In 2014, Chinese factories in Dongguan working for Nike, Converse and Adidas went on strike. It manufactured Converse brand sneakers, bought in 2008 by Nike. In 2011, however, an investigation by the Associated Press exposed low wages (50 cents, or 0.48 euros, per hour) as well as violence against the 10,000 Indonesian employees of a subcontractor of the company - the Pou Chen Group factory in Sukabumi. A minimum age was required for the employees of its subcontractors, and it promised to guarantee the same air quality standards in force in the US. Rather than acknowledging these abuses, Nike co-founder Philip Knight's first reaction was to regret the fact that his company was being presented as the one that had "single-handedly lowered the human rights standards for the sole purpose of maximizing profits." Under pressure from public opinion, he put things right in 1998. The deplorable working conditions pre-dated the arrival of the American company, according to the brand, and they had even been "greatly improved in the 1990s." "I don't think anyone saw it coming," said Mr. Nike executives seemed to be the most shocked by the sweatshop scandal. Demonstrators from several human rights groups protest outside the grand opening of the NikeTown megastore in downtown San Francisco on February 22, 1997. It was convenient for the shipping companies not to return empty," added the 60-year-old, who is still employed at Nike. "For the type of shoes we wanted to make, these workshops were the best in the world, and we had to learn to work with them." The prospect was all the more tempting because a whole infrastructure of maritime transport was available on-site: "During the Vietnam war, the American army unloaded all its container material in Asia. Bence, author of 1972: Pre, UO Track, Nike Shoes and my Life With Them All (SB4 Press, 2021). ![]() When demand began to explode in the early 1980s, production costs in Japan were already high, and "it was complicated to increase our production capacity in the United States," said Mr. The Oregon-based company had about 100 subcontractors for the manufacture of its shoes and about 500 production sites for sportswear spread over more than 30 countries, said Steve Bence, a former manager in the group's Asian factories. The reverse side of success for the company was that its brand was the most commonly associated with these dishonorable off-shore operations. In 1998, Michael Moore's documentary The Big One pointed to Nike's responsibility. In several major cities in the United States, demonstrations brought together public figures, NGOs and unions to denounce the exploitation of workers at the subcontractors of some major Western brands. The production lines, where adults and, sometimes children, worked in deplorable conditions, earned a derogatory nickname, "sweatshops," and the scandal immediately went global. It showed young boys tying together pieces of leather to make soccer balls marked with the "swoosh," Nike's logo. While revelations about working conditions at the company's subcontractors had been spreading for some time, in March 1996 the American magazine Life published a report on Pakistan. The first hard blow came from Asia, where it had all begun. Nike wasn't counting on a series of attacks that would damage the young and cool image that the brand had been building since its inception in 1972. ![]() In short, the chaos of the beginning seemed far away. The public was on board, and investors too. ![]() Their great rival, Adidas, had been outpaced. The exploits of the American basketball dream team at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, and then the victory of sprinter Michael Johnson and his golden shoes four years later in Atlanta, had definitively put the brand at the top of its game. At Nike, star designers were releasing stylistic models and demonstrations of technical prowess. ![]() Sweatshops and doping cases came to tarnish the company's reputation.Īt the turn of the 21 st century, wearing sneakers and sportswear had spread to all walks of life, all sports disciplines and all generations. At the turn of the 1990s-2000s, when the Oregon-based sportswear manufacturer was asserting itself as a world leader in the sector, a series of scandals damaged its image. The Nike saga: Winning at all costs By Eric Collier and Anthony Hernandez Published on Jat 12h30
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |