Early this month, Nike PR Director Heidi Burgett tweeted out a couple of pics of the shoe, which she stated belonged to an elephant. Nike made the shoe, which has both buckles and laces, as a corrective shoe for an elephant that had one short leg. There was a pink version of the iconic Nike ‘swoosh’ on the side of the shoe, but the elephant quite obviously wore the shoe out:

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Heidi Burgett
@heidiburgett

Biggest shoe Nike ever made was for an elephant that had 1 leg shorter than the others. Nike fitted him w/ lifts: http://t.co/b9hD2hEa7u

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25 days ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

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Nike Golf
@nikegolf

Epic entrance. Epic athlete. Let’s do this @McIlroyRory#TeamNikehttp://t.co/aeQRQrC0

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2 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

Follow @McIlroyRory

Rory Mcilroy
@McIlroyRory

So pumped to officially be a Nike athlete!!! Can’t wait to do many great things in the SWOOSH! @nikegolf

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3 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

“It’s a company and a brand that really resonates with me,” said McIlroy at a press event. “It’s young. It’s athletic. It’s innovative. They are committed to being the best, as am I.”

McIlroy will waste no time in advertising for Nike. He’ll use Nike-branded balls and clubs, as well as wear Nike apparel at his season debut this week at the European PGA’s HSBC Champions event in Abu Dhabi.

So, where does that leave Tiger Woods, Nike’s other super high-profile golf asset? He’ll be fine, as you can see in this new ad starring both him and McIlroy. Two guys, several cups.

Now, after having those titles invalidated and being banned from competitive cycling forever, Armstrong is officially stepping down as chairman of LIVESTRONG, the foundation he started as a means to raise funds for cancer research and to help cancer patients and survivors. He issued a statement this morning regarding his decision.

“In 1996, as my cancer treatment was drawing to an end, I created a foundation to serve people affected by cancer. It has been a great privilege to help grow it from a dream into an organization that today has served 2.5 million people and helped spur a cultural shift in how the world views cancer survivors. This organization, its mission and its supporters are incredibly dear to my heart.

“I am deeply grateful to the people of the foundation who have done such hard and excellent work over the last 15 years, building tangible and effective ways to improve the lives of cancer survivors. And I am deeply humbled by the support our foundation has received from so many people throughout the world — survivors, world leaders, business leaders and of course, the cancer community itself. We turn to this community frequently for guidance and collaboration to achieve our shared goals. They are unfailingly generous with their wisdom and counsel and I can never thank them enough.

“I have had the great honor of serving as this foundation’s chairman for the last five years and its mission and success are my top priorities. Today therefore, to spare the foundation any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding my cycling career, I will conclude my chairmanship.

“My duties will transfer to Vice Chairman Jeff Garvey who will serve as chairman. Jeff’s guidance and wisdom have been critical to shaping the foundation’s work since its earliest days. Jeff was this organization’s founding chairman and I have full confidence that under his leadership, the foundation will continue expanding its ability to serve cancer survivors.

“My family and I have devoted our lives to the work of the foundation and that will not change. We plan to continue our service to the foundation and the cancer community. We will remain active advocates for cancer survivors and engaged supporters of the fight against cancer. And we look forward to an exciting weekend of activities marking the 15th anniversary of the foundation’s creation.”

The news comes at the same time fitness gear giant Nike has announced they are officially terminating their endorsement deal with Armstrong, and are even changing the name of the Lance Armstrong Fitness Center, located at Nike headquarters in Oregon. The company released their own statement about the decision:

“Due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade, it is with great sadness that we have terminated our contract with him. Nike does not condone the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in any manner. Nike plans to continue support of the Livestrong initiatives created to unite, inspire and empower people affected by cancer.”

Although the news of Armstrong’s deeds came out between June and August, LIVESTRONG still reported a spike in donations during that time. Daniel Borochoff, founder of CharityWatch, says that the athlete’s followers didn’t want to believe the allegations against him and continued to support the foundation.

“Individuals that admire and support an individual who is later found out to be severely tarnished, don’t want to admit it, don’t want to admit that they’ve been duped,” Borochoff said. “People, though, do need to trust a charity to be able to support it.”

Would Nike have thrown it out, like the baby and the bathwater, or would they have sat on it until LeBron actually won a ring? Inquiring minds want to know.

