Read – https://www.thehrdigest.com/nike-liable-to-pay-7-5m-in-damages-over-a-sex-discrimination-lawsuit/
Read – https://dhkl.law/cases/cahill-et-al-v-nike-inc/
Not surprising. Its been alleged since the early 2010’s that a lot of early era tech bros, trust fund nerds, and New York street wear influencers had a quiet culture of sexual harassment and racist gatekeeping in the footwear/streetwear industry. Many potential project investors flat out told me Nike was too toxic to expand or invest. Saying “don’t pitch” or do not refer in regards to dossiers that could back creatives interested in Nike collabs. Many told me not to refer any future collaborations if its with Nike. The younger me felt they were missing out, having personally known some of the work I was seeing but, when people do deep level investing they really do their due diligence and it was a mess. Once I learned what was going on in that industry, it was hard to unlearn it. By 2017 Nike’s longevity for next level investment and its overpriced sub culture was becoming rickety AF. Puma, Vans and Adidas swooped in so to speak and exploited that .
Read – https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/adidas-edging-nike-world-cup-sales-boost-data-show-2026-06-24/
Adidas catering to its new found Gen Z and Futbol community leaned into its principal sports interests. When they tried to “Streetwear” its brand with Kanye West, they ending up investing billions into the same (alleged) intellectual property conflicts, toxic work environment, and sexual harassment conflicts bogging down Nike today. Nike to date is systematically being sued for a variety of groups complaining about a bunch of mess, quitely plaguing the fashion industry today.
Read – Read – https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a45667538/adidas-kanye-west-yeezy-toxic-behavior/
Read – https://www.npr.org/2026/02/05/g-s1-108780/nike-federal-probe-discrimination-white-workers
Read – https://corryrobertson.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/How-Nikes-Toxic-Workplace-Hurt-Its-Bottom-Line-by-Elizabeth-Segran.pdf
Maybe settling the lawsuit is proof Nike is ready to address its unmonitored culture and repair its image. IYKYK, its been a known fact “NY & LA based” vultures were using inside connections to monopolize access or projects that were supposed to include community creatives. Instead it became a clique where only industry insiders would weaponize their connections, built their influencers numbers, using community narratives without community involvement to raise their pitch value. Some would just flat out steal sh!t from unknowns (hey tumblr).
Read – https://www.adidas.com/us/discount-programs
This eventually led to only celebrities getting deals and thus people stop supporting the brand due to low relatability of brand and misaligned brand ambassadors. Basically if your not a rapper, or a white dude named Brad with an Asian girlfriend, you couldn’t get a meeting, even if they used your ideas.
And to be fair its not Nike’s fault they got a bunch of frauds within their team but when that many posers invade a brand, ethics start to blur lines. Then the very ones ignore professional rules start inviting rules, becoming the ones who block and edit out anything without the company’s interest in mind. It became so bad, anyone that could expose their behavior, would get blocked and Nike would lose out on deals other brands ended up snagging. At one point Nike just took their (alleged) stolen ideas and ran with it, and now they getting sued (by many) for almost 2 decades of toxic culture in development.
What I know from dealing with clients who worked with Nike (or tried to work with them), client complaints were connected to alleged culture vultures notorious for surfing social media, stealing intellectual property, and even using brand access as a form of casting couch culture. The others were the counter DEI where only certain races or relationship-based projects were allowed to be hired or collaborate. Social media back in the 2010s was filled with dudes trying to lure women (and some men) into false deals and partnerships, only to learn many of their ideas were then stolen or handed to a more popular celebrity after horizontal transactions.
At this point, many celebs are starving and willing to knock the proverbial last chance in the head and stuff in a trunk to get that last life left in their struggling careers. If Nike or any brand using this old model plans to last, they better get their headhunters in check. And if you got a good vibe or creative concept, please make sure your online following is strong enough to not get strong armed. Nike is hurting because the reputation of the people who work with them are hurting far more people than they realize, behind the scenes.
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