The Manufacturing Practices of the Footwear Industry: Nike vs. the Competition

Nike, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design, development and worldwide marketing and selling of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories and services. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, in the Portland metropolitan area. It is the world 's leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, with revenue in excess of US$24.1 billion in its fiscal year 2012 (ending May 31, 2012). As of 2012, it employed more than 44,000 people worldwide. The brand alone is valued at $10.7 Billion making it the most valuable brand among sports businesses. Nike and Precision Castparts are the only Fortune

The evidence could be found in the case of Detroit, they did seem to be “customer – orientation” by spending money on customer research, especially in urgent situations.

Internationally recognized companies such as Nike make use of sweatshops and aid in the exploitation of labor workers in many parts of the world. A sweatshop is an industrialized provision that is known to have poor working conditions, infringement of labor law, and long hours coupled with low wages. In today’s world, sweatshops are prevalent all across the globe; however they raise the most concern in developing nations. Nike is one of the world’s most renowned sportswear companies, but has been involved in several controversies in relation to the possibility of them making profit out of sweatshop labor. In the late 1900’s most Nike products were manufactured in countries like South Korea and Taiwan, however, this changed when the labor

The Asia Pacific region is Nike's third largest in terms of revenue, and the largest in terms of manufacturing. Nike has 13 branch offices and subsidiaries in the Asia Pacific region. China has become both a source country and a vital market for Nike. Asia Pacific region has 3,282 Nike employees approximately. The region also has 252 contract factories located in North Asia, and 238 contract factories located in South Asia. Combined, these factories employ 550,821 workers. Nike's revenues for year 2004 from its Asian operations were about $1.6 billion. Of these revenues, approximately $855 million were from footwear sales, $612 million from apparel sales and $146 million from equipment sales.

Today Nike Inc is the largest manufacturer of sports footwear, apparel and equipment with worldwide revenue in excess of $25 billion in 2012 under various labels including Nike, Nike Golf, Converse and Hurley. Seventy percent of the company’s value is derived from footwear and apparel sold under the main brand Nike with Nike footwear commanding a market share

The process is just as important as the materials used in the production. Alongside production technology innovations, brands such as Adidas and Nike have begun to use recycled materials in their shoes. The way to ‘do more with less’ will involve innovations in the types of materials used in products. Adidas has prototyped Primeknit shoes made from recovered ocean fishing nets while Nike is using recycled polyester, diverting plastic bottles from landfills. Furthermore Nike has begun to implement sustainability metrics into their material choice and product design. This helps to ensure that there is greater transparency to the trade-off’s that designers are making between functional performance and environmental impact. To ensure continuous superior product performance a business must drive product innovation as well as

Everyday, billions of people look down at their feet and squeeze them into a pair of shoes. For probably most of those people in America, when they look down at their feet, they see a shoe with a swoosh on it. This swoosh belongs to no other than one of the most popular sneaker companies, Nike. I decided to look further into this popular shoe company's success. It turns out Nike isn't even one of the oldest shoe companies, but it is less than 60 years old. Nike had to figure out how to become better than just an ordinary sneaker company.

Celebrity endorsement is one of the most popular ways to promote a product in today’s market. Consumers make a purchase based on the price of the product, its quality, and the necessity to own the good. What can ultimately influence the demand of a product is to have a celebrity endorse a certain brand. Michael Jordan is considered arguably the greatest basketball players of all-time. However he only gained global recognition after his involvement with Nike and Air Jordan.

Introduction Originally founded by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman, Nike is now the market leader in the manufacturing of sportswear and gear and enjoys possessing more than 47% of the market share across the globe. Nike's mission is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete (Nike Inc., 2015). According to them, you are an athlete if you possess a body. The company has over 600 shops around the world and has offices situated in 43 countries outside the United States. Most of its factories are located in Southeast Asia, including China, Indonesia, Taiwan, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Pakistan, and Malaysia.

Around the world, people of all cultures are increasing their participation in fitness activities. All are motivated by the common desire for athletic and personal excellence. Nike, a simple sneaker company to many newspaper readers is transforming into an international consumer products company. The payoff from overcoming all these challenges can be seen in our 1991 international growth of 80 percent to $862 million in revenues. Nike is the famous franchises in the world that sells sportwear for all ages.nike is also one of the major manufacturers of sport equipment but it is the most famous for their athletic shoes and apparel.

Nike subcontracts the production process of its footwear to 900 contract factories located worldwide with Asian developing countries such as China, Indonesia and Vietnam accounting for the bulk of total world production. Production of the footwear is based on a vertically integrated model. In the primary stage, raw materials such as rubber, leather and plastic are extracted from places located in close proximity from the factories. In the secondary stage, the extracted resources are sent to the factories or “Sweatshops” for manufacturing. It should be noted that the whole production process of Nike footwear are being carried out by independent private contractors.

Sports footwear and apparel expected will growth in future as customers cannot substitute these products. However, ASICS have to implement or produce with more high technology product to enhance

Nike has seldom manufactured products own premises, except their air bladders. The shoes are manufactured through outsourcing and alliances with other companies. A successful company like Nike formed its organization on the customer values that have the MOST impact on the consumers mind – Design/R&D, Marketing and Distribution. Even though manufacturing is a vital function to perform, Nike realized that there were other ways to go about this function and thereby save both cost and maintain its focus on the critical customer value areas.

Apparel and shoe manufacturers continued to offload the more costly yet easily replicated part so their business models to concentrate on brand building, marketing, sales and attaining greater distribution channels globally. These are the pressures all apparel and shoe manufacturers face, and it is particularly challenging in the athletic show industry (Kynge, 2009). Adidas, Converse, Nike and Reebok have been outsourcing production of their shoes for in some cases nearly three decades. Nike was one of the leaders in this strategy, seeing to create a more efficient supply chain and also drop the labor and union costs of manufacturing in the U.S. (Boje, Khan, 2009). Adidas, Converse and Reebok have all followed Nike's lead, with Adidas benefitting from the fall-out generated when investigate reports showed Nike using child labor throughout Pakistan and Vietnam (Boje, Khan, 2009). All four of these companies share a common prioritization of manufacturing operations, yet none of them with the exception of Nike has a comprehensive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program in place to ensure ethical compliance to global standards of outsourcing in their industry (Nike Investor Relations, 2012). The intent of this analysis is to compare and contrast the four companies mentioned and their outsourcing practices. Their reasons for choosing to outsource are very much the same; the industry is shrinking

With a slogan of “Just Do It,” Nike is known all over the world for its products ranging from apparel to shoes. Receiving recognition and sponsorship from various celebrities and athletes including Michael Jordan, Nike’s brand is generally associated in a positive light. However, the brand itself, variety of products, and numerous sponsors exist as only a few aspects of this continuously expanding brand. Another aspect to consider when addressing the overall existence of a product as well as the constant introduction of new products is the production process itself: how the product came to be, who is involved in creating the product, and where the product is produced.