After NFL players started taking a knee during the national anthem, Stephen Martin decided to stage a protest of his own.

In a bold move for his financial bottom line, Martin pulled all Nike gear from his Colorado Springs sports store, Prime Time Sports, a decision prompted by Nike's partnership with Colin Kaepernick.

"We have a choice. We have a voice. And I am not choosing [sic] to be a NIKE dealer anymore," Martin wrote last fall on his Facebook page. "Everything NIKE 1/2 price until its [sic] all gone."

The gesture did not have the effect Martin expected.

"As much as I hate to admit this," Martin told KOAA News5 on Monday, "perhaps there are more Brandon Marshall and Colin Kaepernick supporters out there than I realized."

His store, after 21 years, is now closing.

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Martin admitted to KOAA that being a sports store with no Nike gear — Nike makes all NFL jerseys — wasn't sustainable. The decision to cut the products was made in September, meaning it only took five months for Prime Time Sports' protest-of-a-protest to shutter the business.

Martin's political statement didn't just extend to Kaepernick. In 2016, he canceled an autograph session with then-Broncos star Brandon Marshall over Marshall's choice to kneel during the anthem.

"That part of the military respect that's in me just cannot be sacrificed or compromised, as I believe Brandon Marshall and Colin Kaepernick both did," he told KOAA. "I don't like losing a business over it, but I'd rather be able to live with myself."

The store is hosting liquidation sales until its final closure in about a month.