Nike Production

Nike is more than 700 stores around the world under contract and has offices in 45 countries outside the United States. Most of the factories are located in Asia, including Indonesia, China, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, the Philippines and Malaysia. Nike is hesitant to provide information about the contract companies it works with to disclose. Due to harsh criticism from some organizations like CorpWatch, Nike has information about its contract factories in its Corporate Governance Report.

Human rights issues
Sweatshops
Nike has been criticized for contracts with factories (also known as Nike sweatshops) in countries such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Mexico. Vietnam Labor Watch, an activist group, has documented that factories have a contract from Nike, minimum wage and overtime laws violated in Vietnam as late as 1996, although Nike claims that this practice was stopped. The company has been subject to much critical coverage of the often poor working conditions and exploitation of cheap labor overseas in the free trade zones where their goods are produced usually used. Sources of this criticism is Naomi Klein's book No Logo and Michael Moore documentaries.
In the 1990s, Nike faced criticism for using child labor in Cambodia and Pakistan in the factories, he asked to make soccer balls. Although Nike took action to contain or at least reduce the practice, they continue their production to companies in areas where making inadequate regulation and supervision is difficult to ensure that child labor is not used for contract operated.
In 2001 a BBC documentary revealed prevalence of child labor and poor working conditions in a Cambodian factory used by Nike. The documentary about six girls who all worked seven days a week, often 16 hours a day focused.
Campaigns of many colleges and universities, especially anti-globalization groups, as well as several anti-sweatshop groups such as the United Students Against Sweatshops taken. Despite these campaigns, however, Nike has annual revenues of U.S. $ 6.4 billion in 1996 to nearly U.S. $ 17 billion in 2007, reported after the annual press conference of the company.
A study of July 2008 by the Australian Channel 7 News found a large number of cases in which forced labor in one of the largest clothing manufacturer Nike. The factory in Malaysia was found by an undercover crew, the instances of squalid living conditions and forced labor filmed. Nike has declared that it take corrective action to ensure that abuse does not continue.
From July 2011, Nike said that two thirds of its factories for the production of Converse products still do not meet the company standards for worker treatment. July 2011 An Associated Press article stated that employees reported in the factories in Indonesia constant abuse from superiors.

Olympic Games in China
Nike also sparked controversy during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, when its sponsored athlete Liu Xiang Chinese, the Olympic 110 meters hurdles back and left the track after a false start by another competitor. Liu said that he withdrew because of an ankle injury. However, an anonymous message on the Internet was published, allegedly from a source close to Nike, and claimed that the company forced Liu to retire when he was hardly to be gained so that tarnish their image. Nike responded by announcing that "we have immediately asked relevant [Chinese] government departments, the ones to investigate the rumor."

Nike Products

Nike produces a wide range of sports equipment. Their first products were track running shoes. They currently also make shoes, jerseys, shorts, underwear, etc. for a wide range of sports including athletics, baseball, hockey, tennis, association football (soccer), lacrosse, basketball and cricket. Nike Air Max is a first line of shoes from Nike, Inc., published in 1987. The latest additions to their line are designed the Nike 6.0, Nike NYX, and Nike SB shoes for skateboarding. Nike has recently cricket shoes, called Air Zoom Yorker, designed to be 30% lighter than their competitors "was introduced. In 2008, the Nike Air Jordan XX3, a high-performance basketball shoe with the environment in mind.
Nike sells an assortment of products including footwear and apparel for sports activities like association football, basketball, running, martial arts, tennis, American football, athletics, golf and cross training for men, women and children. Nike also sells shoes for outdoor activities like tennis, golf, skateboarding, association football, baseball, American football, cycling, volleyball, wrestling, cheerleading, water sports, car racing, and other athletic and recreational uses. Nike is well known and popular in youth culture, chav culture and hip-hop culture for their supply of urban fashion clothing. Nike recently with Apple Inc. to the Nike + product, produce a runner's performance via a radio device in the shoe-monitors, the links to the iPod nano. While the product generates useful statistics, it was of researchers who are able, users' RFID devices from 60 feet (18 meters) away with promoting small, concealable intelligence in a wireless sensor network to identify had been criticized.
In 2004, the Nike SPARQ Training Program / Division.
Some of the latest Nike shoes contain Flywire and Lunar Lite to reduce foam weight.
On 15 July 2009, released the Nike + Sport Band in stores. The product line was run records, and calories consumed, keeps time, and runners are also new online programs, they could try running.
The 2010 Nike Pro Combat collection jersey worn by teams from the following universities: Miami, Alabama, Boise State, Florida, Ohio State, Oregon State, Texas Christian University, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh. The team will keep this jersey in the most important matchups and the Athletic Department at any time for it to carry necessary.

