Nike Pulls Proposed Sneaker Featuring 'Betsy Ross Flag' on Colin Kaepernick's Advice
By Brian Cass
Nike was scheduled to release their Air Max 1 USA shoe in celebration of the Fourth of July holiday this year. The shoe featured USA colors as well as the original USA flag with 13 white stars in a circle -- "the Betsy Ross Flag" -- on the heel of it.
But the shoe was yanked from stores across the country for no apparent reason. It's since been revealed that Nike endorser Colin Kaepernick urged the company to remove the shoe from its collection because of the flag's connection with slavery.
Colin Kaepernick reached out to Nike saying that he and others felt the Betsy Ross flag is an offensive symbol because of its connection to an era of slavery https://t.co/6Y2mIlbAuT
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) July 2, 2019
Kaepernick reached out to Nike and said that the flag could be offensive to buyers because of this. The flag design was created in the 1770s to represent the 13 original colonies of America and slavery was still a prevalent aspect of American society.
Nike just pulled a sneaker design featuring the 13-star flag after Colin Kaepernick addressed the flag's connotation with slavery and white supremacy. https://t.co/nXuVHpG73B pic.twitter.com/pN5fsufuWJ
— CNBC (@CNBC) July 2, 2019
Ever since Kaep was made the face of an advertising campaign by Nike during his dispute with the NFL, the company has seen a boost in sales and demand in both the U.S. and China.
It could be argued that Nike was just trying to display how far we've come as a country by using the Betsy Ross Flag on their latest shoe, but they couldn't go against someone with such influence as Kaepernick.