NIKE Inc. is the world’s #1 shoemaker and controls over 20% of the US athletic shoe market. The company designs and sells shoes for a variety of sports, including baseball, cheerleading, golf, volleyball, and wrestling. NIKE also sells Cole Haan dress and casual shoes and a line of athletic apparel and equipment. In addition, it operates NIKETOWN shoe and sportswear stores, NIKE factory outlets, and NIKE Women shops. NIKE sells its products throughout the US and in about 200 other countries.
Source(s): Nike
Corporate Facts
Corporate History
reprinted from Wikipedia
- 1964 Bill Bowerman, a track coach at the University of Oregon, and Phil Knight, an accounting student and middle-distance runner, had the dream of bringing low-priced, high-tech athletic shoes from Japan to the U.S. At the time German shoes dominated the industry. That year, after entering business together, shoes from Onitsuka Tiger (now ASICS) were sold in the U.S. by Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS).
- 1965 Jeff Johnson, a former rival on the track of Knight’s, joined as the company’s first full time salesman. He was busy selling shoes out of the back of his van to High Schoolers at track meets. Then in 1966, at 3107 Pico Blvd., in Santa Monica, California, Johnson opened the company’s first retail outlet. Bowerman’s desire to improve on Tiger’s designs, and Knight’s drive to do more landed them with a new direction. Johnson gave this new company the name Nike and Bowerman gave them new designs.
- 1971 Nike’s Swoosh design logo was created by Portland State University graphic design student Carolyn Davidson when asked by Knight. He needed a logo to put on the side of his company’s shoes. At the time she was paid the sum of $35 (US), and also worked for Nike for a few years until they needed a full ad agency. Twelve years later, in 1983, Ms. Davidson received a gold Swoosh ring with an embedded diamond at a luncheon honoring her, along with a certificate and an undisclosed amount of Nike stock, in recognition of the Swoosh design logo.
- 1979 Nike’s Air technology is introduced in the Tailwind running shoe. Gas-filled plastic membranes are inserted into the sole of running shoes to provide cushioning.
- 1980 Nike completes an initial public offering of 2,377,000 shares of Class B common stock on December 2.
- 1982 The Air Force 1 basketball shoe becomes the first Nike court shoe to make use of the Air technology.
- 1984 Nike signs Michael Jordan to an endorsement contract and releases the first model of his signature shoe, the Air Jordan. Originally, the NBA banned this new shoe, drawing a tremendous amount of publicity. The introduction of the Air Jordan shoe was a key event in Nike’s successful development.
- 1986 Nike revenues surpass $1 billion for the first time.
- 1987 The Air Max shoe is introduced, which uses a much larger Air cushioning unit, and for the first time is visible at the side of the midsole. This was the first of many generations of Air Max-branded technologies. A television ad featuring the Beatles’ song “Revolution” was the first and only time that a song performed by the Beatles was used in a TV ad.
- 1988 Nike introduces its “Just Do It” slogan.
- 1989 Nike introduces a new type of footwear designed specifically for cross-training, and features two-sport athlete Bo Jackson in a series of memorable ads called “Bo Knows.”
- 1990 Nike opens the first Niketown store in downtown Portland, Ore., and the store quickly earns numerous retail design and business awards. Over the next 10 years, Nike will open 14 more Niketown stores across the USA and in England and Germany.
- 1993 Nike introduces an innovative sustainability program, Reuse-A-Shoe, which collects athletic shoes, separates and grinds them up into Nike Grind. which is used in the making of athletic courts, tracks and fields.
- 1994 Nike signs a long-term partnership with the Brazilian national football (soccer) team, launching a company-wide effort to become the world’s leading football brand.
- 1996 Nike signs Eldrick “Tiger” Woods soon after the young golfing phenom gives up his amateur status. Woods becomes the standard bearer for Nike Golf as that division gains market share.
- 1996 Nike causes controversy with advertising campaign at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta which features the slogan, “You Don’t Win Silver; You Lose Gold.” Nike’s use of this slogan draws harsh criticism from many sources, including several former Olympic silver and bronze medalists.
- 1996 Nike opens Niketown New York, its signature ‘flagship’ store located in midtown Manhattan.
