Is wearing Nike permissible?

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.

The Darul Iftaa has written a detailed Fatwa regarding the permissibility of wearing Nike. Kindly refer to the below Fatwa written by Mufti Muajul I. Chowdhury Saheb:

Nike, Inc. was founded on January 25, 1964 under the name Blue Ribbon Sports, and officially became Nike, Inc. on May 30, 1971. The company never intended to incorporate Greek mythology. As mentioned on their website[1], after an intense meeting, one morning Jeff Johnson, an employee at Nike who enjoyed Greek mythology, awoke with the word Nike on his mind. Validated by a magazine article that discussed how many of the most successful brand names utilized two syllables and featured an "exotic" letter or sound, the name was set.

The swoosh logo was solely a choice of the designer, Carolyn Davidson, who was hired to do the designing and adopt a logo.

Thoroughly going through their website, we have not found mention of any spiritual ties with Greek mythology. We then emailed the company for details regarding the name and logo and their significance. The company however declined to answer the queries. We were informed that the Nike Consumer Affairs Packet, 1996 had details regarding the name and logo but we were unable to get hold of it.

Moreover, the word Nike does not hold any religious significance or connotation in the mind of people. Rather, it is seen as a global sportswear brand. If one were to be asked regarding his reason of choosing Nike apparel, the answer would simply be “because of its quality”.

The origin of the word Nike is the Greek word nī́kē, which means victory and conquest.[2]

Furthermore, many commonly used words, such as the names of the months, days of the week, planets, etc. hold Greek or Roman mythological origins. None of them however retain their original implications in the customary understanding of people; and thus permissible to use.

And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best

Ahmad Patel

Student Darul Iftaa

South Africa

Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.