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Large global corporations have, for the most part, assumed that responsibility. Nike, the athletic-apparel company, sources 78 million shoes from contract manufacturers in China and requires them, in writing, to meet Nike's standards, says spokesman Alan Marks. When the company recently decided to reduce its environmental impact by using a water-based adhesive in its shoes, Nike added layers of checks to make sure its contractors followed the new specs. Nike's product specialists developed a list of banned substances; there is systematic monitoring in the factory and quality control of the finished products. In some industries, like...
This kind of monitoring isn't cheap--just check the price on a pair of Nikes--and it isn't infallible. "No factory is perfect all the time," Marks says. If even a giant like Nike can't expect full compliance, what can consumers expect from smaller importers who can't afford full-time monitoring in China? Or from the discount stores that buy in bulk, sometimes without even a manufacturer's name on the products they sell? "Too many people don't have a clear understanding of what they are buying," says Benoit Rossignol, head of Shanghai-based Shiyao...
Those powers are the sneaker companies - Nike and Adidas - who wage a ferocious battle to sell athletic footwear, gear and clothing to consumers in virtually every country in the world. None of those markets is more important than China. Nike brand President Charlie Denson said last week that China would surpass Japan by 2009 and become the company's second largest market worldwide...
Seeing a budding star first, though, doesn't mean he's a lock to sign. The next year, in 2003, Nike invited Yi to its annual, one week "Big Man" camp, where again he impressed scouts who, as the NBA has gone ever more global, watch these camps with intense interest. Reebok had signed Yao - a huge coup in the global marketing war - but by the fall of 2003, Nike struck back and signed Yi to a six year promotional deal for an undisclosed...
...when Yi squares off next year for the first time in an NBA game against Yao and the Rockets, that will likely be the single most watched basketball game in human history as it is beamed back to their home country. It's not for nothing that Adidas and Nike believe their commercial futures lay in China. It is, you might say, a slam dunk...