With soaring rhetoric and swelling music, Nike debuted its first Super Bowl ad in more than a quarter of a century, but its tone — at least in the minds of some top-tier female athletes — fell flat.
The one-minute Nike commercial, “So Win,” was the company’s first foray into the Super Bowl ad space in 27 years. The ad’s apparent goal was to celebrate women’s sports, but the tenor seemed tone deaf to the debate raging today over transgender-identified men competing alongside women.
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Nike’s commercial addressed perceived prejudices female athletes face — over the kinds of emotions society accepts from them, over their athletic prowess, and over the crowd sizes they attract.
The ad includes phrases like, “You can’t flex, so flex,” “You can’t fill a stadium, so fill a stadium,” “You can’t be emotional, so be emotional,” and, ultimately, “You can’t win, so win.”
Those concerns — as relevant as they may once have been — pale in comparison to the transgenderism creeping its way into women’s sports, according to athletes who participated in a Nike response video produced by XX-XY Athletics, an apparel brand with the goal of supporting women’s sports and keeping males from competing on female teams.
The video from XX-XY features appearances by athletes sidelined for speaking out against transgender participation in athletics.
One of the participants, Canadian powerlifter April Hutchinson, suspended for two years for speaking out against a transgender-identified man entering Canadian Powerlifting Union competitions in women’s categories, said in the video, “I’ve never been told that I can’t flex or can’t do this or that.”
University of Nevada women’s volleyball captain Sia Liilii, who spoke out against her school’s decision to compete against a transgender-identified male, called out Nike for failing to address the issue of the day.
“That Nike ad kinda represented old feminism,” she said. “I don’t think anyone is telling women in sports they can’t champion their sport.”
Contrasting itself with the Super Bowl ad, the XX-XY video makes several claims, calling out “fake feminism,” accusing Nike of “pretending to care about women,” and condemning the brand for “ignoring the real problem.”
In a press release, XX-XY asserted women can do all the things the Nike commercial addressed, but argued women aren’t allowed to speak up in their own defense against creeping transgenderism.
Jennifer Sey, a former U.S. gymnast and the founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics, has called out Nike directly, writing on X, “You’re so full of it. The only thing female athletes are told they can’t do is stand up for the integrity of their sports, for keeping men out of women’s sports. Literally, that’s the only thing.”
Riley Gaines, a 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer known for her advocacy for the protection of women’s sports, called out Nike directly at the end of the XX-XY video.
“‘Just Do It’ – that’s your slogan, isn’t it Nike?” she said. “Just do it; stand up for women. It’s the easiest thing in the world to do.”
Interestingly, the release of the video response to Nike comes as California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) admitted on a recent podcast with conservative activist Charlie Kirk that men competing in women’s sports — even under the guise of transgenderism — is “deeply unfair.”
“I think it’s an issue of fairness,” said Newsom, responding to Kirk raising the issue of transgender-identified men being permitted to compete alongside women in sports. “I completely agree with you.”
You can read more about that exchange here.