Sports Apparel Store Forced to Close Down After Nike & Colin Kaepernick Boycott Backfires

Boycotting Nike is tough for business.

Last September, Nike announced that ex-quarterback Colin Kaepernick was going to be the face of its Just Do It campaign. The reaction to the news was divisive.

READ: The Work, Power & Perseverance of Colin Kaepernick

One person who wasn’t happy about it was a Colorado Springs man who owns a sports apparel store called Prime Time Sports. The owner, named Stephen Martin, vowed that he would boycott Nike and stopped selling the brand’s items.

Now, just five months later, Martin has announced that he was closing down the store, one he owned for more than 20 years.

READ: Gladys Knight on Colin Kaepernick’s Protest: “It is Unfortunate…Our National Anthem Has Been Dragged into This”

Martin told KOAA News that he can’t afford to pay rent on the space anymore. Martin puts some of the struggles on things like online competition. But Martin acknowledges that losing Nike had a bigger effect than he imagined.

Being a sports store without Nike is kind of like being a milk store without milk or a gas station without gas. How do you do it? They have a monopoly on jerseys.

Martin went on to say:

As much as I hate to admit this, perhaps there are more Brandon Marshall and Colin Kaepernick supporters out there than I realized.

Even though he is closing the store, Martin doesn’t regret the move, saying:

This was never about property to me, this was about principle…You don’t trample over the men who have given Colin Kaepernick and me the right to free speech.

If you’re in the Colorado Springs area, everything in Prime Time Sports is 40 percent off.

Source: KOAA News