Arizona governor yanks Nike grant
PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said Tuesday that Nike cannot get state money for a planned factory in a Phoenix suburb after the athletic company pulled an American flagthemed shoe from the market — with just 13 stars — that had drawn criticism former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and others, who said they found it offensive because of its connection to the nation’s era of slavery.
It was not immediately clear if the move, which Ducey announced on Twitter at 2 a.m., would derail Nike’s plans for a $185 million factory in Goodyear, Ariz. Ducey’s tweets were published hours after the Goodyear City Council approved more than $2 million in tax breaks over five years, but the governor has no control over those incentives.
Meanwhile, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, looked to capitalize. She quoted Ducey’s tweet and wrote, “Hey Nike, let’s talk.”
“We want those jobs,” said Tripp Stelnicki, a spokesman for Lujan Grisham, who said the administration has reached out to Nike about getting them. “It’s wild that anyone would jeopardize viable employment for hundreds of state residents over some political virtue-signaling.”
Nike pulled the shoe with the colonial-era U.S. flag, known as the Betsy Ross flag, “based on concerns that it could unintentionally offend and detract from the nation’s patriotic holiday,” spokesman Greg Rossiter said in a statement Tuesday, two days before the U.S. Independence Day. The Wall Street Journal had reported that Kaepernick, who has a major endorsement deal with Nike, told the company it was offensive.