Colin Kaepernick told Nike to kill a shoe with an American flag on it.
Ted Cruz threw his Nike gear in the trash and promised to never buy the brand again.
Now Nike's stock just hit a 12-year low – and Ted Cruz is the one laughing.
The Moment America Walked Away From Nike
In the summer of 2019, Nike pulled its Betsy Ross flag Air Max shoe – a July Fourth release already shipped to retailers – because Colin Kaepernick complained the 13-star Revolutionary-era flag offended him.
Nike recalled the shoes.
Kaepernick stayed on as brand ambassador.
Ted Cruz bought new gear from a different company.
Cruz wasn't subtle about it.
He told his followers he had worn Nike for his "whole life" – nearly 100% of his athletic wear – and walked away the moment Nike chose Kaepernick's politics over American patriotism.
"When they cancelled the Betsy Ross shoe," Cruz wrote on X this week, "it showed that their marketing plan was America-hate."
https://twitter.com/foxnewspolitics/status/2090098326691840055?s=20
He wasn't the only one.
Mitch McConnell called Nike's decision shameful and promised to be first in line to buy the shoe if any other company made it.
Arizona's governor pulled state incentives for a Nike facility over the decision.
Millions of conservatives quietly did what Cruz did – opened their wallets, bought different brands, and never went back.
Nike's executives laughed it off.
Sales had actually spiked during Kaepernick's first "Just Do It" campaign in 2018.
The boycott crowd was just the cargo-shorts-and-New-Balance demographic, analysts sneered.
The brand was growing.
Woke was working.
What 200 Billion Dollars of "Working" Looks Like
Nike's stock hit $177.51 in November 2021 – an all-time high.
This week it closed at $39.09.
That is a 78% collapse.
More than $200 billion in market value – gone. JPMorgan just downgraded the stock to Underweight, warning that Nike's turnaround strategy will keep pressuring earnings for the foreseeable future.
The company's own CFO told analysts conditions in the marketplace were "unlikely to improve" through at least the first half of fiscal 2027.
The excuses are real – China sales collapsed 17% last quarter as local brands ate Nike's lunch, and the company's direct-to-consumer strategy backfired badly.
But those are the mechanics of a fall that started with a decision about who Nike thought its customer was.
When you tell half of America its flag offends you, half of America stops buying your shoes.
The analysts who mocked the boycotters in 2019 forgot a basic rule of consumer behavior: the customer who leaves quietly is the one who never comes back.
Bud Light learned this the hard way.
After the Dylan Mulvaney controversy in 2023, Bud Light's sales dropped more than 25% – and wholesalers admitted publicly they had lost those customers for good.
Target shed billions in market cap when it pushed Pride Month merchandise that disgusted conservative parents.
The pattern is undeniable and it runs in one direction.
Cruz Was Right, and He Knew It in Real Time
What makes this moment different from standard political dunking is the timeline.
Cruz didn't predict Nike's collapse in a vacuum.
He made a specific, personal decision in 2019 based on what Nike's actions told him about the company's values.
Then he watched.
For seven years, he watched Nike's stock grind lower, its market share erode, its China business implode, and its brand preference fall for five consecutive years in Morgan Stanley's annual survey.
This week, when conservative influencer Douglass Mackey posted a list of reasons for Nike's decline, Cruz responded with two words and a hashtag: "Sad and predictable. #GoWokeGoBroke."
He was right in 2019.
He's right now.
And Nike's executives – the ones who chose a man who hates the American flag over the millions of Americans who wear it on July Fourth – are the ones explaining to shareholders why their once-dominant brand is worth less than it was in 2014.
The customers Cruz told you about in 2019 weren't the fringe.
They were the core.
Nike bet against them and lost everything.
Sources:
- Alex Miller, "Ted Cruz Takes Victory Lap as Iconic American Brand's Stock Plunges to 12-Year Low," Fox News, August 19, 2026.
- "Nike Falls to a 12-Year Low, but the Selling May Not Be Done," Yahoo Finance, August 18, 2026.
- "Nike Hits 12-Year Low: JPMorgan Says FY2028 Brings Stabilization, Not Recovery," TechTimes, August 19, 2026.
- "NKE Stock Falls 4% to 12-Year Low: 3 Reasons Behind the Nike Crash," CoinPaper, August 17, 2026.
- "How Target, Bud Light Turned Off Loyal Customers in 2023," Fox Business, December 27, 2023.