By Meagan Bonner
Staff Reporter
Under Armour’s CEO, Kevin Plank, spoke about President Donald Trump’s pro-business plan on CNBC.
He called Trump an “asset to the country,” according to USA Today.
Backlash and boycotting soon followed after.
There was pushback from athletes and movie stars including professional ballet dancer, Misty Copeland, Stephen Curry, a National Basketball Association championship player and movie star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
The three are all partnered with Under Armour.
Some students didn’t take Plank’s comments to heart like the well-known athletes did. Many explained they would still be willing to buy the company’s merchandise.
“Yeah, I would still buy their clothing,” said freshman Christina Magliocco. “Everyone has their opinions so I think regardless of if he supports Trump or not, it shouldn’t matter, it’s the product that matters. Under Armour is a good brand so whether he says one thing or another about Donald Trump, I’m still going to buy a good product. The CEO isn’t forcing his opinions on the people, he’s kind of just stating his own opinion just like we all do.”
Copeland and Johnson both took to their Instagram accounts to express their disagreements with Plank’s support for Trump.
Though these athletes expressed how they felt over the situation and their opinions on Trump, none of these athletes dropped their contracts with Under Armour.
Once this feedback came out from these athletes, social media websites, like Twitter had hashtags saying, #BoycottUnderArmour from people who don’t support both Trump’s views or Plank’s.
There have been past boycotts with companies and their political views.
The fast food restaurant chain Chick-Fil-A ran into this problem in 2012. Chick-Fil-A’s COO at the time, now CEO Dan Cathy, made public comments about how he opposed same-sex marriage according to Huffington Post.
“Chick-Fil-A came out saying that they were anti-gay a few years ago. I’m for gay marriage. Chick-Fil-A tastes good; I’m still going to eat it,” said sophomore Jacob Henny. “These companies would have to do something messed up for me not to buy these products. If the Under Armour executive didn’t come out just supporting Trump, but came out anti-race or something like that, that would be enough to get me to not buy Under Armour.”
On Feb. 15, Plank released a statement in The Baltimore Sun clarifying his statement about Trump. According to The Baltimore Sun, Plank wrote how the company is for equal rights.
“We believe that immigration is a source of strength, diversity and innovation for global companies based in America like Under Armour,” he said.
Many students will still buy good quality products, even if the beliefs of the company are not the same as theirs.
“If I like your product, I like your product. Your opinion of something is not going to change my liking of your product or not,” said senior Jacqueline Passariello.
