Does Nike still use child slave labor?

[Chadillac]

If find it hypocritical a company that makes children work 14 hours a day wouldnt give sharapova the benefit of the doubt until all the facts were revealed.

What do you guys think?

 

[donquijote]

A corporation like Nike taking a moral stand is hilarious.
Some say it's not a moral stand, but then what is it dropping a contract because of doping?
Remember they didn't cut the ties with Kyrgios after his very unsportsmanlike behaviors.

 

[Sysyphus]

While I agree that the hypocrisy from Nike and similar companies is laughable, let's step back and look at its causes.

Nike and similar companies only take stances like this because of the opinion of people. If people get negative associations towards Nike from Sharapova, then they lose from that.
In one sense the more dangerous hypocrisy is therefore perhaps that of the people. After all, their consumer habits are apparently more affected by the fact that someone like Sharapova takes a banned heart medicine than the fact that Nike utilizes children to make their products, as reflected in Nike's actions (suspending Sharapova but maintaining a crappy policy towards employees).

 

[tacou]

Both decisions = $$$$
If Masha is cleared they'll be all "WE <333 she is such a figher blah blah blah"
If she's banned for life they'll never mention her again

 

[donquijote]

While I agree that the hypocrisy from Nike and similar companies is laughable, let's step back and look at its causes.

Nike and similar companies only take stances like this because of the opinion of people. If people get negative associations towards Nike from Sharapova, then they lose from that.
In one sense the more dangerous hypocrisy is therefore perhaps that of the people. After all, their consumer habits are apparently more affected by the fact that someone like Sharapova takes a banned heart medicine than the fact that Nike utilizes children to make their products, as reflected in Nike's actions (suspending Sharapova but maintaining a crappy policy towards employees).

Are you saying people are bad in nature and not educated well in general? lol
Nike should act on principles and run policies in line with universal human rights which was signed by all 'civilized' world. Corporations only caring about revenues is just a sign that wild and 'free market' capitalism sucks. Politicians also are responsible to protect their country's values and signed declarations by forcing the corporations to act accordingly but they can be bought by big money unfortunately.

 

[Poisoned Slice]

 

[Sysyphus]

Are you saying people are bad in nature and not educated well in general? lol
Nike should act on principles and run policies in line with universal human rights which was signed by all 'civilized' world. Corporations only caring about revenues is just a sign that wild and 'free market' capitalism sucks. Politicians also are responsible to protect their country's values and signed declarations by forcing the corporations to act accordingly but they can be bought by big money unfortunately.

I agree that unfettered markets have some very vicious sides to them for exactly the reason I'm stating. My point is that it's absolutely silly to put the blame on companies like Nike alone. We only get the companies that people are willing to buy from. If people reacted stronger to Nike's human rights policies and accordingly stopped buying their products, then Nike would not keep going the same way either. But nay, by and large people keep buying unethical stuff all the time, whereas immaterial episodes like the one with Sharapova affect their consumer-habits.

 

[Bhagi Katbamna]

Unfortunately, in many 3rd world countries, poor kids have a choice between working in a factory or going into prostitution to support themselves.

 

[Tennis_Hands]

Are you saying people are bad in nature and not educated well in general? lol
Nike should act on principles and run policies in line with universal human rights which was signed by all 'civilized' world. Corporations only caring about revenues is just a sign that wild and 'free market' capitalism sucks. Politicians also are responsible to protect their country's values and signed declarations by forcing the corporations to act accordingly but they can be bought by big money unfortunately.

USA has signed but never ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (except for two optional protocols dealing with children involvement in armed conflicts and respectively sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography).

 

[ollinger]

If find it hypocritical a company that makes children work 14 hours a day wouldnt give sharapova the benefit of the doubt until all the facts were revealed.

What do you guys think?

I see nothing hypocritical here. Using cheap young labor and dumping Sharapova serve the same goal -- to maximize profits and preserve the brand. And a failed drug test is pretty much a "revealed fact."

 

[Purplemonster]

Unfortunately, in many 3rd world countries, poor kids have a choice between working in a factory or going into prostitution to support themselves.

Very true unfortunately and companies like Nike prey on them. The government and people of these countries also have a role to play in all this, it's too convenient to solely lay the blame for such things on 1st world countries.

 

[MatsPhilander]

 

[mellowyellow]

What goes on with their involvement in soccer and the extra 40million they paid out of contract and through over seas banks?

 

[jaggy]

Preach it PE:

I like Nike but wait a minute
The neighborhood supports so put some
Money in it
Corporations owe

Dey gotta give up the dough
To da town
Or else
We gotta shut 'em down

 

[donquijote]

 

[heninfan99]

we're all hypocrites on something

 

[r2473]

we're all hypocrites on something

Jesus was a Capricorn
He ate organic food
He believed in love and peace
And never wore no shoes

Long hair, beard and sandals
And a funky bunch of friends
Reckon we'd just nail him up
If he came down again

'Cause everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on
Who they can feel better than at any time they please
Someone doin' somethin' dirty decent folks can frown on
If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me

Eggheads cussing rednecks cussing
Hippies for their hair
Others laugh at straights who laugh at
Freaks who laugh at squares

Some folks hate the Whites
Who hate the Blacks who hate the Klan
Most of us hate anything that
We don't understand

'Cause everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on
Who they can feel better than at any time they please
Someone doin' somethin' dirty decent folks can frown on
If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me

 

[heninfan99]

have you tried the latest Ballistecs?