- 1998 Phil Knight formally commits Nike to strict standards for manufacturing facilities used by Nike, including: minimum age; air quality; mandatory education programs; expansion of microloan program; factory monitoring; and enhanced transparency of Nike’s corporate responsibility practices.
- 1999 Bill Bowerman, co-founder of Nike, dies on Dec. 24 at age 88.
- 2000 Introduction of the Shox athletic shoe technology.
- 2003 Nike makes a successful bid to buy bankrupt rival Converse Shoes for $305 million.
- 2003 For the first time in the company’s history, international sales exceed USA sales, as Nike continues to develop into a truly global company.
- 2003 Nike is named “Advertiser of the Year” by the Cannes Advertising Festival, the first company to earn that honor twice (also 1994) in the festival’s 50-year history.
- 2004 Phil Knight steps down as CEO and President of Nike, but continues as chairman. Knight is replaced by William D. Perez as CEO of Nike, effective Dec. 28.
- 2004 Annual revenues exceed $13 billion.
- 2004 In June, Chinese animator Zhu Zhiqianq, of Xiao Xiao fame, files a lawsuit against Nike for plagiarizing his cartoon stickmen in their commercials. Nike representatives deny the accusations, claiming that the stickman figure lacks originality, and is public domain. Zhu eventually wins the lawsuit, and Nike is sentenced to pay $36,000 to the cartoonist. [1]
Corporate Governance
See http://www.nike.com/nikebiz/nikebiz.jhtml?page=7
Criticisms
Worker’s / Human Rights Abuses
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9/2004: In September 2004 Jobs With Justice and the United Steelworkers of America called on Nike at its annual meeting to end what the organizations contend is a systematic violation of workers’ fundamental rights. The groups criticized Nike’s ongoing devastation of Canadian workers and communities through plant closures and drastic downsizing. They also criticized Nike for its continued failure to police some of its Asian contractors’ labor practices.
Nike acquired Bauer Nike Hockey, including three Canadian union-represented facilities, in 1995. The company announced in late 2003 that it will close two of these facilities and drastically downsize the third, a USWA represented facility in Quebec. By carrying out this restructuring, Nike will virtually eliminate union representation among its over twenty-four thousand employees around the globe. According to CSRWire, “The United Steelworkers of America has obtained information through international labor allies that Nike is outsourcing Bauer work previously done at these Canadian facilities to a Thai contractor that is forcing employees to work overtime, exposing workers to excess heat and violating local wage laws. Source: CSRWire
- 4/2004: The Par Garment factory in Thailand supplies Reebok, Nike, Asics and Fila. Since its founding the factory has had a notorious record regarding workers’ rights violations. In 2000 international pressure resulted in the compensation of 30 union members and leaders who had been fired. In 2003 Par Garment filed for bankruptcy and the owners relocated to two non-unionized factories. Union members pressured the brand companies to provide compensation and back pay for former workers and jobs for any workers willing to relocate. The dispute between Par Garment and its former workers is still unresolved. Source: Clean Clothes Campaign, March 2004
- 4/2004: In April 2004 four unions representing over three million workers in the US and Canada called on the United Nations to review Nike’s affiliation with the UN Global Compact because, according to the unions, Nike violates workers’ rights. The unions alledge that Nike has violated the Global Compact’s Principle Three, that businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining. At issue is the company’s ongoing restructuring at a Bauer Nike Hockey subsidiary. In 1995, when Nike purchased Bauer, the hockey apparel and equipment producer employed over 1,100 union-represented workers at three facilities in Canada. Bauer Nike Hockey announced plans to shut two of the facilities and drastically downsize the third. Aside from Bauer Nike Hockey, none of Nike’s over 23 thousand employees are unionized. Source: CSR Newswire
- 4/2004: In the fall of 2003, citing competition, Nike closed two factories, downsized a third and laid off a total of 321 employees at its Bauer, NH operations. Source: The (Portland) Oregonian, April 16, 2004
- 3/2004: According to “Play Fair at the Olympics” a 2004 report by the Clean Clothes Campaign, a number of workers at an Indonesian factory producing for Fila, Asics, Puma, Nike and Adidas stated, “Pretty girls in the factory are always harassed by the male managers. The come onto the girls, call them into their offices, whisper in their ears, touch them at the waist, arms, neck, buttocks and breasts, bribe the girls with money and threats of losing their jobs to have sex with them.” Source: Clean Clothes Campaign, March 2004
- 5/2004: In May 2004, Global Exchange held a press conference at its Oregon Fair Trade store to announce “No Sweat Challenge” to Nike and unveil No Sweat Sneakers, a new line of guaranteed to have been manufactured 100% sweatshop free
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3/2002: A scathing report issued by Oxfam Community Aid Abroad stated Indonesian Nike and Adidas workers are paid so little they are forced to separate from their children, but also said the company had taken “small steps forward” to improve conditions in Indonesian factories. Nike said it welcomed the findings in the report, entitled “We are not Machines”, but also criticized the agency saying the information in the report was based on 35 interviews with Nike workers in Indonesia. The company says it has hired an independent body which has talked with 4,000 Indonesian employees and Nike has addressed all issues of non-compliance found from those interviews. Among the allegations raised in this report:
- That workers have good reason to fear that if they join independent unions they may face dismissal, jail or physical assault.
