Research Paper Nike Sweatshops

Nike started to open up manufacturing factories in countries like Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam. Due to the wants of Nike to increase their revenue they tried to outsource the labor of their products since labor work in the US is very high and expensive. This was a bad idea due to that Indonesia pays their workers extremely low wages. Pakistan doesn’t have an age limit for them to be able to legally to work so many children in Pakistan were making

Always following its business model: to market high-end consumer products manufactured in cost-efficient supply chains (Zaked, 2004), Nike requested its suppliers to open up manufacturing plants in Indonesia, China and Vietnam and helped its lead vendors establish an extensive network of foot wear factories throughout Southeast Asia where they could find cheap labor. But this expansion strategy put Nike under the scrutiny of groups that accused Nike of taking advantage of low wages and poor working conditions of factories in those lower-cost countries in order to increase their profits.

But, omnisciently speaking, both entities faced severe scrutiny and criticism from United States and international citizens for their capitalistic business practices. Furthermore, a vast number of American citizens, mainly teenagers, had been killed over Nike Air Jordan sneakers because of their high price tag, while the cost to produce the shoes were rapidly declining due to Nike’s unprecedented offshore production. Bill Bigelow’s, The Human Lives behind the Labels: The Global Sweatshop, Nike, and the Race to the Bottom accurately portrays this capitalistic mentality when mentioning, “children as young as 6 are ‘sold and resold like furniture, branded, beaten, blinded as punishment for wanting to go home...’ For pennies an hour, these children work in dank sheds, stitching soccer balls with the familiar Nike swoosh and logos of other transnational athletic equipment companies” (Bigelow, 113). What is most disturbing to fans of Nike and Jordan were their comments and proposed remedies on the matter. Essentially, Jordan did nothing to curtail the number of kids being killed for his shoes and, as far as his affiliation with capitalistic Nike, Jordan did not want to cause any kind of rift between himself and the corporation that made him millions

When people look at Nike they see a well built and established company that provides them with sports gear, sports apparel, sponsorships, and many more. People were always suspicious about Nike and their way of making their products. Rumors about Nike’s sweatshops started spreading around the early 1970’s.

Since the 1990s, Nike has been embroiled in controversy over its use of sweatshops. Including numerous media reports of workers earning very little an hour (14 cents per hour), and even workers abused by sub-contractor (Allarey, 2015). Incidents such as these are ingrained in Nike’s history and not quickly forgotten. However, as CEO I would like to attempt to correct wrongs.

America has come a long way in regards to labor laws and doing away with sweatshops but they still exist. Most of the stories we hear about now are in 3rd world countries and something that we do not have to deal with or have to worried about her in the USA. However, that is all very untrue. “The 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh, which killed more than 1,100 people, reignited worldwide calls for new labor laws and increased government regulation in poorer countries that produce garments in so-called sweatshops (Powell, 2014).” Right here in the USA we had “the infamous sweatshop in El Monte, California, uncovered by authorities in 1995, where seventy-two Thai immigrant workers were held in virtual slavery in a compound surrounded with a high fence ( ).”

Should Nike be held responsible for working conditions in foreign factories that it does not own but where subcontractors make products for Nike?

In this video I learned incredible amounts of information about the Nike brand and how they run their factories. The video itself contained information about how two people, Jim Keady and Leslie Kretzu, flew to Indonesia to live off a factory worker’s wages in an attempt to inform people how inhumane the workers are forced to live. They experienced the physical as well as the mental issues involved with living on a worker’s wages. After paying for fee such as housing, water, and basic human amenities they were left with barely enough food for two meals and a drink. If they wanted or needed anything aside from the two meals and a drink then they would have to sacrifice one or more of their meals in order to attain such objects. The two people themselves had experienced such an issue when Leslie Kretzu became ill and in need of medicine as well as when Jim Keady decided to buy a small amount of shaving cream and one razor. Leslie Kretzu would have had to starve for the rest of the day if she was to buy an aspirin and a small juice in order to gain some nutrients. Jim Keady had to sacrifice three meals throughout his week due to the fact that he decided to buy the shaving cream and the individual razor. Throughout the experience, the two individuals lost a tremendous amount of weight as well as been depleted of energy and motivation. Eventually they tried to enter into a Nike factory and they were denied

