How Nike was abandoned by several Olympians over their treatment of women before Dylan Mulvaney deal
Nike’s partnership with a wildly-popular transgender TikTok influencer to promote its womenswear line has raised eyebrows, given that several female Olympians ditched the brand over its alleged treatment of women.
Dylan Mulvaney, 26, who transitioned from male to female beginning in March 2021 and documented her experiences on social media, has won a legion of fans and an invite to meet Joe Biden at the White House – reportedly earning a million dollars in endorsements so far.
On Wednesday, Mulvaney posted images of herself on Instagram in what was labelled a ‘paid partnership’.
The backlash was immediate, with critics including college swimming champion Riley Gaines saying the tie-up was disrespectful to women.
Many also referenced Nike’s history with female athletes – among them the most decorated gymnast ever, Simone Biles; ten-time Olympic medallist Allyson Felix; and Colleen Quigley, a 2016 Olympian who completed in the steeplechase.
Dylan Mulvaney appeared in appeared in a paid sponsorship advertisement for Nike Women
Trans woman Dylan Mulvaney modeled a pair of leggings and a sports bra for Nike in a new ad
Allyson Felix, one of America’s most celebrated field and track athletes, had a high profile disagreement with Nike, that is now being relitigated in the light of the Mulvaney controversy
The choice to hire Mulvaney proved controversial, partly because she is not an athlete.
It was their previous record with women, however, that seemed to cause the most consternation.
One person said: ‘Let’s talk about Nike…a brand that treats men like Dylan Mulvaney that pretend to be women better than it treats women.
‘In 2018, Nike Brand Ambassador and Model + 10 x Olympic Medallist Allyson Felix got pregnant. Nike then offered her 70{a0ae49ae04129c4068d784f4a35ae39a7b56de88307d03cceed9a41caec42547} less pay than her original…’
Another added: ‘See? Nike knows falling pregnant isn’t a problem they’ll ever have with Dylan!’
A third said: ‘Remember when Nike threatened to reduce Allyson Felix’s pay by 70{a0ae49ae04129c4068d784f4a35ae39a7b56de88307d03cceed9a41caec42547} for getting pregnant? At least Dylan won’t have the problem. Great news for women everywhere.’
Another added: ‘Nike is probably fine using Dylan rather than a real woman because at least they know he will never get pregnant.
‘I’m glad that Allyson moved on to be successful after getting such terrible treatment from Nike.’ Felix made the allegation about the pay cut in a New York Times op-ed, which Nike declined to comment on.
Simone Biles left firm for a more ‘aligned’ brand
Biles, the 26-year-old gymnastic phenomenon, originally signed with Nike in 2015, shortly after she turned professional and won the individual all-around title at the world championships.
She represented Nike at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where she won five medals, including four golds.
Simone Biles was sponsored by Nike from 2015 until April 2021, when she switched to Athleta
Biles said that she felt Athleta ‘stand for everything that I stand for’
Her decision in January 2018 to reveal that she, too, had been sexually abused by former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar saw her emerge as one of sport’s most high-profile campaigner for women’s rights.
Nassar, the month before, had been sentenced to 60 years in prison for his sexual crimes.
Biles in April 2021 announced she was ending her deal with Nike, and was moving to a label that she felt was more supportive of women – Athleta.
‘I think they stand for everything that I stand for,’ she said.
‘I felt like it wasn’t just about my achievements, it’s what I stood for and how they were going to help me use my voice and also be a voice for females and kids.
‘I feel like they also support me, not just as an athlete, but just as an individual outside of the gym and the change that I want to create, which is so refreshing.’
Athleta agreed to sponsor Biles’s Gold Over America Tour, after the Tokyo Olympics – a move which was seen as helping her to more directly undercut U.S.A. Gymnastics, an organization that she said is unable to keep girls and women safe.
Athleta, which is owned by Gap, was keen to emphasize that they had lured her from Nike by promising to work with her beyond sport.
‘It is more than just a sports apparel sponsorship,’ said Mary Beth Laughton, Athleta’s president.
‘We really view it as a way to support Simone in her full life. As she takes on the next stage in her career in Tokyo and beyond, we really want to support that as well.’
Allyson Felix says Nike threatened to cut her pay for having children
Ten-time Olympic medallist Allyson Felix left Nike in 2019 after it failed to guarantee the value of her contract when she became pregnant, she alleges.
Allyson Felix is seen with her medal after winning gold in the Women’s 4x400m Relay final on day fifteen of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, in August 2021
Felix is seen on March 11 at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, for an event entitled: ‘Beyond the Podium: How Athleta and Allyson Felix Reinvented the Brand/Athlete Partnership’
Felix is the most decorated US track and field athlete in history, but said she felt ‘frustrated’ in 2018 by the reaction of her then sponsor Nike to the news of her pregnancy.
She now has a four-year-old daughter, Camryn.
Felix had been working with Nike for almost a decade when she became pregnant, but claimed that they ‘weren’t willing’ to support her ‘through starting a family’.
Writing in a New York Times op-ed at the time, she said: ‘I’ve been to four Olympics, I’ve had the successes, and my value is still not being seen.
‘Even after becoming a mum, I still had that desire to run, I still knew I was capable.
