Nike should have endorsed Colin Kaepernick two years ago Wouldn’t the time for that have been two years ago when Kaepernick took his first knee? If Nike really wanted to Jack Mewhort White Elite Jersey make a difference on behalf of the causes he was championing, wouldn’t it have been more dramatic to endorse Kaepernick’s protest then, to make it known that the biggest sports apparel company in the world stood in his corner as Lee Hightower Authentic Jersey he was being shuffled out of the NFL?Instead, Nike all but put him in mothballs — until now. “He needed a lot more help a year and a half ago,” said Sonny Vaccaro, the legendary former shoe company executive who rose to prominence by signing Michael Jordan to his first deal with Nike. “That’s when somebody should have stood up and said, ‘OK we’re going to do this.’"Kaepernick has made his stand and done a wonderful job of it. I think if corporate had made a stand with him on Day 1 it would have been much more influential. Today, it’s about the company.“I hope they make https://www.andrewlucknewjersey.com/authentic-andrew-luck-jersey-sale-1_6.html a hundred million dollars off of it. But true backers of a revolution are there on Day 1. I wish they’d have joined the first week of his protest if they believe so much in it.”Nike siding with the protest movement Kaepernick sparked and also attempting to make millions of dollars aren’t mutually exclusive. It’s possible to profit off doing the right thing, and there’s no doubt the company carefully considered the potential to do that as well as the backlash that would come its way by giving Kaepernick such a big marketing platform.But in a sense, it is too little, too late to be particularly meaningful beyond what it does for Nike’s image. The truth is, Kaepernick didn’t need Nike’s help to be the face of a social justice movement. It has been obvious for well over a year that Kaepernick’s legacy as a protest figure would have a bigger impact than anything he could do on the field. In 30 years, far more people will remember Kaepernick for taking a knee than Nick Foles for winning a Super Bowl MVP award. Which means Nike is doing little more here than some calculated bandwagon-jumping.“However you’re going to look at him, however it plays out, https://www.andrewlucknewjersey.com/authentic-jack-mewhort-jersey-sale-1_47.html Colin started a movement,” Vaccaro said. “They’ve paid him for two years. They could have done something the first day, and you know what? It wouldn’t have been as big a thing today.”While much of the focus since Nike’s announcement has been driven toward potential controversy and what that might mean for the company’s business, it’s worth remembering that the constituency for their products is far bigger than the NFL’s fan base, which more or less has been split down the middle on whether kneeling during the national anthem is appropriate.So even if you’re able to make the argument that kneeling has turned fans off and hurt the league’s bottom line, Nike has a different audience that doesn’t necessarily align with the political base President Trump fires up when he tweets about the NFL. Trump, after all, will only be president for either 2 1/2 or 6 1/2 more years. Nike will be selling shoes for generations, and they have a base too. Nike’s is bigger, younger, more diverse and has been activated by social issues in a way that hasn’t happened in this country since the Vietnam War. They will not view Kaepernick as a figure of anti-Americanism but rather an avatar for progressive values and the fight for equal justice. Even Trump seems to get that, saying Tuesday in an interview with the Daily Caller that although he thinks Nike is sending the wrong message, “In another way, it is what this country is all about, that you have certain freedoms to do things that other people think you shouldn’t do.”As Vaccaro pointed out, we shouldn’t be surprised by this. Though perhaps not as explicitly with issues that touch directly on politics, Nike has long been a company that made controversial stands. It stood by Tiger Woods after his fall from grace and stepped up on behalf of Tonya Harding, even donating to her legal defense. It launched a “Be True” campaign to promote LGBT rights in 2012, a year before Jason Collins became the first active male athlete in one of the four major sports to come out as gay. But all of them have one thread in common in the calculation of what it would mean for the company’s image and its ability to market products. This is no different. As much as Kaepernick and kneeling are divisive in an NFL context, Nike read the mood of the country and decided there was opportunity in https://www.andrewlucknewjersey.com/authentic-leraven-clark-jersey-sale-1_63.html being the company that endorsed his form of protest. It would have been a lot bigger of a gamble, and a lot more impressive foresight, had Nike actually seen that coming before now.Follow Wolken on Twitter @DanWolkenDarryl Morris Jersey Customize Colts Jersey Scott Tolzien Jersey Edwin Jackson Jersey John Simon Jersey Jeremy Vujnovich Jersey Christine Michael Jersey Clayton Geathers Jersey Ryan Kelly Jersey TJ Green Jersey Phillip Dorsett Jersey Vontae Davis Jersey Harvey Binford Jersey Tyson Graham Jr Jersey Josh Ferguson Jersey