- That although there has been some reduction the pressures on workers, they still work in dangerous conditions, and are still shouted at when they work too slowly. Workplace dangers include respiratory illness from inhaling toxic chemicals and finger loss in cutting machines.
- In Nike and Adidas’ largest Indonesian supplier factory, women who want to claim legally mandated menstrual leave must suffer the humiliation of proving they are menstruating by pulling down their pants in front of female factory doctors.
- 2002: “On October 21, 2002, workers at the Bed and Bath Prestige Company, located in Prapadaeng, Thailand showed up to work and found the factory locked. They soon learned that the factory owners had vanished without any warning, and still owing them a total of US$400,000 (16 million baht) in back wages and compensation. The Bed and Bath factory supplies several major US brands including Nike, Reebok, adidas-Salomon and Levi Strauss & Co.” full story
- 5/2001: Global Exchange issued a report, “Still Waiting For Nike To Do It” that illustrates Nike’s failure to live up to the six areas of reform at its overseas factories promised by Nike CEO Philip Knight in a speech before the National Press Club in 1998. The reforms included: protecting workers who speak out about conditions; investigating worker complaints and installing independent and confidential monitoring procedures; providing decent wages; scheduling reasonable working hours; providing safe and healthy workplaces; and respecting workers’ rights for freedom of association.
- According to the National Labor Committee, a previously suppressed report on a 2000-2001 investigation conducted by the El Salvadorian Government and USAid revealed sweatshop conditions in Nike’s Hermosa Factory (among others). Paid just 29 cents for each $140 Nike NBA shirt they sew, workers, mostly women, are also subjected to mandatory pregnancy tests, obligatory overtime, seriously contaminated drinking water (bacteria levels 429 times greater than internationally permitted norms), and excessively high production quotas.
- The same USAID-funded investigation of the Chi Fung factory in El Salvadoran revealed that workers were forced into unpaid overtime until quota were met, female workers were forced to submit to pregnancy tests and unions were prohibited. The factory produced clothing for Nike, Puma and Adidas.
- Nike was the recipient of one of the National Labor Committee‘s First Annual Golden Grinch Awards, given to companies for outstanding sweatshop abuses and starvation wages. In a factory producing Nike apparel in the Dominican Republic, workers were given 6.6 minutes to sew one children’s sweatshirt. Workers earned just $0.08 for each $22.99 Nike sweatshirt they had sewn, which amounts to 3/10ths of 1% of the garments’ retail price.
- 2001: Global Alliance, a watchdog group for factory workers, released a report stating that “Indonesian workers making Nike clothes and shoes are being sexually and verbally abused, have limited access to health care and are forced to work overtime.” Workers at all nine of the factories investigated reported physical, sexual, and verbal harassment and abuse. Nike responded by developing a remediation plan to solve these problems that the company described as “disturbing”. (Note: A year later, Global Alliance performed a re-assessment of the offending Nike factories with mixed results. full report)
- In July 2001, Nike debuted a 12 minute video on http://www.nikebiz.com that allowed users to tour one of its factories in Vietnam. The company stated that the “virtual tour” was posted in an effort to make its labor practices more transparent to the public. Labor activists labeled it as a publicity stunt. Read more.
