoes designed in the 1970s and 1980s still selling equally well or, in many cases better than shoes featuring state of the art technology.

Sneaker Infographic