Nike made a political statement, and now, there’s no chance their new plant will be built in Arizona.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday morning, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced that his state is revoking an offer to Nike to build a plant in Goodyear, Arizona which would have created 500 jobs. This came in response to Nike pulling a planned line of Fourth of July sneakers which featured the famous Betsy Ross flag on the back heel. According to the Wall Street Journal, Nike only pulled their product because former NFL quarterback and national anthem kneeler Colin Kaepernick urged them to do it. Kaepernick was reportedly unhappy with the shoe because he drew a connection to slavery.
In response to this, Ducey put out a thread of tweets slamming the decision.
Nike has made its decision, and now we’re making ours. I’ve ordered the Arizona Commerce Authority to withdraw all financial incentive dollars under their discretion that the State was providing for the company to locate here. 7/
— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) July 2, 2019
Ultimately, Ducey is correct here. Nike made a big mistake kowtowing to Kaepernick, but for an entirely different economic reason, the governor is right to pull the offer.
Nonetheless, it’s absurd to draw a connection between the Betsy Ross flag and slavery. The 13-star flag, created in the 18th century, represents the founding of the United States. It represents the bloodshed in the Revolutionary War which made this country possible, a country founded on the ideals of the Enlightenment — such as individual liberty, religious tolerance, and property rights, among others.
Slavery was evil and forever will be a dark part of the country’s history, but that is not the point of using a flag from the 18th century. Rather, it is meant to celebrate our country’s greatness, even if we haven’t always lived up to it. The bad parts of history cannot be erased, nor should historical figures and symbols be censored.
But separately, from an economic standpoint, Ducey also seems to have made a smart move — even if that was not his intention. After all, the city of Goodyear had “agree[d] to waive up to nearly $1 million in plan review and permit fees and reimburse Nike another $1 million for the jobs created.”
In other words, Arizona was going to fall into corporatist trap where the state picks winners and losers in the economy. That’s not free market capitalism, it’s cronyism. And it encourages businesses to pick up and move based on which corrupt politicians gives them the best deal, not based on market efficiency.
It’s not encouraging that it took Ducey being offended by a shoe company to stop feeding into a bad economic system. However, it is a political gift for him. He can use it as a virtue signal to those outraged by Nike, while also earning praise from those who oppose government intervention into the economy and don’t like handouts to massive corporations.
Hopefully in the future it does not take a company’s “woke capitalism” for politicians to oppose corporatism. When Betsy Ross flag shoes are offensive or not, this was the right move, and it shouldn’t take a controversy for other communities to finally cancel corporate welfare.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a freelance writer.
