After an initial dip immediately after the news broke, Nike’s NKE, +0.02% online sales actually grew 31% from the Sunday of Labor Day weekend through Tuesday, as compared with a 17% gain recorded for the same period of 2017, according to San Francisco–based Edison Trends.
“There was speculation that the Nike/Kaepernick campaign would lead to a drop in sales, but our data over the last week does not support that theory,” said Hetal Pandya, co-founder of Edison Trends.
Nike’s stock has also held up after its initial slump. The stock rallied 2.2% on Monday and has retraced 93% of the decline to a three-week low that it suffered on Sept. 4, immediately after the campaign was revealed. It has gained 31% in 2018, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.03% , which since 2013 has counted Nike as a member, has gained 5%, as the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.03%has risen about 8%.
The news generated plenty of online buzz, with social engagement around Nike and Kaepernick rising sharply this week, according to 4C Insights, a marketing technology company. Mentions of and comments about Nike on social-media platforms rose 1,678% on Sunday and Monday, according to 4C data. Mentions of Kaepernick spiked 362,280%, the data showed.
The athlete has become the face of player protests against racial injustice and police brutality, since he started sitting and later kneeling during the national anthem, inspiring others to follow suit. The action has irked President Donald Trump, who weighed in on the Nike campaign in a series of tweets this week.
That didn’t deter Nike from airing its first TV ad of the campaign on Thursday. Narrated by Kaepernick, the ad includes appearances by other high-profile African-American athletes Odell Beckham Jr., LeBron James and Serena Williams. The ad urged people to follow their dreams and ignore naysayers.
“Calling a dream crazy is not an insult,” Kaepernick says in the Nike spot. “It’s a compliment.”