Nike and Social Corporate Responsibility

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Phil Knight and his track coach Bill Bowerman founded Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964. The company started as being a distributor of Onituska Tiger athletic shoes which were imported from Japan. In 1971 they broke away from Onituska and created their own of shoes. The company was renamed, Nike. It became the largest worldwide seller of athletic shoes. They branched out and created various products lines; shoes, clothing, sporting goods and digital devices. They used celebrities to promote their products. The first athlete to wear and promote their show was runner Steve Prefontaine. Their now well know swoosh was first seen in the 1972 US Track and Field Trials. Every basketball player in high school wanted a pair of Michael Jordan’s, Air Jordan shoes. These celebrity endorsements paid off in helping the company become more well known. They currently have a portfolio of companies which include; Converse, Inc., Hurley International LLC, Nike Golf and Jordan Brand. As the company grew and to keep the manufacturing costs down, Nike moves their manufacturing overseas to Japan. When Japan became too expensive they moved to other Asian countries. The working conditions in these countries were bad. They were sweatshops which used underage children, low wages along with health and safety issues. A Life magazine expose uncovered these practices and named Nike as the company that hired these factories. Nike failed to address corporate social responsibility early on because in the 1990’s corporate responsibility was not that important to corporations yet. Nike failed to communicate with top management. The move to manufacture their products to Vietnam, China and Indonesia provided cheap labor. The manufacturing plants in ... ... middle of paper ... ...he subcontractors. But I do believe that it was not intentional. It was just a case of not keeping their eyes on the ball. They have taken steps to ensure that these problems will not happen in the future. The problems that occurred in the 1990’s can now be avoided due to the creation of the various audit tools that have been created. These should have been created earlier, but at that time social responsibility was not a high priority on the corporate world. Nike is now a worldwide company and it must act as a responsibly. It is in their best interest to become aware of who makes their products, how they are made and the conditions they are made it. To become a truly social responsible company they must grow, change and adapt. Works Cited NIKE, Inc. - History & Heritage. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2014, from http://nikeinc.com/pages/history-heritage

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