As for the commercial itself, it’s very well done. It follows an older man who works a jeweler as he is creating a ring for the champion James finally became. Naturally, the construction of LeBron’s ring gets delayed a couple of times, courtesy of the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks. Inevitably, at least from Nike’s point of view, James completed his goal of winning it all, allowing the jeweler to finish the ring he’s been working on. As pointed out by Ball Don’t Lie (Yahoo’s NBA blog), Nike’s creating something of a history with LeBron and the jeweler in the commercial:

LeBron and the ring maker go way back to the days of Akron afros and high school dunks. When one sliced through the paint, the other carved through wax. Together, their journey has proven that even those destined for greatness have to earn it.

Good thing LeBron joined forces with Dwyane Wade, or else who knows how long the Ring Maker would’ve been working on that championship ring.

That’s the issue at the heart of a decision concerning England soccer star Wayne Rooney and Nike. The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) struck down Nike’s “Make it count” Twitter campaign after a tweet from Rooney and another soccer player failed to meet the guidelines for transparent ad practices.

Below is the tweet in question. Rooney sent this out to over 4 million followers on January 1st. As you can see, the tweet includes an inspirational message along with the hashtag #makeitcount. The link takes you to a Nike product website.

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Wayne Rooney
@WayneRooney

My resolution – to start the year as a champion, and finish it as a champion… #makeitcount http://t.co/JD6HUzbJ

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171 days ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

Fellow player Jack Wilshere posted a similar tweet near the same time that read,

“In 2012, I will come back for my club — and be ready for my country. #makeitcount.gonike.me/Makeitcount”

Wilshere has since deactivated his account.

These tweets ran afoul of the ASA, whose job it is is to “keep UK ads legal, honest, and truthful,” according to their statement. They ruled that the tweets didn’t properly reference Nike and that Rooney and Wilshere’s followers could clearly mistake the tweet for one that wasn’t sponsored. Nike argued that the Nike url was enough and that people clearly associated Rooney with Nike anyways.

“We considered the average Twitter user would follow a number of people on the site and they would receive a number of tweets throughout the day, which they may scroll through quickly,” said the ASA. They added that the rules specify that “marketing communications must be obviously identifiable as such.”

Or, as the Committee of Advertising Practice (code writers for the independent ASA) explains it:

The ads that were the subject of today’s adjudication were tweets setting out their footballers’ resolutions for 2012. The footballers in question sent personal as well as advertiser-sponsored messages from their Twitter accounts. Nike pointed out that the tweets included the hashtag #makeitcount and the URL gonike.me/makeitcount, and argued both the individuals (Wayne Rooney and Jack Wilshere) and their clubs (Manchester United and Arsenal) were widely known to be sponsored by Nike.

The ASA, however, noted the “Make it Count” campaign had launched around the same time that the tweets were sent, and considered that readers might not recognise “make it count” as a Nike marketing campaign. Even though the ads included links to a Nike website, and some readers might have inferred from that that the primary purpose of the messages was to promote Nike, the ASA considered that it would not be obvious to all readers that the whole tweet was a marketing communication. This is an important lesson: ads must be not just potentially identifiable as advertising but obviously advertising.

They suggest that in the future, tweets could include #spon or #ad hashtags to make them obvious.

Of course, social media advertising is a different animal than traditional media advertising and the lines are a bit blurrier. It seems that the thing that makes a Twitter or Facebook campaign so effective – how ads morph into the flow of everyday communications – is exactly why the ASA came down on Nike.

After some hardcore investigative journalism, I’ve noticed that the highest price right now is close to $4,000. Nowhere near the $89,000 TMZ is claiming, but still, $4,000 for a pair of shoes – that aren’t made of solid gold.

The hype is caused by the fact that Kanye designed them and has been wearing them for a few months now. They come out on Saturday, but people are already camping out to get there hands on them.

He also gave a pair to “big brother”, Jay-Z:

They are just shoes, but some people take this kind of thing very seriously. Last December, the re-release of the classic Air Jordan led to people camping out to get some. And before that, last September, Nike remade the Marty McFly shoes from Back to the Future which sold at auction for $37,500.

