Fanbogs - College Football Weblogs

September 17, 2006

Nike employee attacks bloggers critique of Ducks unis

The boys at UniWatchBlog do an outstanding job at blowing the whistle on awful uniform decisions. That's gotten them some great pub from USAToday. Unfortunately, that publicity also brought their criticism of the awful Oregon Ducks uniform in the gun sights of the folks at Nike.

After the story ran, John and Paul received a not-fit-for-print comment on their blog, which they promptly edited out. Four minutes later, the offensive commentor fired off another borderline comment. UniWatchBlog banned his IP, but something about the tone raised eyebrows, so they tracked the IP address... to a Nike employee at Nike World Headquarters.

Question: Has the fire over the Oregon uniforms gotten so hot that Nike is now authorizing employees to strike back at bloggers? I doubt it, but I have to say that this one employee's actions are a poor reflection on Nike.

The boys in Beaverton owe an apology to UniWatchBlog. My suggestion? Take the high road - send John and Paul their own personalized Ducks jerseys.

Posted by Kevin Donahue

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Comments:

  1. The Mayor said:

    posted on September 18, 2006 2:12 AM — 24.23.202.200 — link — abuse?



    Kevin,

    The uniforms were designed by our Oregon players along with Nike.

    Who cares about some wacko Nike employee that works in the mailroom?

    Stick to football, this nonsense is for People magazine.

  2. Tampa Hurricane said:

    posted on September 18, 2006 8:46 AM — 24.96.199.254 — link — abuse?



    Kevin,
    The boys at Nike don't owe anyone an apology. The business isn't responsible for personal posts that an employee makes on another website. Should fanblogs make an apology every time you make the stupid posts backing Choker as a Miami coach? Unless Nike decided to have their employees post as part of their job (highly unlikely), an employees postings have nothing to do with the company.

  3. Fanblogs Author Kevin Donahue said:

    posted on September 18, 2006 10:12 AM — link — abuse?



    Apologies to the two Fanblogs regulars above, but I think one of the top brands in the worlds cares more about their image than to ignore this. A Nike employee, on Nike's nickel, blasted these guys in a not-fit-for-your-mom-to-read way. Yes, it's one @ss at Nike, but Nike cares & should make it right.

    Sorry for wasting a post on internet gossip, but we have Nike.com readers & getting the word out helps.

  4. paulwesterdawg said:

    posted on September 18, 2006 6:20 PM — 64.238.123.108 — link — abuse?



    Progressive companies that have blogger policies usually allow employees to participate in online discussions about their products and services IF and ONLY IF they clearly identify themselves as corporate employees.

    No company with a blogger policy or a media policy of any type (and you can be sure Nike is big enough to have policies on when you can take a dump) would EVER allow an employee to comment anonymously using profanity on a blog about work matters.

    In some companies, it would be ground for termination because it is so galatically stupid.

    Unless Nike knows who the guy is (and they likely don't); they should just let this blow over. They can't punish the guy who did it, and they probably can't prove that it ever happened the way the bloggers said.

    An apology would be too much vs. the offense of an unknown employee. Although, the sarcasm of the Oregon Unis would probably be enough to diffuse the situation.

    pwd

  5. Sean said:

    posted on September 18, 2006 7:23 PM — 66.177.63.34 — link — abuse?



    Somebody needs to apologize for the price of Nike shoes!

  6. Wiggles said:

    posted on September 19, 2006 6:40 PM — 67.133.62.41 — link — abuse?



    Please, dont try to squeeze blood out of Nike for this. It is an internal discipline issue. The unis happen to be pretty nice in my eyes, withthe large exception of the PATENTED font created for them known as Belotti Bold, it is boldly bad taste. It is not like this employee was soliciting inappropriate content on myspace, probably the crew that made that font.

  7. Duck Fan said:

    posted on September 26, 2006 2:40 PM — 198.237.180.60 — link — abuse?



    The diamond plating has got to go. I was watching the OU/UO game and had to admit, they looked pretty silly. If someone at UniWatchBlog wants to criticize the Ducks silly looking uniforms, let them. After all this is America...isn't it?

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