A high-flying sportswear brand
runs into trouble
一个欣欣向荣的运动装品牌遇上麻烦事了
“It doesn’t matter how many people hate your brand as long as enough people love it.” So declared Phil Knight earlier this year in a lecture at Stanford Business School. Companies cannot remain neutral on issues of conscience, even if it means losing some customers. “You have to take a stand on something,” insisted Mr Knight, as Nike, the sportswear firm he dreamed up while studying at Stanford in the 1960s, had
done by supporting Colin Kaepernick, an American footballer who refused to stand
during the pre-game national anthem in protest against racial injustice.
“只要（as long as）有足够多的人喜欢，不管多少人讨厌你的品牌也没关系。”今年早些时候，Phil Knight 在斯坦福商业学院的演讲中说道（declare）。哪怕（even if）意味着顾客流失（losing consumer），公司也不能在道德问题上保持中立。Knight先生坚持说，“在某些事情上你必须有立场（take a stand）”，他20世纪60年代在斯坦福学习时，耐克公司就一直是他梦想的地方。那时，耐克支持了一个为*制抵**（protest）种族不公正（racial injustice）而拒绝在赛前*歌国**（national anthem）中起立的美国足球运动员Colin Kaepernick。
Woke stuff—and lucrative to boot, if Nike’s financial performance is anything to go by. The company’s revenues rose by 7% in the three months to August, year on year, to $10.7bn. Profits were up by a quarter, as, so far this year, is the share price.
让人很清醒（woke stuff）甚至很具诱惑力（lucrative）的是回顾（go by）耐克的财务状况（financial performance），与上年同比（year on year），公司的收益（revenue）到八月在三个月内增加了（rose by）7%，总额达到100.7亿美元。利润上升了近1/4，目前的股票价格（share price）也是如此（so is…）。
Ironic, then, that Nike must now fend off accusations of distinctly unwoke behaviour. In May it was shamed into undoing a policy of slashing pay for female athletes it sponsors when they get pregnant. An earlier scandal over allegations of sexual harassment and abuse of female workers led to the dismissal of nearly a dozen male executives. And this week Nike has been embroiled in an ugly doping affair, which dragged its share price down by 3%.
讽刺的是（Ironic），耐克必须挡开（fend off）因很明显的觉悟问题（unwoke behaviour）而产生的诉讼（accusations）。5月该公司很惭愧地（be shamed into）解除（undoing）其有关大幅削减（slashing）所赞助的（sponsors）怀孕（get pregnant）女运动员工资的政策（policy）。早些时候，性侵丑闻（sexual harassment）和女性员工滥用（abuse）导致（lead to）十二个男性管理人员（male executives）的离职（dismissal）。这周耐克又卷入（be embroiled in）一起兴奋剂事件（doping affair），将股票价格（share price）拉低（drag down）3%。
On September 30th America’s anti-doping watchdog found Alberto Salazar, a star running coach who counts Olympic gold medallists as clients, and Jeffrey Brown, a physician, guilty of “orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct” and banned both from athletics for four years. Mr Salazar ran the Nike Oregon Project, a programme for elite athletes; he has a Nike swoosh tattooed on his arm.
9月30日，美国反兴奋剂监察人（watchdog）发现一个跑步教练Alberto Salazar，其客户常常是奥林匹克运动会金牌获奖者（gold medallists），而Jeffrey Brown, 一个内科医生，对精心安排（orchestrating）并促进（facilitating）严令禁止的（prohibited）兴奋剂（doping）行为（conduct）而被证明有罪（guilty of），两人都被禁赛四年（ban）。Salazar先生运行（run）一个专为精英运动员（elite athletes）的耐克俄勒冈州项目（the Nike Oregon Project），他还专门在胳膊上纹了一个耐克标志纹身（tattoo）。
Nike denies wrongdoing. Mr Salazar and Dr Brown are expected to appeal against the ruling. In an message to employees this week, Nike’s current boss, Mark Parker, reportedly wrote that the idea of doping runners “makes me sick”. Yet emails between him, Mr Salazar and Dr Brown, reported by the Wall Street Journal, seem to suggest he was aware of their tests. A Nike spokesman told the newspaper that at a time the coach was “concerned that Nike runners could be sabotaged by someone rubbing testosterone cream on them”. Mr Parker called the news reports “highly misleading”. Perhaps. But Mr Knight’s dictum may yet come back to bite the company he created.
耐克否认（deny）自己的错误做法（wrongdoing）。Salazar先生和Brown先生都期待能对裁决（ruling）做出申诉（appeal）。这周耐克现任的老板（current boss）Mark Parker 在给员工的信息中，据传闻（reportedly）描述说服用兴奋剂（doping）的跑步选手这个主意“让我恶心”。然而根据华尔街日报（Wall Street Journal）的报道，他和Salazar以及Dr Brown的邮件似乎建议他意识到（was aware of）他们的检测。耐克发言人告诉报纸说教练一度（at a time）很担心耐克跑者可能被故意涂抹了（be sabotaged by）睾酮霜（testosterone cream）。Parker称新闻报道“高度误导”（highly misleading）。可能。但Knight先生的格言（dictum）可能会反咬他创立的公司。
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