Fashion Definitions — fashion history, brands and industry terms from Apparel Search
Nike, Inc. is a major manufacturer of athletic shoes, apparel and sports equipment, marketing its products under its own brand as well as Air Jordan, Nike Golf and Team Starter. The company takes its name from the Greek goddess of victory, Nike.
The company takes its name from the Greek goddess of victory, Nike.
Nike's influences stretch from its production systems (although sometimes criticized) to fashions in themselves while along the way developing new technologies (gimmick and functional alike). Their advertisement campaigns often incorporate innovative sporting ideology, which often involve sponsored sports stars.
A lot of their consumer influences are gained by their multimillion-dollar sponsorship deals with athletes, leagues and federations, as well as many of the world's football (soccer) clubs and national teams, including Brazil, Portugal and Manchester United to produce their kits.
Mark Parker replaces Perez as CEO. Parker, joined Nike in 1979 and is considered the visionary behind the Nike Air franchise and many other innovations, Nike said, and one of the key executives leading the company's long-term strategic planning.
Nike has been criticised by some for using sweatshop labor in countries like Indonesia and Mexico. The company has been subject to much critical coverage of the often poor working conditions and exploitation of cheap overseas labor employed in the free trade zones where their goods are typically manufactured. Sources of this criticism include Naomi Klein's book No Logo and Michael Moore's documentaries. This criticism is reflected in the novel Jennifer Government, in which an amoral Nike executive is the story's villain.
The forced labor camp like conditions in some overseas production plants led to several called-for boycotts , together with coining the alternative name "swooshtika" for the company's swoosh logo.
Nike was criticized about ads which referred to empowering women in the U.S. while engaging in practices in East Asian factories which some felt disempowered women.
These campaigns have been taken up by many college campuses, especially free trade groups as well as the United Students Against Sweatshops.
Advertisement controversies
Consumer activist Marc Kasky filed a lawsuit in California regarding newspaper advertisements and letters Nike distributed in response to criticisms of labor conditions in its factories. Kasky claimed that the company made representations that constituted false advertising. Nike responded the false advertising laws did not cover the company's expression of its views on a public issue, and that these were entitled to First Amendment protection. The local court agreed with Nike, but the California Supreme Court overturned this ruling, claiming that the documents were commercial speech and therefore subject to false advertising laws. The United States Supreme Court agreed to review the case but eventually chose not to rule. The parties subsequently settled out of court before any finding on the accuracy of Nike's statements.
Nike has been a focus of criticism for their use of the Beatles song "Revolution" in a commercial, against the wishes of Apple Records, the Beatles' recording company. Nike reportedly paid $250,000 to Capitol Records Inc., which held the North American licensing rights to the Beatles' recordings, for the right to use the Beatles' rendition for a year.
According to a July 28, 1987 article written by the Associated Press, Apple sued Nike Inc., Capitol Records Inc., EMI Records Inc. and Wieden+Kennedy advertising agency for $15 million. Capitol-EMI countered by saying the lawsuit was 'groundless' because Capitol had licensed the use of "Revolution" with the "active support and encouragement of Yoko Ono Lennon, a shareholder and director of Apple."
According to a November 9, 1989 article in the Los Angeles Daily News, "a tangle of lawsuits between the Beatles and their American and British record companies has been settled." One condition of the out-of-court settlement was that terms of the agreement would be kept secret. The settlement was reached among the three parties involved: George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr; Yoko Ono; and Apple, EMI and Capitol Records. A spokesman for Yoko Ono noted, "It's such a confusing myriad of issues that even people who have been close to the principals have a difficult time grasping it. Attorneys on both sides of the Atlantic have probably put their children through college on this."
Nike discontinued airing ads featuring "Revolution" in March 1988. Yoko Ono later gave permission to Nike to use John Lennon's "Instant Karma" in another memorable ad.
Minor Threat ad
In late June 2005, Nike came under fire from independent music fans for their
use of an easily identifiable Minor Threat album cover slightly modified into a
promotional tool for their line of skateboarding shoes. With Minor Threat being
emblematic of underground punk rock culture, and their former front-man Ian
MacKaye (of Fugazi and Dischord Records) being an outspoken champion of true
independent music and the DIY ethic, Nike's move to use this image struck many
as a cynical attempt by a large, money hungry corporation to target an untapped
demographic, undermining what Minor Threat stood for, and what Dischord
continues to represent.
On June 27th, Nike Skateboarding's website issued an apology to Dischord, Minor Threat, and anyone else who was offended by their act, and announced that all usage of the image would be removed claiming that the people who designed the ad were skateboarders and Minor Threat fans themselves who created the ad out of respect and appreciation for the band.
Nike's world headquarters are surrounded by Beaverton, Oregon but are technically within unincorporated Washington County. This technicality reflects a dispute that The Oregonian characterized as an increasingly personal disagreement between Phil Knight and Beaverton mayor Rob Drake.
