Getty A Nike Ad featuring American football quarterback Colin Kaepernick is on diplay September 8, 2018 in New York City.
ESPN is reporting that Inked Flash, the company owned by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, has filed to trademark a black and white image of Kaepernick’s face and hair, to be used in marketing products and classes. The image would look like this:
Kaepernick has not played for the NFL since 2016. But he remains a household name, both because of his football career and because of his public protests against racism. Kaepernick is expected to use his new trademark to market shampoo, hairspray, and jewelry, among other items. ESPN is reporting that the black and white image of Kaepernick could also be used to promote “classes, workshops seminars and camps in the field of self-empowerment and awareness to properly interact with law enforcement.”
Kaepernick Has Applied for at Least Seven Other Trademarks in Recent Years
The former NFL star made national headlines when he started a campaign to protest racism and police brutality. Kaepernick began kneeling during the National Anthem, performed at the start of football games. The protest inspired other football players to “take the knee” also; the protest sparked a national conversation about the problems of racism and police brutality. But the protest also created a backlash, as many complained the NFL players should not be using their positions to talk about politics. President Trump and many other Republican politicians spoke out loudly against the NFL protests, calling them unpatriotic. Trump called repeatedly on NFL team owners to ban players from “taking the knee” and blamed the protests for the fact that NFL ratings appeared to be falling.
Over the past few years, Kaepernick has applied for at least seven trademarks. You can find the full list here.
Most recently, in August 2018, Kaepernick applied for a trademark so that he could sell clothing with the logo “I’m With Kap.” The filing said that the logo would be used on t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, long-sleeve shirts, hats and caps, pants, jackets, jerseys, and footwear. You can see the full filing here.
Kaepernick’s Recent Nike Campaign Sparked Both Enthusiasm and Anger
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Last month, sportswear giant Nike made Kaepernick the face of a new ad campaign. The ad features a black and white photo of an unsmiling Kaepernick. The words written across his face read “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”
Nike’s ad campaign was divisive, to say the least. Some people loved it; one man in Mississippi was so inspired by Kaepernick’s political protest that he went to his local mall and announced that he was going to “Nike the world” by buying Nike merchandise for everyone he met. But others were angry at the campaign, which they said gave too much of the spotlight to a political stance they didn’t agree with. There was a backlash to the Nike ad, which led to people across the company boycotting Nike. Some anti-Nike protesters went so far as to burn their Nike sneakers on camers, or cut the “swooshes” off of their Nike socks.