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Whatever you think of its, uh, progressive fashion sense, you have to give Nike this: Thematically, this year's batch of alternate "Pro Combat" uniforms don't lack for ambition. It wasn't quite enough to give each of the individual designs – most of which will only be worn once this fall, twice at most, by the ten teams selected for the line – its own slick webpage and cinematic voiceover. A couple of the pages, like the anachronistic "tribute" to the future World War II veterans on Ohio State's 1942 national championship team, almost have the trappings of a trailer for Oscar bait. All in the name of moving a few brashly colored cleats.
The other token nod to heroism in the line accompanied the coal-themed design West Virginia plans to break out for its Thanksgiving weekend date with Pittsburgh. Openly referencing the explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine that left 29 dead earlier this year in the worst U.S. mining disaster in decades, the voiceover on the Mountaineers' page informs listeners that the Mountaineers' unis were designed to honor the coal miners who "put it on the line for their families" with "a toughness you have to live to understand." Specifically, the uniforms embody said toughness with a "smudged black" effect on the back of the helmets and gloves and a gold stripe on the helmet and pants that "represents the canaries used long ago to test toxicity in mines."
[Nike's 'Pro Combat' unis are awesome and/or a mockery of Western civilization]
That may not strike hardscrabble miners or their advocates as the most fitting tribute to their fallen comrades. And for mining opponents, it's an outright disgrace on all fronts:
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – After angry environmentalists objected to a Nike promotional ad for a new West Virginia University football uniform, the athletic apparel giant said Thursday it will modify a graphic depicting a mountaintop removal mine.
Nike issued a statement through the university, repeating what the school had said earlier in the day: The new black and white Pro Combat uniform was designed to honor the heritage of coal mining and 29 men killed in the April explosion at Upper Big Branch mine.
"We are modifying the graphic of the player on our website to address concerns," the statement said.
[...]
The problem environmental activists had with the ad was not the color of the gear — off-white that appears coated in coal dust — or the number 29 on the coal-black helmets. It's the depiction of a mountaintop removal mine behind the image of a player, complete with flat, treeless mountaintop, the sound of an explosion and the image of falling rock.
The ad appeared to be a tacit endorsement of the controversial form of strip mining, the activists argued. Before Nike announced it would modify the ad, opposition was rampant.
"Activists" weren't the only ones calling for the change, which should come as no surprise to West Virginians accustomed to the guerilla campaign against "Big Coal." Opportunistic environmentalists looking to score political points off a corporate behemoth's opportunistic attempt to peddle jerseys, shoes and other assorted gear by associating it with a deadly tragedy that remained in national headlines for months? It may seem like a long way from the Hatifields and the McCoys, but in the 21st Century, carefully constructed PR campaigns are just how feudin's done.
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