From Nike's perspective, the company, the only Fortune 500 employer still headquartered in the Portland metropolitan area, has such a large payroll in the area that it shouldn't be forced to be annexed into Beaverton without its consent. Nike prefers to work with county government as it develops and expands its headquarters. Annexation would cost the company $700,000 per year in increased taxes for services it already receives from the county and various special-purpose districts. Intel, another large employer in the state, routinely receives special tax breaks on various capital investments it makes in the county.
From Beaverton's perspective, the company's expectation for special treatment is counter to the city's desire to have zoning and other laws apply equally to all businesses, big and small. A nearby Costco store, one of that company's earliest, was annexed into Beaverton years ago without incident, and Beaverton's focus on additional annexation during the 21st century reflects a desire to streamline both city and county government by having metropolitan-area services handled by cities instead of counties.
The Oregonian dates the bad blood between the two back to the Nike purchase of 74 acres (0.3 km) of nearby Beaverton land which soon fronted the MAX Blue Line. When Nike proposed expanding their headquarters in that direction, Beaverton at first wanted them to build housing near the MAX station and criss-cross the property with two public roads, expectations defined by the zoning already in place when Nike bought the land. Beaverton's request was mostly consistent with Metro's transit-oriented development plans for the region. After a year, which included a threat by Nike to move 5,000 jobs out of the state, Beaverton backed down from the requirement for housing, but the lack of accommodation was something that Nike did not forget.
The annexation standoff soon led Beaverton to attempt a forcible annexation. That led to a lawsuit by Nike, and lobbying by the company that ultimately ended in Oregon Senate Bill 887. Under that bill's terms, Beaverton is specifically barred from forcibly annexing the land that Nike and Columbia Sportswear occupy in unincorporated Washington County for 35 years, while Electro Scientific Industries and Tektronix get that same protection for 30 years.
| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nike_inc. 1/23/06 Modified by Apparel Search. |
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A Thesis, a Handshake and $500 EachNike's timeline begins with an argument on paper: in 1962 Phil Knight drafted a thesis at Stanford asserting that low-priced athletic shoes made in Japan could compete with more expensive footwear made in Germany. After his MBA, Knight travelled to Japan and persuaded Onitsuka Tiger executives to make his company, Blue Ribbon Sports, the distributor of Tiger footwear for the western United States. In 1964 he sent samples to Bill Bowerman, the University of Oregon track coach for whom he had run as an undergraduate; Bowerman proposed partnership, offering endorsement clout and footwear design ideas, and the two shook hands and each pledged $500. Jeff Johnson joined as the first full-time salesman in 1965, selling shoes from the back of his van at track meets, the first retail outlet opened in Santa Monica in 1966, and by 1969 annual sales approached $300,000. Waffle Soles, Air Cushioning and a SwooshThe product innovations came from the partnership's two halves. In 1970 Bowerman experimented with rubber spikes by pouring liquid rubber into his wife's waffle iron, creating the waffle sole, and the Waffle Trainer of 1974 became the best-selling training shoe in the U.S. In 1971 Carolyn Davidson designed the Swoosh and Jeff Johnson dreamed up the name Nike; the first Nike products were delivered to athletes at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials in Eugene in 1972, and Steve Prefontaine became the first major track athlete to wear Nike shoes in 1973. Nike Air followed in the Tailwind of 1979, the Air Force 1 brought Air to basketball in 1982, Michael Jordan signed in 1984, and the visible Air Max arrived in 1987 — a sequence in which each generation made the cushioning more visible as well as more functional. From IPO to a Global CompanyNike completed its initial public offering in December 1980, BRS merged into Nike, Inc. in 1981, corporate revenues surpassed $1 billion for the first time in 1986, and the Just Do It slogan arrived in 1988. The 1990s added the first Niketown store in Portland, the Reuse-A-Shoe programme of 1993, which grinds collected athletic shoes into Nike Grind for courts and tracks, a long-term partnership with the Brazilian national football team in 1994 and Tiger Woods in 1996. Nike acquired Converse for $305 million in 2003, the year international sales first exceeded U.S. sales, Phil Knight stepped down as CEO in 2004 while continuing as chairman, and Mark Parker replaced William Perez as CEO in 2006. Annual revenues exceeded $12.3 billion in 2004 and reached $13.7 billion for fiscal 2005. Common QuestionsHow did Nike begin?In 1964, Phil Knight and University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman became partners and each pledged $500 to start Blue Ribbon Sports, the distributor of Tiger brand footwear for the western United States. BRS, Inc. merged into Nike, Inc. in 1981. Where did the Swoosh and the name Nike come from?In 1971, graphic design student Carolyn Davidson was hired to design the new brand, referred to as a Swoosh. Jeff Johnson dreamed up the name Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, after dozens of suggestions including Dimension Six were rejected. When did Nike introduce Air and Just Do It?Nike's Air technology, patented by inventor M. Frank Rudy, was introduced in the Tailwind running shoe in 1979, with gas-filled plastic membranes inserted into the sole to provide cushioning. Nike introduced its Just Do It slogan in 1988. More to Explore
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