“Sports can change the world for the better”. Nike’s values and beliefs are clear. Believe what you want about the company but they put their money where their mouth is, literally. The infamous 2018 Colin Kaepernick ad campaign was a bold move to promote inclusion and standing for your beliefs and a kickstart to the many initiatives the company has made to highlight inclusivity and racial equality.

Following the death of George Floyd in 2020, Nike introduced a detailed program and plan to emphasize diversity and inclusion. The Juneteenth Initiative is a program started by the company in late 2020 to improve the diversity within their workforce. A five year diversity plan was laid out including: a target of 50% women and 35% representation of racial minorities in their workforce by 2025.

The Unconscious Bias Awareness program–launched in 2019–is a mandatory online training program designed to make all employees aware of biases and racism in the workplace. Nike’s push for inclusion and equality gained traction following Kaepernick’s national anthem kneeling and was accentuated with the tragic death of George Floyd and the ensuing protests.

While the company has gone through their fair share of controversy and scandal, they deserve credit for committing to assist under-privileged communities. And they made a bold statement by endorsing Kaepernick while the country (and world) was at its most divided. There’s no way to completely eliminate racism and injustice in the workplace, but the company has spent millions on addressing these problems. Instead of just releasing statements and hoping the problems go away, they have developed programs and initiatives that allow for inclusion, equality, diversity and involvement. The goals they set of a workforce of 50% women with 45% of them holding leadership positions and 35% racial and ethic minorities can set an example for major companies to begin doing this. Statements and values are one thing, but credit is due for diversity and inclusion programs/initiatives.

For more information and statistics regarding Nike’s diversity, equity and inclusion click here: https://about.nike.com/en/impact/focus-areas/diversity-equity-inclusion.