- 5/3/00: Nike’s then-CEO Philip Knight canceled a $30 million gift to University of Oregon after the school joined the Worker Rights Consortium, an organization of students, universities and human rights groups which intends to monitor the factories in the developing world that produce college apparel. The University later withdrew from the Worker Rights Consortium. full story
Harmful Political Influence & Litigation Practices
Litigation
- Nike vs. Kasky: Corporations Are Not Persons: “The issue before the Supreme Court is whether Nike can be held liable for its misrepresentations under false advertising laws or whether its various public documents and letters to the press and others are constitutionally protected free speech… Not addressed in the arguments before the Court, but underlying them nonetheless is an invisible beast: the idea that corporations are people.”
- 5/2002: The California Supreme Court ruled that Nike can be sued for false advertising after it was found that the company’s statements in defense of overseas labor conditions were “commercial speech,” and therefore subject to lawsuits. Nike allegedly lied about conditions at overseas factories where their shoes and clothes(beach bedding sets) are manufactured, in an attempt to guard the company from criticism for human rights and labor violations. In June 2003 the US supreme court dismissed a claim by Nike that the publicity campaign to counter allegations that it uses sweatshops to make its products was protected by the right to free speech. Source: San Francisco Chronicle, May 3, 2002
Feature: Are Corporations Entitled to Bill of Rights Protections?
- 5/2001: Three class-action lawsuits were filed against Nike by its shareholders, alleging that company executives sold stock just before poor earnings were announced and the stock price plunged. The lawsuits represent everyone who bought Nike stock between December 20, 2000 and February 26, 2001. Nike denies the allegations. Source: The Associated Press, April 5, 2001
Political Influence
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) was the top recipient of political contributions from Nike Federal PAC in 2004. Critics have linked these contributions with Senator Wyden’s recent and critical support of The Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, which the Senator broke with his party to support.
The Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement would eliminate a number of tariffs and loosen other trade restrictions with Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Companies such as Intel and Nike say the agreement would boost Oregon’s economy by expanding trade opportunities. But labor groups say it would cause U.S. workers to lose their jobs, and the U.S. sugar industry fears it would drive down their prices.
All four Democratic House members from Oregon have said they will oppose it, however Senator Wyden said he sees opportunity for Oregon industries ranging from agriculture to technology to increase their exports under CAFTA.
Nike Inc Federal Political Action Committee (Nike Federal Pac)
Candidate Contributions: 2003-2004 Campaign Cycle
Candidate | Total |
Jackson, Jesse (D-IL) | $500 |
Ford, Harold (D-TN) | $500 |
Pombo, Richard (R-CA) | $500 |
Matheson, Jim (D-UT) | $500 |
Davis, Artur (D-AL) | $500 |
Tubbs Jones, Stephanie (D-OH) | $500 |
Davis, Jim (D-FL) | $500 |
Hoyer, Steny (D-MD) | $500 |
Lincoln, Blanche (D-AR) | $1000 |
Bond, Christopher (R-MO) | $1000 |
Hooley, Darlene (D-OR) | $1000 |
Dreier, David (R-CA) | $1000 |
Pryce, Deborah (R-OH) | $1000 |
Lewis, John (D-GA) | $1000 |
Rangel, Charles (D-NY) | $1000 |
Wu, David (D-OR) | $1000 |
Kolbe, Jim (R-AZ) | $1000 |
Hastert, J. Dennis (R-IL) | $1000 |
Cummings, Elijah (D-MD) | $1000 |
Dorgan, Byron (D-ND) | $1000 |
Matsui, Robert (D-CA) | $1000 |
Jefferson, William (D-LA) | $1000 |
Becerra, Xavier (D-CA) | $1000 |
Ensign, John (R-NV) | $1000 |
Murray, Patty (D-WA) | $1000 |
Snowe, Olympia (R-ME) | $1000 |
DeFazio, Peter (D-OR) | $1250 |
Baird, Brian (D-WA) | $1500 |
Kind, Ron (D-WI) | $1500 |
Udall, Mark (D-CO) | $2000 |
Grassley, Charles (R-IA) | $2000 |
