Stephen Martin decided to take a stand against Nike after it featured Colin Kaepernick in an advertisement last fall. Now that decision is going to cost him his business.
Former NFL quarterback Kaepernick made waves in 2016 for kneeling during the national anthem before football games to protest police brutality and racial inequality. While his stunt cost him a team, he eventually made waves again, starring in a Nike ad campaign with the caption: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”
Martin is the owner of a sports store in Colorado. When the campaign launched in September of last year, Martin decided that he would boycott Nike, because unlike war heroes, Kaepernick doesn’t “know sacrifice.”
But after selling off all the Nike items in his store at half price to clear the brand’s inventory at Prime Time Sports, Martin can no longer afford to keep the doors open. In a Facebook post Sunday, Martin wrote, “PRIME TIME SPORTS is closing. All merchandise 40% OFF. Thank You for 21 mostly good years. For everybody that has offered help and support through the “Honor The Flag” memorial wall and NIKE boycott, now is your time to help me liquidate. Please do your Facebook thing with everyone you know so this can go as quickly as possible.”
The store is now plastered with “store closing” and “40% off everything” signs according to images included with his post. Martin told KOAA that that his Nike protest played a major role in the store’s closure. “Being a sports store without Nike is kind of like being a milk store without milk or a gas station without gas,” Martin explained.