The City of New York has struck a two-year deal with sportswear giant Nike to sell New York Police Department-branded items, even as Nike employs one of the nation’s most notorious cop-critics, Colin Kaepernick.
A city committee signed off on the deal which will return five percent of Nike’s sales of the NYC-branded items — such as the NYPD and FDNY logos — to New York’s tourism company, NYC & Company, according to the New York Post.
New York’s city hall claims that it will earn a guaranteed $20,000 a year from the NYPD merchandise.
The deal comes despite Nike famously employing Colin Kaepernick, who has a well-documented history of criticizing the police.
Nike has celebrated Colin Kaepernick by making him the face of its 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign. Kaepernick was featured in the 2018 ad with a quote celebrating his “sacrifice” for his principles.
This is also the same Colin Kaepernick who wore socks to an NFL practice session that portrayed the police as pigs.
In 2016, Kaepernick took to his Instagram account call the police shooting of Alton Sterling a modern version of lynching.
Kaepernick is also infamous for a growing list of other outrageous comments.
In March of that same year, he called police officers murderers.
“There’s people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable,” Kaepernick told the media. “People are being given paid leave for killing people. That’s not right. That’s not right by anyone’s standards.”
Kaepernick also supported foreign dictators when he was seen wearing a Fidel Castro shirt, celebrating a man who has murdered hundreds of thousands of political opponents over the last 50 years.
Nike uses Colin Kaepernick as a face of their company, and that company will now have the ability to place the New York Police Department logo on their merchandise.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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