Nike Ends 9-Year Partnership With Livestrong Following Armstrong Doping Scandal
![Livestrong bracelet](https://d.medicaldaily.com/en/full/228381/livestrong-bracelet.jpg?w=736&f=26c540b19b6804f5cf62c63eeb74edd7)
Nike announced Tuesday that it will be cutting ties with The Livestrong Foundation, a severed partnership that is likely the result of an admission this year by Livestrong's founder, bicyclist Lance Armstrong, that he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France seven times.
"Nike has made the decision to stop producing new Livestrong products after its Holiday 2013 line," Nike spokesman KeJuan Wilkins said in a statement. "We will continue to support the Livestrong Foundation by funding them directly as they continue their work serving and improving outcomes for people facing cancer."
The Livestrong Foundation is an organization dedicated to addressing problems faced by cancer survivors post-treatment to improve their quality of life. As previously reported by MedicalDaily, cancer survivors are more likely to experience poor long-term physical and mental health after treatment, a lot of which goes undetected and untreated.
Armstrong founded the non-profit in 1997 as the "Armstrong Foundation" after he was successfully treated for testicular cancer. Livestrong has grown into one of the nation's largest cancer charities over the last 15 years, largely due to the powerhouse cyclist's face and name being attached to it. Along with Armstrong's success as a spokesman came a partnership with Nike in 2004 that helped raise more than $100 million to advance the Foundation's mission.
Unfortunately, however, Livestrong has faced an uphill battle since Armstrong's removal from the Foundation's board of directors in October and his widely publicized admission to talk show host Oprah Winfrey in January that he did use performance-enhancing drugs to win major cycling events, including the Tour de France.
Nike dropped its personal sponsorship of Armstrong in October, but said that it would continue to support Livestrong despite its decision to cut ties with the cyclist. This news, though it seems to be no surprise to the cancer organization, did come as a shock to many who have followed the Foundation's progress since the anti-doping probe.
"The LIVESTRONG Foundation is deeply grateful to Nike not only for the time and resources it invested in helping us improve the lives of people affected by cancer today, but also the creative drive it brought to our nine-year partnership," the organization said in a statement. "Together, we created new, revolutionary ways of thinking about how non-profits fuel their mission and we're proud of that."