* University of Michigan President’s Advisory Committee for Labor Standards and Human Rights (PACLSHR) is in a dilemma whether to recommend to the university’s $60-million Adidas contract. * As Adidas supplier, PT Kizone’s Indonesian factory, denied workers some $3.4 million in severance and death benefits after the factory’s owner fled the country, forcing the factory to shut down. * Adidas Group, Nike, the Dallas Cowboys, and other sports apparel producers sourced products from the factory. * Adidas supplied university-licensed sports apparel for U-M, University of Washington. * As PT Kizone’s was a major supplier to Adidas, the buying agent that briefly assumed responsibility for PT Kizone’s factory operations until its closed—to provide part of the severance owed to the workers, Adidas refused, indicating that it had stopped ordering products from the factory 10 months before it closed. * The company later recanted after a Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) investigation found that Adidas was indeed a buyer at the time of violation, but still denied its responsibility for the workers’ severance. * Hence the PACLSHR found adidas in violation of the U-M code of conduct in regard to branded goods manufactured at PT Kizone’s factory.

The University of Michigan was established in Detroit in 1817 as the first public university of the Northwest Territories with a grant of 1,920 acres.
In 1837—the same year in which Michigan became a state—the university relocated to Ann Arbor as part of an offer of 40 acres by a group of local entrepreneurs.
U-M has a rich athletics tradition with intercollegiate competition officially beginning in 1865-1866 when the U-M baseball team won the first three contests it played. In 1879, the university began competing in football,
In 1973-1974 it established formal varsity sports for women.
Men’s soccer and women’s water polo were added as varsity sports in 2000-2001
9 Michigan’s athletic department had $122.7 million in total revenue in 2011, the fifth-best collegiate financial performance in America.
University Liscensing
U-M licensed its brand to over 400 licensees
U-M licensed merchandise was sold though several channels
U-M licensees were members of the FLA- Fair Labor Association

including department stores, boutiques, stores on or near the campus, sporting goods/sports specialty, golf specialty, Internet/TV/catalog, and offprice outlets
U-M licensed its brand to over 400 licensees that produced apparel and non-apparel products in about 40 major categories, each with several sub-categories. For example, men’s/unisex outerwear was a product category with sub-categories of jackets, rainwear, polar fleece, and wind shirts.