Surveys of Nike employees on sexual harassment and discrimination were drawn up following damning testimony from former company executive Melanie Strong and a court order, with some of the most shocking allegations of misconduct including “sloppy drunks” assaulting staff members and “oral sex in the gym on campus’. ‘, according to OregonLive.
The so-called ‘Starfish’ surveys were conducted internally by female employees who went public with their experiences of discrimination and sexual harassment – after many believed their previous complaints were not taken seriously by management.
The anonymous surveys were conducted in 2018. The company initially maintained that only about 30 employees had completed the survey. Monique Matheson, Nike’s HR manager, and Nicole Hubbard Graham, Nike’s chief marketing officer, were two executives who insisted they had received “about 30” in her 2024 testimony.
But in March 2024, former director Melanie Strong, who was one of the last people to handle the surveys, said it was instead 300 surveys submitted in subpoena-forced testimony.
“There were exponentially more surveys and there were exponentially more stories and conversations that didn’t make it to paper,” a Starfish organizer confirmed to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
After Strong’s deposition in 2024, plaintiffs’ lawyers were able to obtain a new court order and the company ultimately surrendered another fifteen Starfish surveys, admitting that it had missed a few.
The local publication also claims that the multibillion-dollar company attempted to block reporting on 31 of the investigations.
“We spend millions of dollars to protect people who behaved badly,” a Nike employee fumed after news of Strong’s statement emerged.
Newly unearthed documents have revealed that former Nike executives allegedly tried to hide sexual harassment complaints from female staffers at their Oregon headquarters.
In the surveys, respondents revealed that male colleagues allegedly told them to ‘dress sexier’ and ‘show some skin’ in the office.
One of them even shockingly revealed that she allegedly caught a male principal having oral sex with a lower-ranking woman in the campus gym.
Another claimed that ‘sloppily drunk’ men would throw their arms around female colleagues during work trips, while others would ask subordinates for ‘work dinners’ in the hope of sleeping with them.
A fifth respondent noted that a male manager was once quoted as saying, “No one cares about women’s empowerment,” according to Business Insider.
In March 2024, former director Melanie Strong, who was one of the last people to handle the surveys, said there may have been 300 surveys submitted instead in subpoena-forced testimony.
At a hearing in October, plaintiffs’ attorneys read an email with the subject “Starfish” that was not included in the original discovery and argued that it should have been.
A Nike attorney spoke at a hearing in September about the recent discovery of more Starfish research.
“At one point, a collection of Starfish surveys, somewhere around 30 that were transferred, was the universe that we, the company, were aware of,” the lawyer said.
Evidence obtained by OregonLive shows that senior management – including former CEO Mark Parker – did not turn over all of the ‘Starfish’ surveys to the court. Nike insisted that only about 30 employees completed the survey – reportedly in attempts to minimize the adversity and harm they faced
In March 2024, former director Melanie Strong, who was one of the last people to handle the surveys, said it was instead 300 surveys submitted in a subpoena and forced testimony.
At a hearing in October, plaintiffs’ attorneys read aloud an email with the subject line “Starfish” that was not mentioned in the original discovery and argued that it should have been.
“So we had the hard copy universe,” he added. “We went back based on Judge Russo’s most recent order, searched via email for some additional questionnaires and (produced) the only one we could come up with.”
At a hearing in October, plaintiffs’ attorneys read aloud an email with the subject line “Starfish” that was not mentioned in the original discovery and argued that it should have been.
When asked by District Judge Amy Baggio, who is now overseeing the lawsuit, why Nike had not provided the document, an attorney said the company had only been instructed to conduct investigations.
But Baggio disagreed, noting that the order “went beyond the questionnaires” and included “all communications and documents related to Starfish that had not yet been produced by Nike.”
“That seems a lot broader than what you just described,” Baggio told the Nike lawyer.
The next trial of the last remaining four plaintiffs is scheduled for March 2025.