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Nike: Managing Ethical Missteps

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Durrell Simms

Nike: Managing Ethical Missteps

The Nike Corporation is a huge brand that targets athletes, colleges, and product manufacturing. The company was founded by Phil Knight and his track coach, Bill Bowerman, in 1964. “The company was renamed Nike in 1978, and has grown to be the largest worldwide seller of athletic goods, with approximately 19,000 retail accounts in the United States and about 160 countries around the world” (386). Nike built its “good quality” reputation from popular athletic sponsors. Although the brand was growing into a successful sports oriented company, high demand for the product led to thought on how to manufacture more apparel. The founders of the company devised a plan on how to increase manufacture while not completely blowing their accounts on laboring. The company agreed to take their manufacturing overseas to third-world countries where the cost of laboring is cheaper. “In the late 1980s after going public, the late 1990s began a period composed of combating allegations about labor and human rights violations” (386). Nike was accused of over working their foreign employees, and providing them poor, unsanitary work environments. Subcontracting was mainly the reason why this situation occurred. Subcontracting is the process of reducing cost to allow projects or manufacturing to take place. This action basically allows companies to take advantage of the workers they hire for cheaper service. Children were also hired to work for these subcontracted manufactures for speedy service. The company violated many child laboring laws while manufacturing overseas. There were numerous allegations against the company based on harassment and abuse towards the workers.
Since the factories have vastly increased in Asia, it was rather difficult to manage the work condition for the workers. This lack of order brought

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