Although Nike may be technically removed from responsibility in some areas, it clearly has the obligation to be certain that exploitation by subcontractors do not occur. Certainly the pay and working conditions that the workers of subcontractors receive is due in large part to the contract that has been negotiated by Nike. If Nike had chosen to make improved working conditions a part of the arrangement, them those benefits may have been passed on to the workers. Still, Nike is a publicly owned firm whose goal is to improve the wealth of its shareholders. The workers in these Asian countries were happy, even eager, to accept the conditions that were provided as a manufacturer of Nike. The reason is that those wages were probably equal or superior to wages available from other sources. If Nike were to leave the country because of the pressures placed upon it, the workers would undoubtedly suffer greatly.

Instead of spending millions of dollars on their workers, who are the backbones of making the actual shoes, they are spending it on their advertisements to promote their company. I realize that advertisement is essential to the success of a product, but it should not be at the cost of another human being to make a profit. I know that Nike is just one of thousands of companies that have taken their labor overseas, so that the product can be made at a fraction of its cost. Unfortunately the public sees Nike as a company whose product is worn by the rich and famous, therefore it is something that they would want for themselves. We the consumer enable them to continue this kind of business, because we buy the product. Through global media, we the public are becoming more aware of this kind of exploitation of workers. Overall, I think there is no pride to be found in companies that exploit their employees at the cost of a better profit for themselves. Awareness is going to be the key to hopefully fix it in the near

After several years of record breaking performance Nike's global labor practices were brought to the attention of the public as early as the 1990s. Which included publishings in Harper's magazine that a   Nike subcontractor paid woirker's just under 14 cents an hour. Other reports include

During the late 80s and early 90s Nike was faced with a series of labor strike back at home due to unethical labor practices by its independent countries in third world countries. It is well known for Nike to outsource almost all its production from third world countries at cheap prices and sell them in U.S. market at an abnormal profit. The company began outsourcing its products from Japan where labor was competent and wages were very low. The living standards were raised which prompted Nike to outsource its products from Thailand, Pakistan and Indonesia since wages in these countries were extremely low and labor for these products were competent due to rapid development of the Japanese economy. The outsourcing of footwear products from Asian countries enables Nike to earn high profits and enjoy a competitive advantage over its rivals in the footwear industry. The company invests the high profits realized in marketing its products through celebrities. For instance, Michael Jordan was used to advertise the positive image of Nike Company (Lipschutz and James, pp. 87-96).

The Pou Chen factory is located in a place where the minimum wage is far below the national average. It has 10,000 workers who make Converse sneakers. Most of the workers are women, and they earn only 50 cents an hour. The amount that they earn is not even enough to cover their food and very poor housing. In this factory, the women are both physically and verbally abused. Nike’s own investigations have proved these complaints to be true. The company made a statement saying that immediate actions would be taken to deal with the situation. It is interesting to note that, “an internal Nike report, released to the Associated Press after it inquired about the abuse, showed that nearly two-thirds of 168 factories making Converse products worldwide failed to meet Nike’s own standards for contract manufacturers. Twelve are in the most serious category, ranging from illegally long work hours to

Nike’s CEO’s and management made a decision to begin using sweatshop labor in order to save money and begin aggressive marketing. They used this aggressive marketing to have a one up on their competitors, in fact, Nike spent 280 million dollars alone on advertising in 1994 (Schwartz, 2000). Nike would give great athletes million dollar contracts to endorse and wear their clothing. For an example, Andre Agassi received 70 million dollars to endorse Nike's tennis clothing line. The choice to start aggressive marketing is the reason why Nike entered into this crisis and started making unethical decisions. Once the top management of Nike realized the profitability and popularity of hiring professional athletes to wear and endorse their clothes, regular advertising would not suffice. The company became greedy and were willing to use cheap abusive labor so that they could pay professional athletes millions of dollars (Schwartz, 2000).

It is not a secret that many of the products sold in the United States are made in China. However, it may be a surprise to find out what kinds of conditions the workers producing these various products actually have to deal with. Nike products are produced in China in