Plenty has been said about how an image of Venezuela’s deposed president Nicolas Maduro in a Nike tracksuit turned into an unelected viral moment. Far less attention has gone to the conspicuous non-response from Nike itself.
There was a time when a brand would have seized on that kind of accidental heat. A knowing post, a wink to the internet, something engineered to keep the joke going one more cycle. Instead, there was nothing. Silence from the brand that built an empire on exhortations to just do it — and in this case, very deliberately didn’t.
“Nike has built its reputation on owning cultural moments, but this wasn’t one of them,” said Amar Singh, svp at MKTG Sports + Entertainment. “The image was politically charged, with global implications far beyond sport. By choosing not to respond, Nike showed that cultural fluency now includes knowing when to sit this one out.”
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