Nike spent years telling you to hate America.
Now the Americans with money in Nike stock are forcing the company to answer for it.
Nike's new CEO just gave one answer at a shareholder meeting that should make every conservative investor demand their money back.
Nike Burned Its Own Customers and Called It Marketing
They paid Colin Kaepernick and Dylan Mulvaney.
They canceled the Betsy Ross sneaker.
Ted Cruz said it out loud when Nike's stock was hitting 12-year lows: "Their marketing plan was America-hate."
He wasn't exaggerating.
Nike made Kaepernick – the man who knelt on your flag – the face of its 30th anniversary "Just Do It" campaign in 2018.
Then when the company designed a patriotic Fourth of July sneaker with a Betsy Ross flag on the heel, Kaepernick contacted Nike officials and told them to kill it.
They did.
Nike – the company that wraps itself in the American flag at the Olympics – killed a Betsy Ross shoe because a man who hates cops said so.
Then came Dylan Mulvaney – Nike put a biological male in a sports bra and called it women's athletic wear.
The stock has been sliding ever since, settling around $61 a share after peaking at $179 in November 2021.
Conservative Shareholders Are Done Watching
Robert Schwarzenberger at Inspire Investing isn't watching passively.
Inspire is a conservative investment firm that filed dozens of shareholder resolutions last year targeting companies that turned their brands into progressive advocacy operations.
Roughly two-thirds of those companies made the changes Inspire demanded.
Nike is next.
Schwarzenberger's message to Nike's board was blunt: "At the very least, don't do things that are going to upset your customers further."
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He told OutKick he doesn't need Nike to become a conservative company – he just needs it to stop being an activist organization that makes sneakers as a side project.
"The company does not need to take sides," he said. "It does not need to go right or left. It needs to stay in the middle, focus on its business and acknowledge its mistakes."
The CEO Said the Right Things and Then Stopped Short
Elliott Hill took over as Nike CEO in October 2024 after the previous CEO, John Donahoe, ran the company into the ground.
Hill is a 32-year Nike veteran who came out of retirement to clean up the mess.
His early comments about refocusing on athletes sounded promising.
Schwarzenberger wasn't convinced.
"The CEO's statement at the annual shareholders meeting about focusing on the athlete was good, but it was kind of a lukewarm response," he said.
Hill bought $1 million of Nike stock with his own money in late December 2025 – a signal that he believes in the turnaround.
But Schwarzenberger wants more than insider purchases.
"They really need to take a very strong approach and say, 'Look, we're going to focus on manufacturing athletic apparel, and that's going to be our focus. We're not going to wade into hot-button political issues,'" he said.
This Is Bigger Than Nike
You probably own Nike stock right now and don't know it.
Millions of Americans hold shares in major companies indirectly through the mutual funds sitting in their retirement accounts.
Fund managers vote those shares in corporate elections – and for decades, conservative workers handed that power to people who used it to push woke agendas.
"For far too long, we have delegated that voice to others who are doing things completely contrary to our values," Schwarzenberger said.
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That's changing.
Schwarzenberger compared Nike's situation to Disney – another iconic American company that let ideology eat its business alive.
"When's the last time you've seen a good Disney movie?" he said.
Disney hasn't produced a culturally dominant film in years.
Nike hasn't made a shoe that genuinely excited the market in just as long.
The formula is identical: replace product innovation with political signaling, watch the customers leave, then act surprised when investors show up to the annual meeting with real votes and real demands.
Nike's new CEO has one simple choice – make great shoes and shut up about politics, or keep treating customers like enemies and finish the collapse Kaepernick started.
Sources:
- Dan Zaksheske, "Conservative Investors Pressure Nike to Get Back to Business," OutKick, 2025.
- Ryan Gaydos, "GOP Lawmakers Blast Nike Over Scrapping Betsy Ross Flag Shoe," Fox News, July 2, 2019.
- "Nike Stocks Rise After CEO Elliott Hill's $1 Million Stock Purchase," Footwear Magazine, December 2025.
- "Ted Cruz Dunks on Nike for Stock Crash, Says Marketing Plan Was Built on 'America-Hate'," Mediaite, 2024.
