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The Biggest Business Fails of 2023

The biggest-ever deal in athlete sponsorship was Nike's $1.3 billion sponsorship of Michael Jordan. The second-biggest deal in athlete sponsorship was Nike's Cristiano Ronaldo sponsorship. The third-biggest was Nike's $1 billion sponsorship of LeBron James.

Do you see a pattern?

When Nike wants to do something, it can find the money.

And yet, according to multiple posts on Reddit's Choosing Beggars subreddit, when Nike wants to give to the community rather than to extremely rich athletes, the company asks teachers to do the heavy lifting -- unpaid.

Imagine paying Michael Jordan over $1 billion while asking teachers, who earn an average of $57,388 a year, to work for free. Nike approaches it like it's doing a favor for the teacher:

As a Certified Essay Reader, you'll have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of aspiring Scholars by evaluating 25 essays from the comfort of your own home or workplace between now and December 31, 2023. No travel will be required, as essays can be read wherever you have internet access (e.g., work, home, etc.).

Wow! How great that the teachers aren't required to travel to do this free work!

Nike certainly isn't the only for-profit company to ask people to do work for free.

But for your business, you should avoid it at all costs. Here's why.

It's probably illegal. Registered charities can ask for volunteer labor, but for-profit companies need to pay. You can get around this by funding a separate charity, which I assume Nike does with its Nike HSI Scholarship Program, but I could not verify that. But, if you don't have a charity, you really cannot ask for free labor.

It's a bad look. Nike has $51.46 billion in revenue (TTM), and is asking for time donations. In contrast, 69 percent of people believe teachers are underpaid. While your business probably isn't earning in the billions of dollars, asking for free work always looks bad.

It's disrespectful. Nothing says we don't value time and expertise like asking for free labor. I'm not sure how long it takes to evaluate these essays, but doing 25 of them would not be negligible.

For-profit companies should not ask for free labor, even in their charitable arms. Just because Nike is doing it, it doesn't mean you should.

I reached out to Nike for a comment, and if the company responds I will update this post.

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