Colin Kaepernick has become one of the most controversial figures in the modern history of sports, and that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon.

The former second-string quarterback was unceremoniously unemployed after the 2016 season, when the San Francisco 49er’s no longer believed that his skills were up to snuff.  Kaepernick, and an army of social justice warriors online, openly pontificated that the actual reason for the underwhelming QB’s lack of an NFL contract was due to his protests against the vague “injustice” he cited while kneeling during the playing of the National Anthem.

Of course, this runs counter to the narrative since Kaepernick’s departure from the league, in which he has become a cash cow for Nike – ironically the poster-child for the efficacy of sweat shops and economic injustice in China.

If Kaepernick could make Nike money, he could make an NFL team money.  For the football league, it wasn’t about money, it was about talent, as evidenced by the parity in these two disparate organizations’ capability to capitalize on controversy.

As further evidence that Kaepernick’s worth to the NFL wasn’t hampered by his political “curse”, Nike is now cashing in on him once again.

Colin Kaepernick is reportedly set to get his own signature shoe from Nike released next month on the heels of his controversial workout for a handful of NFL teams over the weekend.

Nike is expected to release the shoe across the U.S. in December as the company continues to develop a marketing strategy around the free-agent quarterback, industry sources told Yahoo Sports on Thursday.

While it’s unclear how many shoes the company will release, Nike reportedly believes that the demand for the item forced the apparel conglomerate to increase production numbers.

And, as if there was any doubt that Nike was playing to Kaepernick’s value outside of sports, the shoes themselves leave no doubt.

Eric Reid shares an early look at the upcoming @Kaepernick7 x Nike Air Force 1 Low. pic.twitter.com/aoLWriRGnM

— B/R Kicks (@brkicks) November 17, 2019

The stark color way, the portrait of Kaepernick, and the facf that these are obviously casual sneakers all suggest that Kaepernick is a Nike ‘icon’, who is not necessarily still under any sort of athletic consideration for the company.

All of this comes to us just days after an “NFL workout” held by Kaepernick and his representation that was widely criticized for its political nature.

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