Nike, who just recently acquired the rights to license NFL merchandise and uniforms, took over for Reebok, and the sportswear giants are now engaged in a lawsuit over reproduction Tim Tebow jerseys put out by Reebok after their contract with the NFL had expired. Nike claims their rival is trying to capitalize on the recent Tebow craze after he was traded to the New York Jets by Denver.

You can follow Nike’s uniform unveiling here:

Looks like they’re going with flywire collars.

The first reveal was for the Seahawks, and initial reaction is unfavorable; comparisons to the college team the Oregon Ducks have been made.

On Nike’s part, it seems like they are focusing more on details of the clothing itself rather than the designs, which isn’t an accident; major uniform redesigns can only be done once every five years. Also, a brand can’t just change around NFL logos, and the more recognizable teams aren’t going to allow too much to be done to change their face. It looks like they have simply streamlined the graphics and made small changes to the fabric.

What do you think of the new uniforms? Let us know in the comments section below.

Such is the case now, with a lawsuit filed yesterday by Nike claiming that Reebok is trying to capitalize on consumer interest in Tim Tebow merchandise now that he is a member of the New York Jets.

Apparently Reebok had a deal with the NFL to manufacture items–such as logo-bearing apparel and replica jerseys–which expired on March 1st of this year. Nike’s deal with them begins on April 1st, and they say that Reebok has infringed on their territory by manufacturing jerseys with Tebow’s number (15) and name on the back after the expiration date of their contract.
Nike is seeking an unreported amount in damages and the profits from all items bearing Tebow’s name that were manufactured after March 1st.

Nike, who will be the exclusive supplier of NFL merchandise under their contract, will be unveiling new team uniforms next week in NYC for every team in the league. They say all they hype surrounding Tebow and his move to New York is the most likely reason for Reebok’s infringement. One section of the suit read:

“Reebok has taken upon itself to illegitimately seize on this unique and short-lived consumer opportunity … in order to capitalize on the public’s short-lived intense consumer appetite for such products, and to prevent Nike from doing so.”

Apparently, Nike is among the former group.

The sportswear giant has released two new sneaker styles in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day which are beer themed: The “Guinness” and the “Black and Tan”. Although it hasn’t been reported if those are the official names of the shoes, they were being marketed as such in online shops and ads last weekend after their release. However, a search of ThePremierStore.com, an online retailer which carries Nike products, showed no results under those search terms.

The company has apologized for offending Irish communities with the sneaker name, which, according to one writer for the L.A. Times, “would be akin, in some circles, to naming a sneaker the Taliban or the Nazi.” In a statement to the Telegraph, a representative for Nike had this to say:

“This month Nike is scheduled to release a version of the Nike SB Dunk Low that has been unofficially named by some using a phrase that can be viewed as inappropriate and insensitive. We apologise. No offence was intended.”

While the term can be viewed as offensive by some, others wonder whether the uproar is justified, since the people at Nike who decide on names for their various lines don’t usually include such political terms in their research. Their main focus is to make sure there are no copyright infringements. A report about the incident on IrishCentral.com has spawned quite a few comments which both support and vilify the company’s decision. One commenter had this to say:

“I say wear them proudly! The only place a “Black and Tan” belongs is underfoot! Every time you kick a ball or pound them down by dancing them into the ground, hold that vision of divine retribution finally having its day! Purely symbolic, of course!”

Twitter has similar mixed reactions.

Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Outrage-as–Nike-issue-Black-and-Tan-sneaker-line-for-St-Patricks-Day-142180103.html#ixzz1pBrtZLwj

This isn’t the first controversy that Nike has been involved in; 2006′s ad campaign, which featured soccer player Wayne Rooney with a painted cross on his torso, drew fire from Christian groups.

You can watch a video about Nike’s apology for the “Black and Tan” below.

This would be one of Lin’s first business deals with a globally recognized brand. His first real deal was with Nike in 2010 when he was a Golden State Warrior. ESPN Radio also reported in the middle of February that Nike planned to release a new shoe that features the Knicks’ blue and orange and “Lin” on the back of the heel.

Lin’s February winning streak has been bringing in increased revenue for the Knicks, higher TV ratings, and a growing number of potentially lucrative business deals; in fact, so many opportunities have been coming Lin’s way that his agent has been seeking outside help to assist with the negotiation process.