Walden, Greg (R-OR) | $3000 |
Blumenauer, Earl (D-OR) | $4250 |
Wyden, Ron (D-OR) | $5000 |
Nike Inc Federal Political Action Committee (Nike Federal Pac)
Candidate Contributions: 2001-2002 Campaign Cycle
Candidate | Total |
Moran, James (D-VA) | $500 |
Cummings, Elijah (D-MD) | $500 |
Becerra, Xavier (D-CA) | $500 |
Murray, Patty (D-WA) | $500 |
Larsen, Rick (D-WA) | $500 |
Davis, Susan (D-CA) | $500 |
Sherwood, Don (R-PA) | $500 |
Baird, Brian (D-WA) | $500 |
Moore, Dennis (D-KS) | $500 |
Nunes, Devin (R-CA) | $1000 |
Pastor, Ed (D-AZ) | $1000 |
Knollenberg, Joseph (R-MI) | $1000 |
Thomas, William (R-CA) | $1000 |
Alexander, Lamar (R-TN) | $1000 |
Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) | $1000 |
Harkin, Tom (D-IA) | $1000 |
DeFazio, Peter (D-OR) | $1000 |
Matsui, Robert (D-CA) | $1000 |
Kind, Ron (D-WI) | $1000 |
Dole, Elizabeth (R-NC) | $1000 |
Collins, Susan (R-ME) | $1000 |
Lewis, John (D-GA) | $1000 |
Baucus, Max (D-MT) | $1500 |
Hooley, Darlene (D-OR) | $1500 |
Smith, Adam (D-WA) | $2000 |
Tauscher, Ellen (D-CA) | $2000 |
Wu, David (D-OR) | $2000 |
Walden, Greg (R-OR) | $2000 |
Kolbe, Jim (R-AZ) | $2000 |
Wyden, Ron (D-OR) | $2000 |
Dreier, David (R-CA) | $2500 |
Jefferson, William (D-LA) | $3000 |
Rangel, Charles (D-NY) | $3000 |
Blumenauer, Earl (D-OR) | $3500 |
Smith, Gordon (R-OR) | $6000 |
Environmental Concerns
Animal Welfare
- 2/2003: The Humane Society of the United States, rescue groups, breeders and the American Dog Owners Association asked Nike to pull or cut a television commercial which includes a brief snippet of a Rottweiller and a pit bull lunging for each other. The groups say the ad promotes illegal dog fighting and reinforces negative stereotypes of the two dog breeds. However, a company spokeswoman says the spot never shows the dogs biting and the dogs facing off were just part of the minute-long ad’s edginess, designed to appeal to a specific “hoop culture” that enjoys playing basketball. She also said that the company chose a pit bull and a Rottweiler because that’s what they had available. However, critics of the ad argue that Nike intentionally used the two dogs mostly associated with street dog fighting. Dog fighting is illegal in all 50 states and a felony in 46. Source: Cox News Service, Feb. 23, 2003
Unethical Business Practice
- In February 2003, the Florida attorney general’s office began investigating Nike Inc. for allegedly fixing the retail price of shoes and clothing. Source: Associated Press, Feb. 19, 2003
- Nike has been repeatedly criticized for it’s use of the school environment to advertise to children:
- “Nike Must Stop Exploiting My Students”: “Last fall, a reporter from The Times asked me about the relationship between Crenshaw High School boys’ basketball program and Nike in terms of what the corporations donates to the basketball players. To my knowledge as the principal, I told him, the company gave each member of the boys’ team a pair of tennis shoes, just as Karl Kani, a smaller African American ownedbusiness, gave shoes to members of the girls’ team.
The reporter informed me that there was probably much more to the relationship than 15 pairs of Nike tennis shoes. As it turned out, he was absolutely correct.”
- “Nike Must Stop Exploiting My Students”: “Last fall, a reporter from The Times asked me about the relationship between Crenshaw High School boys’ basketball program and Nike in terms of what the corporations donates to the basketball players. To my knowledge as the principal, I told him, the company gave each member of the boys’ team a pair of tennis shoes, just as Karl Kani, a smaller African American ownedbusiness, gave shoes to members of the girls’ team.
- Book covers, billboards in school corridors, calendars, and broadcasts –these are some of the places corporate America places ads for kids to see in school. Commercial messages also reach kids in the classroom through ad bearing and corporate-sponsored educational materials.
- Cover Concepts Marketing Services Inc, book covers with ads to over 8,000 public schools; advertisers include Nike, Gitano, FootLocker, Pepsi. Steven Shulman, President. Braintree, MA.
