Socially responsible or financially exploitative? Sports fans’ views of the response by sportswear brands to athlete activism in the United States

To date, limited research has examined how sports fans feel about the response by sportswear brands towards athletes who are paid to endorse their brand but also publicly engage in social and political activism. In addressing this shortfall, this article presents the views of 1,001 US sports fans, collected via an online survey from May 2021 to June 2021. Locating the findings within two prominent themes – social responsibility strategy and financial motives – two-thirds (66%) of the participants felt that sportswear brands had become more supportive of athletes publicly engaging in social and political activism, whilst one-third (34%) felt that little had changed from what athletes faced in previous generations. The article concludes by outlining that as athlete activism becomes more prominent in the US, both inside sports arenas and on social media platforms, the social responsibility strategy of sportswear brands will become an even more important feature in the consumer culture of US sports fans.