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Nike Almost Let Kaepernick Go Before ‘Just Do It’ Campaign: Report

The company’s top communications executive had to dissuade leadership from cutting the former NFL quarterback.

Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was almost cut loose from Nike before he was the face of its “Just Do It” campaign, The New York Times reports. In the summer of 2017, the company “very nearly” let the former Forty-Niners quarterback go—but top Nike communications executive Nigel Powell dissuaded the company from doing so due to the negative publicity such a move could bring. After that, Kaepernick was reportedly left “ignored” but remained on Nike’s roster for almost a year. Kaepernick’s lawyers also reportedly told the company earlier this year that it was “not living up to its contractual obligations” by not using him. The Times reports Nike executives and Kaepernick’s representatives subsequently met in June, when the company “agreed there might be a role” for Kaepernick to play. The resulting “Just Do It” ad campaign was the brain child of advertising firm Wieden & Kennedy, and reportedly “came together rather quickly.” In a quarterly earnings call, Nike CEO Mike Parker said the campaign brought “record engagement with the brand.”