Nike Origins and History

Nike, originally as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) announced by the University of Oregon track athlete Philip Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman founded in January 1964. The company serves first as a distributor for Japanese shoe manufacturer Onitsuka Tiger (now Asics), so most sales at track meets out of Knight's car.
After Otis Davis, a student, the athlete Bowerman at the University of Oregon, who trained later to win 1-2 gold medals at the 1960 Olympics, was Bowerman's first pair of Nike shoes for him, contrary to the assertion that they made were for Phil Knight. Says Davis, "I told Tom Brokaw that I was the first. I do not care to say what all the billionaires. Bill Bowerman made the first pair of shoes for me. People do not believe me. In fact, I do not way they felt on my feet. There was no support, and they were too tight. But I saw it Bowerman make the waffle iron, and they were mine. "
The profit of the company grew rapidly, and in 1967, BRS opened its first store on Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California. By 1971 the relationship between BRS and Onitsuka Tiger was nearing an end. BRS prepared his own line of shoes that would wear the swoosh redesigned by Carolyn Davidson to start. The swoosh of Nike was first on the 18th June 1971 and was used at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office 22nd Registered in January 1974.
The first shoe sold to the public to wear this design a soccer shoe was named Nike, which was published in the summer of 1971. In February 1972, BRS's first line of Nike shoes, with the name derived from the Greek goddess of victory. In 1978, BRS, Inc. officially renamed itself to Nike, Inc. Beginning with Ilie Nastase, the first professional athlete with BRS / Nike, the sponsorship of athletes became an important marketing tool for the fast-growing company to sign.
The company's first internally developed product was based on Bowerman's "waffle" design. After the University of Oregon resurfaced the track at Hayward Field, Bowerman began experimenting with different potential outsoles that grip the new urethane track would be more effective. His efforts were rewarded one Sunday morning when he poured liquid urethane into his wife's waffle iron. Bowerman developed and refined the so-called "waffle" sole which would evolve into the now legendary Waffle Trainer in 1974.
By 1980 Nike had a market share of 50% in the U.S. athletic shoe market reach, and the company was in December of that year to the public. Its growth was (to quote a Nike print ad from the late 1970s), mainly on "word-of-foot 'advertising, rather than TV ads. Nike's first national television commercials ran in October 1982, during the broadcast of the New York Marathon. The ads were created by Portland ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, which had formed several months earlier in April.
Together, Nike and Wieden + Kennedy have created many print and television advertising, and Wieden + Kennedy, Nike's primary advertising agency remains. It was co-founder Dan Wieden agency who coined the now famous slogan "Just Do It" in 1988 for a Nike campaign by Advertising Age as one of the top five ad slogans of the 20th Century and was elected anchored in the Smithsonian Institution. Walt Stack was first Nike "Just Do It" advertising, which at first Debuted in July 1988 presented. Wieden writes the inspiration for the slogan "Let's do it", said the last words of Gary Gilmore before he was executed.
In the 1980s, Nike expanded its product line to include many sports and regions throughout the world. [13]

Acquisitions
Since November 2008, has Nike, Inc., four subsidiaries: Cole Haan, Hurley International, Converse Inc. and Umbro. Nike's first acquisition was the upscale footwear company Cole Haan in 1988. In February 2002, Nike bought surf apparel company Hurley International from founder Bob Hurley. [14] In July 2003 Nike U.S. $ 309 million was paid to Converse Inc., makers of the legendary Chuck Taylor All Star sneakers to purchase. On 3 March 2008, was famous Nike sportswear supplier Umbro, as the maker of the England football team kit, in a deal reportedly worth £ 285 million (about U.S. $ 600 million). Other subsidiaries previously owned and sold as a result of Nike Bauer Hockey and Starter included.

Nike Inc

Nike, Inc. is a leading listed clothing, footwear, sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is near Beaverton, Oregon, in the greater Portland headquarters. It is the world's leading provider of athletic footwear and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment with revenue of over $ 18.6 billion in fiscal 2008 (to May 31, 2008). Since 2008, it employs more than 30,000 employees worldwide. The brand is alone at $ 10.7 billion that the most valuable brand among sports companies rated. Nike and Precision Castparts are the only Fortune 500 company headquartered in Oregon, according to The Oregonian.
The company was founded on 25 January 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight founded and officially Nike, Inc. on 30 May 1978. The company takes its name from Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Nike markets its products under its own brand, as well as Nike Golf, Nike Pro, Nike +, Air Jordan, Nike Skateboarding and subsidiaries including Cole Haan, Hurley International, Umbro and Converse. Nike Bauer Hockey also had (later renamed Nike Bauer) between 1995 and 2008. In addition to manufacturing sportswear and equipment, the company operates stores under the Niketown name. Nike sponsors many high profile athletes and sports teams around the world, with the highly recognized trademarks of "Just Do It" and the Swoosh logo.

Headquarters
Nike's world headquarters are surrounded by the City of Beaverton, but are within private companies in Washington County. The city tried to forcibly annex Nike's headquarters, which led to a lawsuit by Nike, and lobbying by the company, which ultimately ended in Oregon Senate Bill 887 in 2005. Under conditions that Bill is, especially forcibly annexed the land from Beaverton, Nike and Columbia Sportswear occupy in Washington County for 35 years, while Electro Scientific Industries and Tektronix get the same protection barred for 30 years.