A Little Nike History

Nike is a sportswear company that has been around since the mid 1960s. Nike started small in Beaverton, Oregon and has grown to a global level. It employs many people throughout the world and has often been accused of operating sweatshops in third world nations. Nike is one of the top athletic apparel companies and many people strive to have their products. Owning these products says a lot about one’s image. Many people purchase Nike merchandise to satisfy a certain status level. Several individuals who purchase many of Nike’s products fail to recognize the hardships and inequalities many workers have faced when constructing these items.


Nike gets its name from the Greek goddess of Victory. The Nike swoosh was developed in 1971 and has been a large trademark for this corporation. Anywhere around the world someone can look at that symbol and know that its Nike. It wasn’t until 1972 that the first shoe line was released. Soon after that Nike had its first athletic spokesman, Ilie Nastase, a top tennis player. Nike has since prided itself on top professional athletes and wants to send a message that its products are for extreme dedicated athletes. Also, that by wearing these products a person can be more successful in the sport they participate in. This branding image has been very successful and has affected Nike’s business to explode.

A few years later in 1980 after the launching of their first shoe line, Nike decided to go public while having a 50% market share in the United States shoe industry. This market share occurred even before television commercials became prevalent. During the production of commercials the slogan, “Just Do It,” was formed, which is now a highly visible motto for athletes. With the increase in popularity and a net worth that kept on growing, Nike needed to build more factories and produce more products. It became so successful that Nike steadily grew to other countries of the world.

With the increase in demand and the need to produce more products, Nike needed to find cheaper labor and a larger workforce. These locations were found in some of the poorer countries of the world such as Vietnam, Indonesia, China and Mexico. Many Labor Watch Unions have witnessed minimum wage violations and overtime infraction laws in Vietnam as recent as 1996. Much of their goods are produced in these Free Trade Zones where cheap labor is exploited. Nike has schmoozed its ways around certain regulations by developing factories in other regions of the world with less of an emphasis on monitoring regulations. These sweatshops are not slowing down and are in fact being created more so in poorer, less-governed regions. The cheap labor is driving profits for Nike which increased its yearly revenue from 6.4 billion dollars in 1996 to 17 billion in 2007.

Nike has been aware that many of its practices are not accepted by everyone. They say they have taken steps to minimize the dangerous working conditions and long hours they employ third world individuals to endure. Nike is still being criticized for its poor wages and locations it chooses for producing its products. For being one of the largest athletic suppliers in the World Nike must lead by example and place more of an importance on humanity and less of an emphasis on earning a buck.

- Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike,_Inc.


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