If the Shoe Fits

According to today’s paper, between them Nike and Michael Jordan will be spending some $140 million in the cause of social justice and the fight against racial inequality.  I guess.

 

My skepticism is based on a couple of reasons.  Nike earns about $40 billion a year and employs roughly 77,000 people, with about 32,000 in the U.S.  Now, I’m pretty willing to bet that little to nothing of what Nike sells is made in the U.S., hence those other 45,000 employees.

 

Now, bear with me here.  Black American is underserved by financial institutions.  Couldn’t that $140 million—and given Nike’s profits, why not double or triple that figure?—help capitalize a black-operated bank, one focused on providing financing to minority communities?  If that’s not possible, I thank Michael Jordan and Nike for their contribution, but I still have a few questions about Nike’s business model.

 

Visit their website, and they’re all about responsible sourcing.  Sweatshops are not welcome to do business with Nike, or so the website says.  But I wonder.  If the company is so concerned with working conditions, why does it have production facilities half a world away?  Wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier to check on factories in Beaverton, Oregon, and thereabouts?

 

If Nike is concerned about workers’ rights (and it says it is), how does it expect those rights to be respected in a place like Cambodia.  Given how hard it is for unions to organize in the U.S., is it any easier in Cambodia?  Or is Nike saying unions aren’t necessary to protect workers’ interests?  In that case, no NLRB is better than one staffed with appointments by a conservative White House?

 

And if Nike is so committed an employer, how come I couldn’t find an average wage for its overseas’ workers?  Or a graph showing what percentage labor costs contribute to a pair of Nike shoes, pick your line?  Why is Nike so afraid of stating the obvious, that it wants the dollars of American consumers without the responsibility of having to employ a larger American workforce?

 

I truly hope that $140 million change things for the better.  I truly believe that athletic products made for Americans by Americans—regardless of race, gender, creed or orientation—would go a long ways accomplishing that.