Is somebody higher up in your chain of command allowed to tell you what you should support or not support?

The NCO is not only overstepping his bounds, but treading into unethical territory that could get him relieved. Discussing politics is perfectly OK. Forcing your politics onto a subordinate is the kind of behavior that gets senior leaders relieved.

The NCO cannot do that unless the shoes were out of regulations. His opinion of the Nike protest is just that, their opinion.

I'd be asking that NCO why he's telling that Soldier that. He is crossing lines he shouldn't be crossing. It's a shoe.

Investigate and clarify. "Hey Sgt, I heard you talking to Benotz about his running shoes. Is there a new Order out? I own a pair and I don't want to be in violation." Then you can hear exactly what was said. It might be "Those go-fasters are worn down to the threads. He's gonna kill himself." or "Forking politics, blah blah blah." At that point you can take action as necessary.

Keep in mind you might have missed a single word and that changes the entire context of the conversation, like "take those Nikes off and never let me catch you wearing THOSE Nikes again" (as in that specific pair. they're out of regs, they're worn out... etc)

The other thing is he might not have realized what he was doing. And the simple act of repeating his statement may make him go "$^&$^%, I can't do that. Sgt Ramos. Do me a favor. Tell Benotz I said to disregard about the shoes. I was operating on bumscoop."

We're human, and sometimes we just fork things up. We have to watch each others back and that includes TACTFULLY reminding our seniors their might be conflicts with their orders/directives.

There are pieces of the story that are missing as stated below, we do not know what type of Nike shoes he was wearing. In today's culture there are so many wild and bright colors available that you are hard pressed to find what I would call old school plain tennis shoes. Being retired, it is hard to keep up on the dress and appearance codes for all the branches, but I know hair styles are being relaxed for females and certain wear of jewelry is now authorized that previously was not. I'm kind of taking this conversation down another road but without the entire story, hard to give the right answer to you. I would argue though that what Kaepernick started was not political, it had to do with what he thought was ethics. It is the rest of us who have made it political. I in no way condone what he started as that was not the right venue to start protesting. Again, another topic for another post.

Wrong action by that Senior NCO. Also, it’s not lower Enlisted, it’s Junior Enlisted. The term lower has a negative connotation. I’d advise that Soldier to speak with his supervisor.

Never had anyone higher up tell me who or what to support, if they did, I didn't listen.

sounds like the senior NCO already has issues. might be trying to exert his authority over an issue he should absolutely not be addressing. what a service member chooses to wear off duty is nobody's business but his own.

Stuff like this is why I ETSed. The job is hard enough as it is without morons in leadership positions. When you encounter one like this, the situation is worse. Maybe if these so called leaders would stop wasting Soldiers' time with stupidity, they might have better retention.

This isn't a political matter (in and of itself), it sounds like bullying by blind "patriotism" taken too far. See AR600-20 para 4-19.