Protesters: Nike should cut ties with Lance Armstrong
BEAVERTON, Ore. – A small group of protesters gathered near Nike headquarters in Beaverton Tuesday morning to demand that Nike break ties with Lance Armstrong.
Last week, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) released a report claiming that Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs while winning seven Tour de France titles, which USADA has ordered taken away.
The report claims Armstrong bullied his former teammates into cheating as well. Eleven of those teammates testified against him.
Paul Willerton of Bend, Ore. once rode with Armstrong. He put out the call for others to join him at Tuesday’s protest and said it’s time for Nike to cut ties with the athlete.
“I’m not the only one. I think there are millions,” said Willerton. “Stand up and acknowledge the truth.”
Willerton said he didn’t know how many others would join him in protest Tuesday, but said it didn’t matter to him if he’s the only one.
One protester's sign said "Just do the right thing: Sack Lance." Another said "No drugs. No bullies. No lies."
Willerton said it’s important to illustrate the kind of person that he believes Armstrong is.
“[They] not only took drugs to get the results they wanted in the sport, they made someone else, other people take those drugs within the team, they orchestrated the most organized doping program that’s ever been uncovered in the history of the sport,” Willerton said.
“I think they have a great opportunity to set an example for corporations to support clean sports, clean athletes and set a great example for the next generation of kids,” said protester Jeff Mitchem of Portland. “Drug-free sports are more important than winning at all costs.”
A spokesperson from Nike released this statement Monday: “Lance has stated his innocence and has been unwavering on this position. Nike plans to continue to support Lance and the Lance Armstrong Foundation, a foundation that Lance created to serve cancer survivors.”
Willerton said he wants Nike to continue to support the Lance Armstrong Foundation, but he believes the company should cut ties with Lance Armstrong the athlete and condemn him.
Well done, Paul! Well done! That was quick!!!
are there still people defending him? are you all real or paid internet lackeys?
Lance is a stud. Never popped for a failed test in his career. "Convicted" by the USADA for allegations outside the Association's own statute of limitations (apparently the USADA has a separate set of rules for Lance Armstrong.) Even if he was doped, he beat all the other doped up elite cyclists, and those same cyclists were all busted.Â
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Notice that all the guys coming out against Lance have one major thing in common - all suspended for being dopers.Â
 âLance has stated his innocence and has been unwavering on this position. Nike plans to continue to support Lance and the Lance Armstrong Foundation, a foundation that Lance created to serve cancer survivors.â
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Translation: Â It's so well known he did it, it's not even worth discussing anymore, and if you visit a local Nike store, you will see the Livestrong section is almost as profitable as the Jordan section.
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Armstrong was a master at passing drug tests, I'll give him that, but you aren't going to make Nike do the right thing if it means losing a staple of their product line.Â
I have two questions;
1) How many times was he tested over the course of his career.
2) How many positives were there?
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If the answer to #2 is zero, it's time to move on to more important things.
 @Sid Vishess There were several positives, just nothing they could get him on at the time. When Lance says he never failed a drug test, that's not quite true. What is true to say is that they never (in the past) "got him". It's kinda like an obvious criminal saying "You've got nothing on me!".
What I find sad is .. sure. Maybe Lance Armstrong took performance enhancing substances at one point. He is retired now.. think of all the money he has raised for cancer survivorship research..  which I might add he is STILL pursuing. Do you want to anger him to a point of giving it all up and hiding in the shadows of the public? I mean, you have to pick your battles.. what happened in the past is in the past, at least he is doing something good with his life now, right?Â
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Lance Armstrong and his corporation have raised over $470 MILLION since 1997.. Â I think that this could be justified if he were still out there competing, but he is retired now.
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Maybe I'm wrong, but this is just what I believe.. I think that there are more important things in life, and I think he's paid his dues for any wrong doing by helping those that need it and can't get it.
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Oh because NIKE is such a stand up corporation. They make me sick! A year or so ago an expose documenting how dozens of factory workers making Nike's Converse sneakers in Indonesia are routinely abused on the job. Nike's Indonesia contractors are accused of horrific labor practices that range from vicious name-calling to physical injury, running sweatshops that would be illegal back in the bucolic burg of Beaverton, Oregon, where Nike has its corporate HQ. Nike, when confronted, admitted the abuse from contractors, which includes slapping workers in the face and calling them pigs and dogs, but says (astoundingly) thereâs little they can do to stop it. One worker at the Pou Chen Group factory in Sukabumi, 60 miles from Jakarta, alleges she was kicked by a supervisor for a mistake in cutting rubber for soles. The 10,000 workers in the Taiwanese-managed plant are mostly women who earn 50 cents an hour. Why not punish (and fire) offending factories, and step up its monitoring and enforcement of factory conditions and its contractor compliance clauses to improve the lives of its workers before it becomes a human rights horror story? So for NIKE to act all high n mighty disgusts me!!!!
@alildifferent
Ask a corporate giant to me moral? Really? Thatâs like asking Armstrong to admit guilt. Neither is going to happen.
All athletes take performance enhancing substances, some are legal some are not. At the time of competition, doping tests give everyone a level playing field. To go after athletes with hind sight and after knowledge is unfair, because now, with this precedent, everyone is subject to life-long scrutiny.Â
 @Komo Dragon True. Seems many folks are more about character assassination than what the person has done. Just like all those supposed 'wins' pulled from Penn State, we all know who won the games (they did happen) and we all know who won the Tour d'France regardless of what some simps cry on about.
