Ted Cruz Dunks on Nike for Stock Crash, Says Marketing Plan Was Built on ‘America-Hate’
(Photos via: The Tucker Carlson Network on YouTube and @KingJames on Instagram)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed Nike for embracing a “woke” marketing plan built on “America-Hate,” which the Republican senator said spurred him and a grip of other customers to ditch its products — and led to the athletic company’s stock price crashing.
Cruz weighed in on Nike’s “sad & predictable” downfall in a Tuesday post on X.
He was responding to a post from Douglass Mackey — who was sentenced to seven months in prison for an anti-Hillary Clinton meme before later getting it overturned — which argued there were several reasons Nike has tanked, including making Colin Kaepernick “the face” of a big marketing campaign, canceling production of a “Betsy Ross Flag” shoe in 2019, and partnering with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Scrapping the flag sneakers was the final straw for Cruz, the senator said.
“For my whole life, I wore nearly 100% Nike for athletic wear,” Cruz posted. “Kaepernick pissed me off, but when they cancelled the Betsy Ross shoe it showed that their marketing plan was America-hate. I went out & bought brand new shoes, shorts, [and] t-shirts.”
He added, “turns out I wasn’t the only one. #GoWokeGoBroke.”
Cruz’s post comes as Nike has been in the news for all the reasons investors don’t want to see, with the Oregon-based company’s stock price hitting a 12-year low on Monday.
Nike’s stock has plummeted nearly 50% in the last year to $40.10 per share, but the slide has been going on for a while, with the company’s share price down 78% since it hit an all-time high of $179.10 in November 2021.
Nike’s stock slide over the past five years (Photo via: Robinhood)
What led to the collapse? Wall Street pundits, investors, and customers have floated a number of reasons, including the aforementioned use of Kaepernick and Mulvaney as reasons why many conservatives have abandoned Nike.
Others have said the products simply aren’t as good or innovative as in the past, with the company relying more and more on retro models in recent years. And yet another problem could be pitchmen like LeBron James and Kevin Durant growing old and perhaps a bit less popular than they were a decade ago.
Ex-ESPN reporter Ethan Strauss noticed Nike appeared to be heading in the wrong direction back in 2021; Strauss argued on his Substack that Nike had rejected the marketing game plan which made it into a juggernaut — emphasizing cutthroat competitors like Michael Jordan who primarily appealed to young men — in favor of a more welcoming ad approach which celebrated diversity. Strauss said it was a foolish pivot.
One big thing still going in Nike’s favor: it has WNBA mega-star Caitlin Clark on its payroll. But it appears to have botched that advantage too by waiting three years before releasing her first signature shoe.
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