Nike is facing backlash after it was revealed the company may be funding a controversial study tracking the physical performance of transgender athletes as they transition through hormone treatments. The study reportedly involves monitoring children as they undergo puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
Key Facts:
- A New York Times article revealed a long-term study on transgender adolescents, partially funded by Nike, according to researchers involved.
- The study tracks fitness levels in transgender-identifying youth before and after medical transition treatments over five years.
- Lead researchers include Kathryn Ackerman of Boston Children’s Hospital and Joanna Harper, an advocate for trans inclusion in women’s sports.
- Nike has not publicly confirmed its financial involvement in the study, despite multiple sources stating otherwise.
- Nike continues to promote progressive gender ideology through initiatives like “No Pride, No Sport” and partnerships with activist groups.
The Rest of The Story:
Nike has come under fire following a buried paragraph in a New York Times feature that mentioned its financial support for a study involving transgender-identifying adolescents.
The study, led by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, follows participants through hormone treatments and tracks their athletic performance over five years.
Joanna Harper, a biological male who identifies as a woman and has advised the International Olympic Committee, is among the study’s leaders.
She and co-researcher Kathryn Ackerman both indicated that Nike is involved financially, although this is not transparently disclosed in all public presentations.
Despite repeated inquiries from OutKick and other media, Nike has remained silent about its role in the study.
Nike’s website and corporate messaging focus heavily on gender ideology, including partnerships with The GenderCool Project and “Not a Phase,” but the controversial study is not mentioned on any public-facing platform.
Why is Nike, a shoe company, funding research on the efficacy of injectable chemicals on children?
Insidious https://t.co/ztHmOKf0SP
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) April 22, 2025
Commentary:
This is yet another disturbing case of a mega-corporation stepping far outside its lane.
Nike isn’t just selling shoes anymore—they’re allegedly bankrolling medical research on vulnerable children in a bid to reshape the boundaries of women’s sports.
It’s not science, it’s social engineering dressed up as progress.
What’s deeply unsettling is that this study doesn’t just focus on adults making their own medical decisions.
These are children.
Adolescents being tracked, studied, and essentially experimented on with hormone blockers and cross-sex hormones—all in the name of proving that biological males can fairly compete against females.
If a pharmaceutical company were doing this in secret, there would be national outrage.
But Nike, a beloved brand, gets a pass?
These interventions are not without risk.
Animal studies involving puberty blockers have had disastrous effects.
And yet here we are, repeating history with real kids, not lab rats.
And the goal?
To manipulate public opinion, erode women’s sports, and normalize irreversible interventions on children.
For a company that constantly touts its commitment to women’s athletics, this is a gross betrayal.
How does testing the limits of pharmaceutical manipulation on boys, just so they can “pass” in girls’ sports, help female athletes?
It doesn’t.
It marginalizes them.
It says their spaces, records, and categories are up for grabs.
Pro-women voices like Riley Gaines and Jen Sey are absolutely right to sound the alarm.
Buried deep in today's article in @NYTmag about Blaire Fleming and @SJSU women's volleyball team, is the fact that @Nike is funding a study to understand how much they can hamper male advantage in pre-pubescent boys to allow for "meaningful competition" despite those advantages.… pic.twitter.com/AAI2pRTuGG
— Jennifer Sey (@JenniferSey) April 20, 2025
Nike has shown nothing but contempt for the very demographic it claims to champion.
Their silence on this issue is deafening—and damning.
Corporations should focus on products, not politics—especially when that politics leads to medical experiments on children.
Nike’s priorities are not only out of step with America’s values—they’re dangerous.
The Bottom Line:
Nike is accused of quietly funding a five-year study that tracks transgender-identifying minors as they undergo medical transitions.
The aim appears to be proving that these children can eventually compete in women’s sports.
Critics argue this puts ideology over ethics and disregards the health and rights of both children and female athletes.
Nike owes the public—and especially parents and women—an explanation.
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