An author who once worked for Nike has given the best clap back to Americans burning their merchandise to protest Colin Kaepernick’s appearance in their new campaign.

Last week, Nike unveiled a powerful advert featuring NFL footballer Colin Kaepernick. In the video, marking the 30 year anniversary of the ‘Just Do It’ campaign, the free agent is pictured with the following quote:

Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.

The footballer hit headlines in 2016 after images of him sitting during the US national anthem, which is usually played before the start of games.

He explained after the game that he wanted to protest the treatment of black and minority people in the US by police, as well as shine light on the racial inequality in the country.

Following Nike’s decision to feature him in the advert, US conservatives, in a bizarre and counterintuitive display of protest, took to social media and destroyed their Nike merchandise.

Sci-Fi author Fonda Lee waded into the conflict with a simple declaration: Nike’s most loyal consumer demographic is black youth.

And to the trolls, she had the following to add:

According to data from Forbes, a big part of Nike’s revenue comes from its Jordan Brand subsidiary, which is incredibly popular with African Americans. In 2012 the brand generated $1.75billion.

Ahmad Islam, CEO of Ten35 which looks at GenZ consumers told AdAge:

The perception with African-Americans and those in urban culture is that Nike has in fact taken a stand to support the culture and they are in turn going to support the brand.

The people who view this as a strong stand are the same people who drive culture. If you think about it as a funnel, there are going to be some people falling out the bottom of the funnel, [but] there are also going to be a lot of people coming in the top.

indy100 has contacted Nike for comment.

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