Praise
Nike has been Praised for its Pro-Diversity Measures:
- Nike achieved a perfect score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign 2005 Corporate Equality Index which rates large corporations on policies that affect their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors. The 2005 HRC Corporate Equality Index rated companies on a scale of 0 percent to 100 percent on seven factors. The company also achieved a perfect score of 100 on the organization’s 2004 Corporate Equality Index.
- Since 1994, Nike has offered domestic partner health benefits to employees’ domestic partners of the same and opposite sex.
- Nike has announced that it is expanding eligibility for benefits to include dependent children of an employee’s permanent partner. Nike defines a permanent partner as someone of either gender with whom an employee lives as one would with a spouse. Nike is one of only 35 companies on the Fortune 500 that offer benefits to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples.
- Nike’s non-discrimination policy includes sexual orientation. Source: Human Rights Campaign, et al
Nike has been praised for its Charitable Giving efforts:
- Nike donated $1 million to tsunami relief efforts.
- On May 17, 2004 the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) and Nike launched the Wear Yellow Live Strong campaign in an effort to raise funds for LAF’s advocacy, education, public health and research programs. Nike donated $1 million to the Foundation and led efforts to raise additional millions of dollars through the sale of yellow wristbands engraved with Lance’s mantra, Live Strong. As of October 28, 2004 more than 20 million LIVESTRONGTM wristbands have been purchased, of which all the proceeds benefit LAF programs that help people living with cancer. Next month, the LAF and Nike will begin distributing LIVESTRONG wristbands for sale at all Niketown locations, Nikewomen stores and Niketown outlets.
- Nike said that in its financial year ended May 31, 2004, it made donations of 3.3% of pre-tax profit to 4,500 charities. Nike’s contributions consisted of $16.2 million in cash, making up 43% of the donations, and $21.1 million in product and in-kind services. The company focuses much of its giving on what it sees as key areas to be addressed for an international sportswear company: youth activity, micro-enterprise programs, women’s empowerment and cancer initiatives.
- After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Nike donated $1 million to relief efforts. Source: The Detroit News, Oct. 5, 2001, et al
- In October 2001 Nike released its first corporate responsibility report which documents the company’s efforts to monitor compliance with health, safety, wage, benefits and management requirements. The report lists concerns of both internal and external monitors. In the report, Nike also acknowledges its shortcomings in not being tougher on problems such as alleged worker harassment by managers at some contract factories in Indonesia. Source: Associated Press, October 9, 2001 (see related Worker’s Rights Criticism)
- Nike is among 500 U.S. companies which have pledged to avoid the use of products made from clear-cut old-growth temperate rainforests and implement a comprehensive program to source responsibly-produced wood products. Source: Forest Ethics
- Workers at the Kukdong factory in Mexico (alleged as a site of child labor and unfair employment practices) have won the right to form an independent, worker-controlled union. The factory, renamed Mex Mode, has certified the new union (see related alert item). Source: The Oregonian, September 27, 2001
Nike has been praised for its Community Involvement:
- More than 900 Oregon-based Nike employees contributed approximately 4,500 volunteer hours at 41 locations in Multnomah and Washington Counties for the 2004 Nike Community Involvement Day. The annual event, led by Nike President of U.S. Operations, Gary DeStefano, was organized in partnership with Volunteers of America Oregon and Hands On Portland. Each non-profit organization selected for Nike’s Community Involvement Day in Oregon received the volunteer hours and a cash donation to support programs in the following areas: youth sports and recreational/physical activity; youth and family services; resources for senior citizens and the disabled; housing and sustainable communities; hunger and homelessness; and animal care. This year’s cash donations amount to more than $40,000.
- In April 2004, Nike was honored for its commitment to Head Start, a national school readiness program that provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. Nike has worked with Head Start since 1998 on an educational outreach program. Nike’s $5.2 million contribution to the Start Line project has provided a total of 2,102 computers in a total of 198 Head Start Programs to reach thousands of kids and their families.
- On Dec. 14, 2004 Nike launched the NikeGO Afterschool program, in partnership with SPARK (Sports, Play and Active Recreation for Kids), at the Greater Washington Boys & Girls Club in D.C. NikeGO Afterschool brings physical activity programs, including training and lesson plans from SPARK and donated equipment kits of Nike products, to kids ages 5-14 in after-school programs at Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCAs, local Parks & Recreation and other facilities. NikeGO Afterschool will also launch programs in a total of 42 sites including Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.
