Nike is reaffirming its work with national anthem protester Colin Kaepernick, as the company’s CEO saying he is “very proud” to work with the former player.
“We feel very good and are very proud of the work we’ve been doing,” CEO Mark Parker reportedly said during a corporate earnings call. “We know it’s resonating quite strongly with consumers here in North America and around the world.”
Indeed, Parker insisted that the Colin Kaepernick “Just Do It” ad led to “record engagement with the brand.”
While the company’s stock and favorability ratings took a major dip in the first week of the ad and numerous customers were seen burning their Nike gear, numbers rose in the following weeks. Nike’s stock has risen 6.25 percent adding $6.38 billion to the company’s value, ESPN reported.
Some sources noted that Nike had made the calculated decision to ignore critics, because its customer base has become increasingly “urban.”
A few days after the Kaepernick ad debuted on Labor Day, a source inside Nike told TMZ that the company fully understood millions of Americans would be upset with the choice of putting Kaepernick on the ad. However, the company reckoned that since a large portion of its customer base is black, it would be a financial benefit in the long run.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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