Nike holds one of the most largely known names in sports, and successively sponsors some of the best athletes in the world. However, beyond Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan’s million dollar contracts, are the hundreds of less well known athletes sporting and advertising the brand with much more minimal sponsorship benefits.

For Brad Walker, the United States highest ranked pole-vaulter, putting tape over an already disfunctioning Nike shoe seems to have lost him all support from the company. It was a simple fix for him, taping the weak Velcro strap of the shoe. But In Nike’s perception, covering up the swoosh with the tape meant that they no longer had an athlete out there promoting their brand.

So what does this say about the way that Nike treats its less mainstream athletes and how they deal with design and marketing flaws?

Rather than work with Walker to put research into the development of a higher performing shoe, he was simply dropped, meanwhile, a $300.00  luxury Nike basketball shoe is put onto the market…. (http://on.wsj.com/RcvsHu).

A struggle is evident for Nike; between balancing good athlete support and the way they choose to market their products most effectively. Should Nike take responsibility to their team members, or continue to treat many as just another running, jumping advertisement?

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