‘But I was left without shoes to wear at the Tokyo Olympics, which is not ideal for a runner.’ Nike hasn’t commented on her claims.
She has since launched her own brand, Saysh, which is created by women for women and also signed a deal with Athleta – which she describes as her ‘big sister’.
Felix did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com on the current Nike controversy.
Alysia Montaño faced a similar situation after she ran in the 2014 United States Championships while eight months pregnant, and was celebrated for it – but then had Nike cut her pay.
She hit out at Nike in a 2019 video, after they stopped paying her when she was pregnant.
Olympian Kara Goucher, a long distance runner, has also criticized Nike for the way she was treated after she became pregnant in 2010.
She was forced to run a race just three months after her son was born, or risk not getting a salary, she said.
Colleen Quigley, a 2016 Olympian who completed in the steeplechase, left Nike in 2021 in favor of Lululemon amid claims the company hadn’t offered her a fair deal. She also said she was moving into a ‘female-focused’ partnership.
In response to comments from the Olympians at the time, Nike told TIME: ‘We regularly have conversations with our athletes regarding the many initiatives we run around the world.’
Nike acknowledged in a statement that some of its sponsored athletes have had their sponsorship payments reduced because of pregnancies.
But the company says it changed its approach in 2018 so that athletes are no longer penalized.
‘Nike has supported thousands of female athletes for decades. We have learned and grown in how to best support our female athletes.’
Critics – including swimmer beaten by Lia Thomas – branded Dylan Mulvaney agreement an insult
Riley Gaines, one of the most high profile critics of trans women competing in women’s sports, was among those complaining about Nike’s hiring of Mulvaney.
Gaines, a college swimming champion, whose activism was sparked in part by losing to Lia Thomas, told DailyMail.com that Nike was making a ‘sad mockery of what being a woman entails’ by recruiting Mulvaney to promote its women’s sportswear line.
She led criticism of the deal – which could earn Mulvaney $150,000 per post on Instagram – as a former Olympic gold medalist also said the brand is ‘selling their products by erasing women’.
Gaines told DailyMail.com: ‘Nike joins the growing list of companies who find it acceptable disrespect women by making a sad mockery of what being a woman entails.
‘The message Nike sends to all girls and women is that men can do everything better.’
Riley Gaines, one of the most successful college swimmers in US history, said Nike’s deal with Mulvaney makes ‘a sad mockery of what being a woman entails’
Mulvaney could earn up to $150,000 per post for her tie-up with Nike. In a series of posts on Tuesday, she shared video and images of herself wearing Nike leggings and a sports bra
The former University of Kentucky swimmer is one of the most decorated swimmers in program history and became a 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer and a five-time SEC champion before her college career ended in 2022.
She became a fierce advocate for sex separated categories in sport after competing against transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas in March last year. Gaines described the experience as like ‘going into the race with my hands tied behind my back’.
She added that she will be ‘buying from Athleta from now on’, referring to the sportswear brand for women.
Olympic gold medal swimmer Nancy Hogshead, who won three gold medals and one silver at the 1984 games, said Nike’s arrangement with Mulvaney had taken the opportunity from a biological woman.
She said women only earn one percent of the money spent by sports brand on advertising.
Gaines is a fierce advocate for sex-separate categories in sport and competed against trans swimmer Lia Thomas. ‘Nike joins the growing list of companies who find it acceptable disrespect women,’ Gaines told DailyMail.com
Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer, is one of the most decorated swimmers in program history and became a 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer and a five-time SEC champion before her college career ended in 2022
Hogshead told DailyMail.com: ‘They are selling their products by erasing women. They are taking the place of women. There are plenty of women – phenomenal athletes, great spokespeople, really smart, hardworking – so many people that they could have had. It’s a male takeover.’
She added: ‘Having these big companies is like yet another layer of coming into women’s spaces, it’s another layer of trying to define what a woman is without talking to women, without talking to females.’
Hogshead, who founded the Champion Women group to campaign for women and girls in sport, said Mulvaney’s posts also sent a problematic message about body image to girls and women.
Olympic gold medal swimmer Nancy Hogshead said Nike’s deal with Mulvaney robbed the opportunity from a biological woman
‘One of the ways that we make women wrong, that we abuse them, is the issue of weight,’ she added.
‘Women biologically need more fat on them in order to be able to have children. I want you to notice that Dylan is thinner than a woman could be [to] still get her period. So it’s glorifying an image of a female – I think they call it girlhood – that is unattainable for biological women,’ Hogshead said.
She said the sponsored posts were ‘using Mulvaney and saying, ‘look this is a girl, this is a woman’, when no woman can possibly look like that’.
Sharron Davies, a swimmer and Olympic medalist from Britain, also joined the backlash to Nike’s deal.
‘Women are not a parody, caricature or stereotype companies, and those of you disrespectful enough to not understand that will lose customers! We will make our voices heard through our spending power & boycott companies that don’t know what a woman is,’ she said on Twitter.
Mulvaney’s popularity on TikTok and Instagram has surged in recent months to a combined total of 12.5 million followers, meaning she can rake in $50,000 to $80,000 per sponsored post.
But the 26-year-old’s uploads pushing her divisive new deals with global brands Bud Light and Nike might have earned around double that – thanks to the size of the companies and the huge reach of the posts, a marketing expert has claimed.