A healthy relationship

WORLEY, Idaho — When Sam McCracken was a 19-year-old ranch kid, leaving home for the first time, his uncle gave him a few, carefully chosen words of advice.

“He said, ‘The Creator will create a path for you … Follow it,’ ” McCracken recalled Wednesday.

The path eventually led McCracken, a member of Montana’s Fort Peck Tribe, to Nike. He was working at the company’s distribution center in Wilsonville, Ore., when he developed the concept that became Nike’s Native American Business Program.

The program fosters ties between Nike and Indian communities. Since 2000, the company has sold athletic shoes at wholesale prices to Native American health clinics, which use the shoes to reward clients for getting pre-diabetes screening and to promote regular exercise.

Through McCracken’s work, Nike also became a sponsor of the world-ranked Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team. The company also supports a national Native American basketball tournament in Phoenix every year that exposes high school athletes to college talent scouts.

“My goal is to bring inspiration and innovation to the Native American community by creating access to the Nike brand,” said McCracken, who gave the keynote speech Wednesday at the Idaho Governor’s Conference on Recreation and Tourism in Worley.

Diabetes prevention through physical activity is particularly dear to his heart. McCracken, 47, lost his mother to the disease, which strikes Native people at a much higher rate than the general population. About 16 percent of Native Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes.

The program benefits Nike as well as the Native communities, said Jack Burns, Nike’s U.S. e-commerce manager.

The company’s marketing research indicated that Native Americans had a strong loyalty to the Nike brand, he said. But before the program’s creation, Nike products were hard to find on remote reservations. Now, tribal clinics can buy shoes online at wholesale prices.

Nationally, Native Americans represent $63 billion in annual buying power — a figure that shot up 81 percent during the last decade, McCracken said.

Acknowledging the strength of that buying power, Nike will launch an Air Native athletic shoe line this fall. The shoes will come in larger widths to accommodate Native feet, which tend to be broader than the general populations, McCracken said.

The Iroquois Nationals lacrosse sponsorship is also important for Nike.

Lacrosse, traditionally thought of as an “East Coast, Ivy League” sport is rapidly growing in popularity, McCracken said.

“Nike didn’t have a presence in that sport,” he said. “The Iroquois were playing the game when the French came over in the 1400s.” Through the sponsorship of one of the world’s top-seeded teams, Nike gained instant credibility, McCracken said.

The firm launched its first lacrosse footwear and apparel lines this spring.

McCracken is the sole employee of the Native American Business Program. The program is unique at the company, though Nike hopes to learn from it to reach out to other cultures, said Burns, the e-commerce manager.

“Sam took something from nothing and built it to this,” he said. “It’s awesome to see.”