Once among Lance Armstrong’s the most ardent supporters, Nike, the shoe and apparel giant, now finds itself ankle-deep in the disgraced cyclist’s costly legal battle with the Justice Department: Nike is fighting subpoenas served upon it by both the government and Armstrong himself.
The government’s subpoena demands documents and testimony about Armstrong’s sponsorship agreements and their termination. Nike cut ties in 2012 due to “seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade.”
Nike attorney Robert Weaver filed papers Monday in an Oregon federal court seeking to modify the subpoenas and convince a U.S. District Court judge to issue a protective order to keep its “trade secrets” private.
“At the eleventh hour, Armstrong and the government have dragged non-party Nike into litigation that has been going on for years and for which Nike can provide essentially no relevant information,” wrote Weaver. “More importantly, much of the information sought by the parties comprises trade secrets or, at the very least, confidential commercial information, including proprietary sponsorship agreements, financial results and evaluations, and related communications.”
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The skirmish is part of the long-running lawsuit through which the government seeks Armstrong’s return of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars that flowed to his Tour de France teams through a nine-year sponsorship agreement with the U.S. Postal Service. Several members of Armstrong’s inner circle are also defendants.
The subpoena Armstrong sent Nike appears designed to help him prove that his deal with the company was also beneficial for Nike — an argument he has made about the USPS deal as well.
Before Armstrong’s downfall, Nike made untold millions selling black-and-yellow “Livestrong” branded athletic gear. The company was also behind the iconic yellow wristbands that were part of Armstrong’s global cancer-awareness campaign.
Nike once even produced a television ad in which Armstrong addressed critics who suspected he was a dope cheat: “Everybody wants to know what I’m on,” he asks in the 2001 spot. “What am I on? I’m on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?”
Armstrong’s lies began to spectacular collapse in spectcular fashion in 2010, when a federal grand jury investigating his teams collected testimony from teammates and others who described a doping program built on drugs, blood transfusions and a ruthless enforcement of secrecy.
The grand jury subpoenaed Nike in June of 2010. The company handed over six compact discs full of documents. No criminal charges were filed, but the evidence became part of the current lawsuit, a False Claims Act case initiated by whistleblower Floyd Landis, Armstrong’s former teammate.
Nike wants assurances that information about its relationships with sponsored athletes — including “financial returns and benefits” — won’t become public.
“Nike takes considerable effort to maintain the secrecy of its records regarding athlete sponsorships and the value derived therefrom, and those records are not generally known to other industry-members, members who could obtain economic value from their disclosure or use,” Weaver wrote in a brief filed Monday.
Nike spent nearly $1 billion on endorsements in the 12 months that ended in May, according to a report by CNN Money. Among the many superstar athletes it has sponsored in addition to Armstrong are Tiger Woods, LeBron James, and Michael Jordan.
