The longstanding rivalry between Adidas and Nike has spilled over into the realm of social media once more. This time around, it appears that a Nike employee left a disparaging comment about the current state of Adidas on an Instagram post from Three Stripes exec Jon Wexler.
Wexler blew the whistle on the incident with the below tweet on Wednesday afternoon.
If he is who he says he is, it makes this even better. Shoutout this guy for the comment on my triple black #ultraboost pic on Instagram. pic.twitter.com/ZeVfoCnOCr
The comment from user @m_16_l seen in the screenshot reads: "Looks like Adi is already losing its swagger." The comment appears to have been deleted or buried in the many replies on Wexler's recent Instagram posts—Sole Collector wasn't able to spot the remark.
Who does the locked Instagram account that Wexler alleges left the comment belong to? According to the bio, a Nike director and a lover of hot sauce and Duke basketball. There's no name on the private account, but the profile picture matches that of Michael Gill's on LinkedIn. According to Gill's account there, he is a global director of product insights and analytics at Nike in Portland, Oregon and a Duke graduate.
It's certainly not surprising to hear about Adidas and Nike employees going at one another, but it's strange to see these wars waged on public platforms like this.
UPDATE 11/3: The LinkedIn account mentioned above has since been deleted. The Instagram account appeared to be deleted as well, but is back now without the bio and profile picture.
