Nike’s share prices hit an all-time high 10 days after taking an initial hit following its announcement that former San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick would be the face of its latest “Just Do It” ad campaign.
On Thursday, shares for the sportswear brand closed at $83.47 a week after dipping more than 3 percent following the announcement of their endorsement deal with Kaepernick, who was the first NFL player to protest racial inequality and police brutality by taking a knee during the national anthem before games.
Though Bloomberg News noted it will be months before the business impact of the partnership can be fully measured, it pointed out data released from Edison Trends, a digital commerce research company based in Silicon Valley, that showed Nike’s growth in sales tracking much higher than last year.
{mosads}Edison Trends said it analyzed purchases from 3 million Americans’ email receipts to amass data showing that online sales surged after Nike announced the deal with Kaepernick.
The signing of Kaepernick generated sharp backlash from critics of the athlete’s kneeling protests.
President Trump, a frequent critic of the anthem protests, spoke out against the ad campaign.
“Just like the NFL, whose ratings have gone WAY DOWN, Nike is getting absolutely killed with anger and boycotts,” the president tweeted shortly after the announcement of the deal.
A small private college in Missouri said it would end its use of uniforms displaying the Nike logo due to the athletic brand’s decision. And a store in Colorado has said it will be removing all Nike merchandise following the move.
In the new Nike ad, Kaepernick says, “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.” He remains a free agent quarterback, unable to get a job in the NFL since the end of 2016 after becoming the face of the protest movement.