Colin Kaepernick is helping Nike rake in big bucks. According to Yahoo, ever since the athlete-turned-activist endorsed the corporate sneaker giant, their company value has skyrocketed.
Nike’s stock reportedly rose over 18% since the announcement of the Kaepernick deal, adding a spectacular $26.2 billion to the Nike coffers and increasing its value at nearly $146 billion. When Nike made the announcement of the signing, even with President Trump weighing in on the controversy of Kaepernick taking a knee, the gamble on Kaepernick worked better than anticipated. The February online release of a Kaepernick ‘Icon’ jersey sold out in a matter of hours. It was priced at $150 upon release, the authentic versions of the Nike jersey now sells on the secondary market for $300 or more.
The news of Nike’s increased value comes on the heels of the company readying the release of a signature shoe, which is scheduled to be released in December. He supposedly wore the signature shoe last weekend when he held his own workout, bypassing the original location in Atlanta set up by the NFL.
An earlier collaboration with Kaepernick helped Nike and the ad agency that created the ad win an Emmy for outstanding commercial at the 2019 Creative Arts Emmy Awards. The commercial, titled “Dream Crazy,” features Kaepernick alluding to the sacrifice he made by initiating the #TakeAKnee movement, which ultimately cost him his career in professional football. “Believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything,” he says in the ad.
Kaepernick, who played in Super Bowl XLVII for the San Francisco 49ers in 2013, lost his job in 2016 after taking a knee during the national anthem to protest racial injustice in America. The act sparked the controversial #TakeAKnee movement. Although the NFL said that it is not colluding on keeping Kaepernick from getting signed, he sued the league and eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed amount last year. He still remains a free agent although his lawyer has just reported that there may be two teams interested in signing him.
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