Nike Finally Shows Caitlin Clark Support in New York Liberty Territory
There has been a lot of discourse over the past few days about Nike being slow to create apparel, merchandise, and otherwise show promotional support for Indiana Fever sensation Caitlin Clark.
This was heightened in an October 1 article from the Associated Press that illustrated how Nike's recent demand has been sluggish and sales down in this quarter, which caused social media to note how Nike would probably be doing much better if they made Clark a bigger priority.
And while Nike may have missed a golden opportunity to capitalize on Clark while she was playing games this season, her winning WNBA Rookie of the Year, which was announced on Thursday, presented another chance for the massive apparel company to show the former Iowa Hawkeyes superstar their support.
Which they did; albeit in New York Liberty territory.
The TickPick X account posted a photo of a Nike billboard featuring an image of Clark smiling on the court that's captioned, "Is there a rookie record for rookie records?" and has a giant Nike Swish logo on it.
New Nike billboard to celebrate Caitlin Clark winning ROY 🔥 pic.twitter.com/648omEzwmX
— TickPick (@TickPick) October 3, 2024
The billboard appears to be located at New York City's Swarovski Penn Plaza. While Nike deciding to put this massive billboard in the New York Liberty's home turf might seem like an interesting choice, New York City is a global cultural hub, and the billboard would likely not get any more attention elsewhere.
Perhaps this billboard is a positive sign of things to come from Nike, who may have finally understood that having women's basketball's most transcendent superstar on their roster is probably a great way to turn their sluggish sales around.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.