Nike: A ray of hope or the Dark Side?

Globalization is a weird beast. You get people from a village culture gaining access to products (computers, DVD’s, cell phones) that feed them a direct line into the western world. Often this line is like a mainline injection, and like any junkie who’s just had his first fix, they can’t handle it and want more.

That’s one of the reasons there are some twisted people around these days. Anyway back to my title, Nike: A ray of hope or the Dark Side? Nike is the world’s biggest sports gear maker, with many top athletes and teams sporting the Swoosh. Here in Indonesia there are Nike factories, that pump out those $150 high tops and silky workout shirts.

IndCoup talks about Nike, saying “Nike are really taking the piss.” The wages an Indonesian worker gets are low, and the margin the company can earn is large. So how do I feel about Nike? I moved to Bali from Eugene Oregon, the place where Nike was founded (Bill Bowerman, Oregon track coach). The university in town protested against Nike’s cheap labor and Nike withheld millions in sponsorship. I hated Nike, how dare they make money off the back of some impoverished person.

As IndCoup points out, Nike doesn’t actually own any factories, they hire existing factories to make their gear, all they do is market it. So Nike is really a big marketing firm. When I came to Bali in 2003, I learned that some of the workers here, like the guys who collect trash and clean drains, get something like 270,000rp per month. That is the average wage in Java. If someone is getting $5 a day working for Nike, he is doing okay. I asked people over here if they had heard of Nike and what they thought about the wages. They said no worries. From a western standpoint, it seems a raw deal to earn $5 a day for making a a product that can get sold for $150. But, if I was making some guy a website for $1,000, and he was able to turn around and get $50,000 for it, I’d probably say good for him. If he offered me another one, I’d say sure. Nike has spent millions accessing markets and developing distribution channels. That stuff isn’t cheap or easy. You’ll have to make your own mind up about Nike, and many other big companies who straddle the economic divide.