- Working in conjunction with the Chicago Park District, a new soccer field has been made possible with a $500,000 joint donation from NikeGO and the U.S. Soccer Foundation. NikeGO is Nike’s U.S. community affairs initiative and the company’s commitment to getting kids more physically active. The FieldTurf soccer field at Douglas Park includes outsole rubber from approximately 75,000 pairs of athletic shoes as part of the Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program. Nike also committed more than $2.5 million to promote the sport of soccer across the U.S. by awarding 50 communities over five years with grants to be used towards the installation of FieldTurf soccer fields which are made with recycled rubber from the Nike Reuse-A-Shoe program.
- Nike is a retailer and outfitter of the Leave No Trace program, which promotes and inspires responsible outdoor recreation through education, research, and partnerships. Source: CSRwire, et al
- Nike is one of several companies that sponsored the Sustainable Cotton Project, a series of one day tours which took place in fall 2000 and focused on California’s cotton harvest. The tours provided information and education on both conventional and organic cotton production. As part of the project the sponsoring companies, including Nike, said they will integrate organically-grown cotton in to their products. Source: AScribe Newswire, October 3, 2000
- Nike has made a commitment to improving business ethics by adhering to a Code of Conduct, a set of guidelines for worker health and safety, environmental responsibility, fair employment, and non-discrimination. Source: Nike
- Nike called for companies, athletes, coaches and educators to join forces to bring daily physical education classes taught by specialists to America’s school children. “For the first time in 100 years, kids today have a shorter life expectancy than their parents,” said Gary DeStefano, president of Nike USA Operations. “Our national epidemic of youth inactivity and unhealthy weight has worsened with the decline of school-based PE programs. Studies show these programmes are some of the most effective ways to increase activity among youth.” Source: Ethical Consumer
- Nike has begun to use water-based adhesives in its footwear assembly process using the permissible exposure limits of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as the standard for its factories. Ninety five percent of all Nike shoes are made with water-based adhesives. Source: PR Newswire, May 15, 2001
- Nike is a member of the Apparel Industry Partnership, a coalition of apparel companies, consumer groups, and labor and human rights organizations dedicated to addressing issues related to sweatshops. The AIP was set up by a White House initiative in 1996. Source: Department of Labor (see related Workers Rights Criticism)
- In 1999, as part of its efforts to address charges levelled at it by anti-sweatshop campaigners, Nike donated $7.7 million to the International Youth Foundation to set up the Global Alliance for Workers and Communities to monitor the factories of global companies’ subcontractors. Source: Financial Times (London), Dec. 10, 2002 (see related Workers Rights Criticism)
- Nike is among companies that have decided to replace polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in their products. Source: Greenpeace
- Since 1993 Nike has sponsored the Reuse-A-Shoe program, which grinds up used athletic shoes to create football fields, basketball courts, and playgrounds. Since its inception Reuse-A-Shoe has recycled more than 13 million pairs of shoes and has helped to donate over 100 athletic courts, tracks, fields and playground surfaces. Source: The Times Union (Albany, NY), May 1, 2003
- Nike has committed to participating in a program that increases the level of sustainability reporting using the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, a “framework for voluntary reporting of the economic, environmental, and social impact” of corporate practices. The Guidelines were developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), formed by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economics and the United Nations Environment Programme. Source: Global Reporting Initiative
- Nike has endorsed the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) principles. Source: CERES
Brands & Subsidiaries
Air Force 1,
Air Jordan,
Bauer NIKE Hockey Inc.,
Cole Haan Holdings Incorporated,
Chuck Taylor All-Stars,
Converse Inc.,
Hurley International LLC,
Nike Considered,
Nike Free,
Nike IHM, Inc,
Nike 6.0,
Nike Skateboarding,
Nike Vision
External Links
- Official website
- Nike’s corporate/investor website
- Nike Shox
- fitflop shoes
- The NikeWatch Campaign
- http://www.ReclaimDemocracy.org/nike (information on Kasky v. Nike )
- http://E4J.org (more on sweatshop issues)
- gadgets
- Pitchfork Media News – 6/23/05 (indie music review site reporting on the Nike/Minor Threat logo controversy)
Party City Printable Coupons
Party City Coupons
Party City Coupon Code
Sources