A quote purportedly from Nike has gone viral on social media. The posts claim that Nike claims: “We’re a $76 Billion dollar company that can afford to let go of all ‘Make America Great Again’ customers.”
There is no record of anyone associated with Nike ever making such a statement. What’s more, Nike isn’t a $76 billion company by any actual financial metric: according to the company’s 2020 fiscal year SEC filing, Nike’s revenue in the past year was $37.40 billion. (Nike’s fiscal year ended on May 31, 2020.) The $76 billion figure can be reached by adding Nike’s 2020 revenue to its assets ($31.34 billion) and total equity ($8.06 billion). However, revenue refers to the amount of money brought in before expenses and is not indicative of profits. In fiscal year 2020, selling and administrative expenses for Nike were $13.1 billion, and operating overhead expenses were $9.5 billion. All things considered, recent valuations of the company range from $34.8 billion to $32 billion to $39.1 billion. Despite the differences among the numbers, one thing is clear: Nike is not a $76 billion company and nobody affiliated with the company would have likely claimed it is.
When asked if Nike had any record of the company or an employee making such a statement, a representative for Nike confirmed to The Dispatch Fact Check that “this is not a Nike quote.”
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Photograph by Michael Rehfeldt/Flickr.
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