Jesus was a Capricorn
He ate organic food
He believed in love and peace
And never wore no shoes

Long hair, beard and sandals
And a funky bunch of friends
Reckon we'd just nail him up
If he came down again

'Cause everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on
Who they can feel better than at any time they please
Someone doin' somethin' dirty decent folks can frown on
If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me

Eggheads cussing rednecks cussing
Hippies for their hair
Others laugh at straights who laugh at
Freaks who laugh at squares

Some folks hate the Whites
Who hate the Blacks who hate the Klan
Most of us hate anything that
We don't understand

'Cause everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on
Who they can feel better than at any time they please
Someone doin' somethin' dirty decent folks can frown on
If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me

 

[Bartelby]

A fact, yes, but not an established legal fact. She is only provisionally suspended.

I thought your expertise was needed on how performance enhancing the drug really is?

I presume you're busy conducting experiments as I write.

I see nothing hypocritical here. Using cheap young labor and dumping Sharapova serve the same goal -- to maximize profits and preserve the brand. And a failed drug test is pretty much a "revealed fact."

 

[Chadillac]

$160 for a pair of bad shoes made by child who earned 70 cents that day. Cheap labor = cheap product costs? Not for companys like nike and apple.

 

[Chadillac]

Amazing picture

 

[Bender]

Edit: Damn, got beaten to it...

 

[Big_Dangerous]

$160 for a pair of bad shoes made by child who earned 70 cents that day. Cheap labor = cheap product costs? Not for companys like nike and apple.

Of course, who's to say that other companies don't also do the same thing, just in different countries.

 

[Firstservingman]

They all do.

And we support it by buying their clothes, which would also likely be unaffordable to many if they changed for the better.

Things aren't as simple as they seem.

 

[movdqa]

I've only worn New Balance for the last 23 years.

 

[DUROC]

Yup........plenty of secret videos posted from workers in Vietnam, China.....etc of the conditions. Nike = slime (and of course they are not the only ones)

 

[donquijote]

I've only worn New Balance for the last 23 years.

I haven't bought Nike since I don't remember when, probably 15+ years. I confess though that I bought Nike for my daughter a couple of times. Not sure if other companies are all innocent though. I like Adidas especially their apparels, it feels vintage with the three stripes on them.

 

[movdqa]

I would guess that all of the shoe companies have some labor issues in their plants outside the western world (New Balance has five plants in New England and some in Britain but they also make a lot of shoes in the third-world) in the contract-labor market. If you're outsourcing, then you don't necessarily have control over working conditions. Apple, and all of the phone makers have high-profile problems with this from time to time. The outsourcing does provide jobs in countries that wouldn't otherwise have these jobs so it's a tough call.

What's amazing is that New Balance can make shoes in Massachusetts (a state with a high-cost to do business in), provide benefits and training for unskilled workers. The pay rate isn't that high but they are giving people a chance in the working world.

 

[vsbabolat]

I've only worn New Balance for the last 23 years.

But they don't have a tennis shoe made in the USA. Only some of the running shoes are made in USA.

 

[movdqa]

I go through far more running shoes than anything else. New Balance wasn't really big into tennis shoes when I started using the brand and I really didn't like their tennis shoes though they might have been made in the US back then in the 1990s. We used to go to the factory in Brighton to buy their shoes and the factory outlet was attached to the actual factory. I've mostly (maybe completely) bought their cross-trainers for tennis use.

New Balance made 70% of their shoes sold in North America back in 1994. In 2006, they made 25% in the US and the rest in China and Vietnam.

I currently use the MX609s for tennis which are imported.

 

[Mr.Lob]

Easy out for Nike if Sharapova isn't moving enough merchandise.

 

[vive le beau jeu !]

reminded me about the sureshs advertising campaign...

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Dear TTW user,

Thank you for your concern about Nike's labor practices. I can assure you that, for several years now, Nike has been exploiting only persons of legal adult age. When we need someone with tiny, flexible fingers, we just hire midgets, and make some extra cash by employing them during lunch hours in the South Asian Sideshow circuit.

Yours Truly,

Nike Big Honcho

 

[Simon_the_furry]

This is precisely why I don't wear Nikes.

 

[MatsPhilander]

This is precisely why I don't wear Nikes.

It isn't like all the other companies are any different.

 

[Simon_the_furry]

It isn't like all the other companies are any different.

True, true. I've been trying to find more ethical companies to buy shoes from