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If not caught during the competition, then the testing should be considered as 'passed' and accepted instead of 'potentially always under scrutiny for XXX years after'. BS all of it.
For the same reasons why we have statutes of limitation and the double jeopardy rule.Â
Lance should come clean, atheists need to be honest too.
 @IslandAtheist Why would an atheist need to be honest?  There is literally no such thing as right or wrong without God.  You get to set your own definitions, which Lance has always done.Â
"Willerton said he didnât know how many others would join him in protest Tuesday, but said it didnât matter to him if heâs the only one."
Thats like saying if you got into a fight with someone twice as big as you, you would still go down swinging and fighting.
Neither accompishes anything, there is no point and it makes no sense. Give it a rest, most of us are tired of this stupid witchhunt, just like Lance. It doesnt serve any purpose or benefit anyone if Lance's endorsement deals are severed. The guy was never found to be using any kind of drugs, it is only heresay. This is so annoying.
lolOregon. Don't you guys have anything better to do?
Nike needs to cut ties with SWEAT SHOPS first!! Child labor is far more serious of a problem than athletes that may or may not have doped..
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IF Nike is so worried about illegal drugs then cut ties with ALL athletes the have used drugs!! Humm it may be hard to find a truly clean athlete today!
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Will the USADA go after ALL athletes as hard as they did Lance...? Let the witch hunt continue until we get them all IF this is really about fairness....or just a grudge by the head of the USADA which now has drawn Nike into the fray..
I agree that Nike should cut ties with Armstrong, however, big corporate money and people in powerful positions like Armstrong will always win out over honesty, truth and doing what is morally right.
More importantly, how about Nike cutting ties to China/Indonesia and bringing those jobs back to the US? That to me is much more important than Lance Armstrong.Â
IÂ completely agree with you. The people over there making those shoes are only making $6/day and then they come over here and the BIG COMPANY charges $150-$300 a pair. Who gets the rest, the BIG CEOs. they are crap quality and barely last a year if worn daily. They, NIKE, will stand behind anybody with a name that draws attention. Be it positive or negative attention. They have no honor, morals or values. I would rather wear leather moccasins that I make myself than anything made by that slave labor corporation.
 @Meichele Boisvert At least New Balance attempts to have some of their products/shoes made here in the US. This needs to be the norm rather than the exception. It's time that the outsourcing of US jobs by US corporations is outlawed.Â
 @HallandOates  @Meichele Boisvert You don't need to outlaw it. It's not a bad thing. Boeing makes planes and sells them all over the world. We wouldn't want all of Boeing's customers to suddenly stop buying products made in the USA would we?
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The better solution is FAIR trade. In the US we require companies to not pollute, to not hire children, to not work people to death, etc. In a sense we make it harder for US companies to compete with foreign companies that allow these practices. Instead of taking this an an argument to get rid of important employee protections (although not all are important) we should insist that our foreign trading partners follow similar rules. It's fairer to our own local manufacturers that way.
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We could do this through blanket import tariffs or other means, such as requiring certification for foreign companies that wish to import into the US at a low or zero tariff rate.
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 @HallandOates  @Meichele Boisvert They aren't "US jobs", they are Nike Jobs, and they can employ people where they like. Freedom, look into it.
 @HallandOates I agree, however a $150.00 Nike shoe made overseas would cost $250.00 or more if made here. Sad, but true.
@Tooby Roosday @HallandOates Only if corporations want to continue to keep the current markup values they have from cost -> MSRP. My mom runs a small business and the products she sells in addition to the services are typically marked up 4x cost. This could probably be maintained at the same MSRP, if corporations would stop paying these greedy CEOs and other executives the inflated salaries and bonuses they get
@Sid Vishess @Sid @Tooby Its akin to something Truth Percolates would say
 @northwestsurfer  @Sid  @Tooby  "The prospect of this will ensure global US worldwide domination, and help that the NWO will be realized."
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Good one. I love a good, tin-foil taqiyah comeback!
@Sid Vishess @Tooby @HallandOates
Probably illegal arms production and sales to the Riteous Swords of Allah Brigades (a renegade-seperatist Iranian rebel group), to assist the US government and Israel in overthrowing the Iranian regime and ensuring its destruction. The prospect of this will ensure global US worldwide domination, and help that the NWO will be realized.
 @northwestsurfer  @Tooby  @HallandOates So... if Nike sells about 120 million pairs of shoes a year.Â
http://www.statisticbrain.com/nike-company-statistics/
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AND it's top officers received about $60M in compensation...
http://www.oregonlive.com/playbooks-profits/index.ssf/2012/07/nike_pay_to_ceo_parker_totaled.html
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That works out to about 50 CENTS per pair. So the markup must be going to something other than "greedy" execs and would have minimal effect on retail prices.
@Tooby Roosday @Tooby @HallandOates I know, I think however in the long run corporations and the united states economy would stay and be more competitive than countries such as China.
You would definitely see improvement here economically as more workers would be employed, and there would be less legal challenges to maintaining a presence overseas.
 @northwestsurfer  @Tooby  @HallandOates It's much more than just markup values on MSRPs. It's also the cost of U.S. labor. An Asian worker that makes $2.00 a day is a huge difference from an American worker that demands 10 times that amount PER HOUR, plus health insurance, and all other benefits.