In the three months prior to Nike’s controversial marketing campaign with Colin Kaepernick, earnings at the athletic retailer soared to $9.9 billion, a 10 percent increase from a year earlier.
Profits at the Beaverton, Ore.-based company rose 15 percent to $1.1 billion.
Nike’s focus on one-to-one connections with its customers, “combined with our deep lineup of innovation, is driving strong momentum and balanced growth across our entire business,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Parker said in a statement. “Our expanded digital capabilities are accelerating our complete portfolio and creating value across all dimensions.”
While Nike’s campaign with Kaepernick, the face of NFL protests against police brutality, elicited backlash from political conservatives, sales reportedly increased 31 percent in the days after the announcement.
[More: Trump spikes Colin Kaepernick campaign: ‘I don’t like what Nike did’]
Nike’s stock also hit an all-time high of $86 in New York trading last Friday.
Parker told investors the company feels “very good and very proud” of the campaign.
“We know it’s resonated actually quite strongly with consumers here in North America, but also around the world,” he said on the company’s earnings call. “It’s really transcended the North American market.”
Tuesday’s earnings, which don’t include the period after the Kaepernick campaign was launched, showcase the company’s success in amplifying its brand.
The retail sector overall is surging amid a bustling U.S. economy, spurred in-part by the GOP-led tax cuts. President Trump’s latest round of tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, however, could undermine profits in the sector later this year and in 2019.
To date, the administration has imposed levies on $250 billion in products from the communist nation, and the most recent will impact finished goods made overseas.
Nike executives said the retailer could face a slight headwind due to the tariffs, but it is not expected to impact the company’s profit outlook for the fiscal year.
