On September 1st, 2016, professional quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the 49ers final preseason game of the season to highlight social and racial injustice in the United States.

    A little more than 2 years later, Nike made the disastrous decision of naming Colin Kaepernick the face of the new “#JustDoIt” campaign.

    Since 2016, Kaepernick’s movement has spread and has gained more traction throughout the past two NFL seasons. In 2017, the protests spread and whole teams began to participate in the anthem demonstrations.

    The decision’ of these players came into question very early into Donald Trump’s presidency and Trump has always found himself in the forefront of the debate and has since been the most prominent advocate against the demonstrations, of course, backing our nation’s military.

    On many occasions, Trump has called the protests “a terrible message” and said, “it’s a message that shouldn’t be sent.”

    Since naming Kaepernick as the face of the campaign, Nike has been at the spearhead of backlash. According to the New York Post, Nike’s stock has plummeted nearly 10% and the company has received a tremendous amount of reprisal for supporting Kaepernick.

    Rightfully so.

    Colin Kaepernick has made a name for himself by kneeling during the national anthem. I feel as if Kaepernick has successfully disrespected the millions of men and women serving, and those who have served, our country.

    So why should a professional athlete, who once competed at the highest level of the most prestigious football league in the world, be paid a million dollars because he became relevant “fighting black oppression?”

    That doesn’t sound very oppressed to me. To play in the Super Bowl, let alone play in the NFL, sounds like a dream not many people get to live out. It sounds like he’s just using his enhanced platform to speak out.

    The company’s campaign tagline for Kaepernick is: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

    Sacrificing everything? Obviously what Nike means by saying “sacrificing everything” is to sacrifice the 3 billion dollars they lost because of the partnership. So i’m not alone in my opinion.

    No more than a week ago, I had no problem with Nike. They were a capitalist monopoly who earned their way up in America with hard work and smart business decisions. Last Monday, Nike threw that ideology out the window.

    As an American who believes in respectig the military, there’s no way that I can stand by a decision like this.

    Colin Kaepernick is a former NFL player, who made millions of dollars, disrespected the military of our great nation, and is battling his “oppression.” Tell me how that makes any sense.

    For such a successful american company like Nike to partner with such a public figure, who disrespected millions of our military servicemen and women, only makes me believe Nike is completely fine with these actions.

    That’s where I draw the line. As an American company, you have a set of rules that should go without saying. Without the arms of the US military, Nike wouldn’t be the company they are today. Nike completely ignored that when they partnered with Kaepernick.

    That being said, effective September 10th, 2018, I will no longer buy another Nike product for the rest of my life. Way to go, Nike.