NFL Ratings Are Down, Nike’s Online Sales Are Up, But There’s A Catch

It’s interesting to watch what boycotts turn out to be a flop and what boycotts take off. The Chick-fil-A boycotts are ALWAYS a flop. The In-N-Out Burger boycott? A flop. The Starbucks boycotts (we usually have 2-3 of those a year)? I’m gonna call those a flop too.

But then you have the NFL boycott, which seems to be having an effect. We’re obviously SUPER early into the season, but the season opener drew in just 19 million viewers, which is a decade LOW.

Yowza.

Then you have Nike. There have been calls to boycott the company over its decision to highlight Colin Kaepernick in its latest ad campaign. They paint him as some sort of heroic figure and basically admitted that they’re doing it because they want to be a partner in “social change.” It’s sad, really. Out of everyone they could’ve highlighted, they chose him. A has-been ex-QB who’s known for kneeling during the national anthem and wearing “Cops As Pigs” socks.

Speaking of, the National Association of Police Organizations wrote a letter to Nike CEO Mark Parker, slamming the company for using Kaepernick.

“In featuring Mr. Kaepernick in the ‘Just Do It’ campaign, Nike grossly insults the men and women who really do make sacrifices for the sake of our nation,” the letter stated, according to TMZ.

“We are calling on all our member officers, their families and friends to join in boycotting all Nike products,” the letter continued.

I’ve seen pictures on Twitter of people burning their Nike sneakers and cutting the checkmark off their clothes. There’s definite entertainment value, but that doesn’t actually affect Nike. They already have your money. All you can do is pledge to buy your sports gear elsewhere moving forward.

So, how are things looking for Nike now? The day after, Nike lost roughly $4 billion in market capital. However, Nike’s online sales have jumped 31%.

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.

OK, but they didn’t unveil Kaepernick as the face of the new campaign until Monday. It just makes me wonder if Sunday’s numbers skew it a bit. Everyone knows Labor Day weekend = Labor Day shopping, so wouldn’t Nike have experienced an increase anyway?

Yes. In fact, last year, Nike experienced a 17% seasonal increase over the same weekend. That would suggest that there was an additional increase this year, but the thing is, we can’t know for sure if it’s due to the Colin Kaepernick ad. The economy is doing better. Maybe people were going to shop more this year anyway. Who knows.

“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.

Taking numbers from Labor Day weekend is kind of disingenuous. That’s all I’m saying. Perhaps that’s why they decided to release the ad campaign when they did. They knew– in the very least– Labor Day sales would cover their rears and make the entire thing look more successful than it actually is.

I think time will tell on this one.

h/t Market Watch