Nike has drawn plenty of criticism following the freak incident in which Duke star Zion Williamson exploded out of a PG 2.5 against North Carolina, which led to the presumed No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft suffering a knee injury. The latest swipe of the company comes inside the pages of the New York Times from another sneaker brand, although it might not be from one you’d expect.
At the bottom of page three of Sunday’s sports section, Skechers took out a gigantic ad prodding Nike for the incident. Underneath a story previewing Sunday’s Merseyside derby between Everton and Liverpool, a blown out sneaker with the design of the PG 2.5 (minus Paul George’s logo or the Nike Swoosh) appears. The phrase “JUST BLEW IT.” appears on top of the ad, while Skechers “We won’t split on you” appears at the bottom.
Here is a copy of the page acquired by Dime.
Skechers isn’t the first sneaker company to take a shot at Nike for this, although the lengths to which it’s going to take a shot and the fact that, well, it’s Skechers makes it rather stunning. In the aftermath of Williamson going down on Feb. 20, Puma tweeted that the incident “Wouldn’t have happened in Pumas,” while Puma athlete Terry Rozier tweeted that Williamson should “Come on over to Puma.” Once it was clear Williamson suffered a serious injury, Puma deleted its tweet, while Rozier apologized.
Didn’t know he was hurt 🙏🏾
— Terry Rozier (@T_Rozzay3) February 21, 2019
As for Nike’s reaction, the company said it was going to investigate how this occurred, while George said he spoke to Nike about his shoe exploding. Reports also indicated that the company lost $1.1 billion in stock value after Williamson’s injury.
