A Colorado sports store was forced to close after more than 20 years because it could no longer afford its lease after it boycotted the sale of Nike products over their ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick.
Last year, conservatives vowed to boycott Nike after it featured the blackballed NFL quarterback in an ad campaign after he sparked a wave of kneeling protests against racial injustice during the national anthem before NFL games.
One of the people who decided to boycott the company was Prime Time Sports owner Stephen Martin. On Monday, his store was covered in discounted sale signs after Martin could no longer afford to keep the establishment open.
“I just can’t keep the doors open anymore,” Martin told KOAA, explaining he could no longer afford his monthly lease.
“Being a sports store without Nike is kind of like being a milk store without milk or a gas station without gas. How do you do it? They have a monopoly on jerseys,” Martin told the news outlet.
“As much as I hate to admit this,” Martin told the station, perhaps there are more… Colin Kaepernick supporters out there than I realized.”
Martin says he doesn’t regret Nike boycott despite closing store:
“I didn’t give in to big Nike and big dollars. I didn’t give in. I did it my way,” Martin told KOAA.
“That part of the military respect that’s in me just cannot be sacrificed or compromised, as I believe Brandon Marshall and Colin Kaepernick both did. I don’t like losing a business over it, but I rather be able to live with myself,” he added.
Martin told the station the store will close in about a month and claimed he’s working with his employees to help them find new jobs.
