FREE ESSAY ON NIKE

NIKE

The Nike Foundation, formerly the Nike P.L.A.Y. Foundation, is reflection of the Nike
Cultures. Nike is committed to assisting youth to achieve both their personal goals as
well as to contribute to the overall betterment of our society. The focus of Nike's
resources will be applied to your empowerment, sports, after-school programs, and
community and environmental learning to develop skills, build confidence, and to apply
critical thinking to solutions to individuals, community and global concerns.
Corporate Responsibility
Nike's mission for corporate responsibility is to lead in corporate citizenship through
programs that reflect caring for the world family of Nike, our teammates, our consumers,
and those who provide services to Nike.
Nike has more that 500 contract factories around the world in about 45 countries. In May
1998, Nike set out six new corporate responsibility goals for these factories. Rather
than address the goals and progress across all 500 factories. Yae Kwang Vina, a Korean
owned and operated footwear manufacturer in Vietnam. To begin, Tae Kwang Vina is referred
to as VT by Nike's contract manufacturing group. VT just celebrated its fourth birthday.
It has 10 production assembly lines and 10,000 people, who together produce 500,000 pairs
of Nike's best running shoes each month.
Since it was established in the summer of 1995, VT has been run by a Tae Kwang vice
president, C.T. Park, who has worked closely with Nike on corporate responsibility
implementation and has done some things on his own, like donating almost $300.000 to
local community projects like housing for war widows. C.T., like hundreds of other
factory directors, was consulted about the proposed steps, and then briefed on the May
1998 initiatives just before Phil Knight
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All-Americans and 19 Olympians. No other coach has had a greater impact on American track
and field that Bill Bowerman.
Bowerman once determined that every ounce shaved off a miles shoe was 200 fewer pounds
lifted in a race. With that in mind, he began crafting special shoes for his athletes. In
1964, teamed up with former Oregon student and runner, Phil Knight, to form Blue Ribbon
Sports, the forerunner of Nike. Bowerman's innovative designs and Knight's business
acumen were the perfect fit and by the time BRS became Nike in 1972 sales were at $1.96
million. 
Environmental Responsibility
Nike Inc. has been an industry leader in developing new technologies which we have given
away to out competitors. In the early 1990's, it was becoming evident that governments
were becoming more and more regulatory in how footwear was produced and from where it was
imported. By 1992, Nike made the environment and worker health and safety a major
corporate goal.
Between that time and the present, Nike, in conjunction with its subcontract factories
and their suppliers, developed many new technologies such as waterbase adhesives and
primers for footwear, waterbase mold releases, detergents for outsole degreasing. mold
cleaning and as flushing agents.
Between 1995 and 1999, Nike has reduced its per pair usage of organic solvents from 340
grams/pair to slightly more that 50 grams/pair, an 83% reduction. At the same time, it
developed recycling programs for adhesive and primer containers. It has reduced scrap
levels of EVA and rubber through internal recycling programs and its reuse-a-shoe
program.
In November of 1998, Nike held an open forum in Bangkok, Thailand, for footwear
manufacturers on its advances in the area of Green Technology. All of the above
technologies were made available to Nike's competitors along with detailed explanations
and a complete question and answer period, it also includes a tour of a Nike factory that
has implemented a great many of these advances.
Product Produced
A long history of experimentation and innovations at Nike provides proof positive that
producing top-quality athletic footwear is far from simple. The process requires an
extensive cast of sports specialists working in close partnerships with athletes and
coaches, conducting in-depth research in the world-class Nike Sports Research Lab,
studying cutting-edge technology. In short these specialists do everything in their
specific performance needs to both professional and amateur athletes. And, since Nike is
dedicated to producing the highest quality product possible, not even the smallest detail
is overlooked during the design, development and production of each and every Nike shoe.
The only problem is...this entire process takes time and money. Nike might be able to
make a cheaper shoe on a quicker timeline, but that would require overlooking the
essential details that have made Nike the shoe choice around the world. Athletic footwear
which cushions, supports, and protects the wearer, while at the same time providing
aesthetic appeal, involves a number of components and countless dedicated players.
How to make a Shoe
The average Nike shoe features 34 parts with approximately 170 workers involved in the
making of a single pair of Nike shoes. But that doesn't even begin to compare to the
complexity of the entire process of bringing a Nike shoe to the market. Category Product
Teams, consisting of Nike designers, developers, and marketing specialists with expertise
in a specific sport category, share the responsibility for everything from initial market
research to material selection and marketing of an individual Nike shoe. A process that
typically takes between 16 and 18 months.
Press Releases
Nike has been in the news on many occasions. From the whole Y2K deal up to the Nike,
Goodby Silverstein and Partners to end advertising relationship. I'll give a summary of
that article.
In a joint issued last week, Nike and advertising agency Goodby Silverstein and Partners
announced they are parting ways. As a result, all brand-level advertising in the United
States will be handled by Portland Based Wieden & Kennedy, which has been Nike's primary
ad agency for 16 years and created Nike's famous Just do it messaging. Goodby Silverstein
& Partners created excellent work for Nike, said Rob DeFlorio, director of Nike
advertising. The executives at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, while disappointed by the
decision, understood Nike's reasoning and pointed out that the relationship had resulted
in several award-winning ads. Goodby Silverstein & Partners is one of America's leading
advertising agencies, with more that $800 million in billings for clients including
e*trade, Budweiser, Hewlett Packard, Frito-Lay, Pacific Bell, Pepsi, and many others.
A Global Alliance
In April 1999, Nike embarked on a far more ambitious independent monitoring program as a
charter member of the Global Alliance for Workers and Communities. The Global Alliance,
operated by the International Youth Foundation, with partners including the World Bank,
the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundatio, and Mattel, Inc., will let workers
themselves, through local NGOs and other assessment agents, identify workplace issues and
life aspirations, which Nike and their factory partners will then work to adress.
Assessment and worker feedback began at factories in Thailand in June, and were scheduled
to begin in Vietnam, including at VT, in August, with Indonesia and China to follow. By
fall 1999, the Fair Labor Association, the White House sponsored initative to eliminate
sweatshop practices in the apparel and foorwear in dustries, was expected to begin
oversight of members' monitoring efforts. It is behind schedule, but progress has been
made with many universities, colleges and companies signing on. Nike is a charter member
of the FLA. Its monitoring efforts at VT will be shared with the FLA, whose members
include consumer rights, human rights and labor rights groups.