Several hundred Nike employees staged a demonstration on Monday, the same day Nike reopened the office building named for Alberto Salazar.

Some of the protesters, both women and men, held signs saying, “We Believe Mary,” a reference to Mary Cain, the young distance runner who quit a professional track team funded by Nike and then blasted her legendary former coach Alberto Salazar. Cain went public in a Nov. 7 op-ed in the New York Times. “I was the fastest girl in America, until I joined Nike,” read the headline.

The article set off a national discussion about the treatment of women in sports. Cain alleged that Salazar’s continuous harping about her weight drove her to depression and self-harm.

Salazar took a pounding in the press. The Cain issue exploded just weeks after Salazar was banned from track and field for four years by a panel of arbitrators for violating anti-doping rules.

Throughout the turmoil, Nike management has stood by the 61-year-old coach.

Coincidentally, construction crews have been renovating the building named after Salazar in recent months. The new and improved building was unveiled Monday.

There was no ceremony or celebration of Salazar’s accomplishments, Nike spokesman Greg Rossiter said. Salazar was not there, he added. There were some tours of the building.

Willamette Week reported that about 400 employees participated in the march, mainly women but with a sprinkling of men. That could not be confirmed.

A reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive was at the site Monday morning. But the company refused to allow him to watch the demonstration. A Nike communications staffer escorted him off company property.

The exact sentiments of the demonstrators were not exactly clear. It appeared they were driven by the Cain controversy and were urging Nike to rethink the way it treats women. In recent weeks, other women who formerly ran professionally at Nike echoed Cain’s allegations that they too were “fat-shamed” or otherwise criticized for their weight or other issues.

Earlier this year, some elite runners with Nike endorsement contracts. criticized the company for slashing their compensation when they got pregnant.

Rossiter contended the protesters were simply arguing for better treatment of all women athletes and were not singling out Nike or Salazar for criticism. “My sense is the protest was about advancing the conversation about women in sport in general,” he said.

According to Willamette Week, protesters marching around the campus held signs with messages including “just do better” and “Nike is a woman.”

In 2018, a handful of women employees and former workers filed a class-action complaint against Nike alleging women routinely were paid less and promoted less often than their male counterparts. The suit is still pending.

Nike executives met some of the protesters on Monday morning to hear their thoughts, Rossiter said.

Eric Sprunk, Nike chief operating officer, and Presidents Heidi O’Neill and Elliott Hill were among them.

“We respect and welcome our employees’ feedback,” Rossiter said.