Comparing Klein's Argument On Nike And Third World Labor

Decent Essays
Throughout Klein’s argument, she demonstrates the historical development starting off with the conversion from selling manufactured products in local factories to marketing brands that are often identified with society’s culture. She suggests that products are made while brands are sold. Klein incorporates that corporations are becoming too fixated on their own brands that their productions became secondary. Therefore, the brands would adjust to methods in attempt to decrease their production costs. Factories were moved to third world nations where labor laws and minimum wages do not exist. Klein uses Nike as an example of a company using third world labor to produce its products. She adds that a negative reaction was formed including culture

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Pietra Rivoli

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages

    By focusing on the how cotton travels around the world, Pietra Rivoli was able to remove the historical impasse between businesses looking overseas for cheap labor and domestic companies afraid of losing everything to cheap imports due to free trade. In “The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy,” Rivoli explains international trade by detailing the life cycle of a T-shirt, all the way to its end. Rivoli begins her journey in the farms of Texas, then moves to the factories in China, returns to U.S retail stores and ends in Africa. Africa is where apparel is resold and the end of a T-shirt’s life cycle.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pietra Rivoli's novel The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy explores society on a global perspective as it dawns on the foundations and the situation of the world economy. Through a comprehensive investigative report, Rivoli dedicated her life to a noteworthy cause and exposed the fabric of not only society but rather how the world works. The challenges she surpassed amount to how the message she wanted to spread and disperse started out as a speck of curiosity from a t-shirt on sale and then morphed into an adventure uncovering the tides, twists, and turns of the global economy. Thus, the entrancing ideas of this global phenomenon led to a fascinating discovery which opened up Rivoli’s and society’s eyes to the bigger picture and the definition of global society.…

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When purchasing clothing, we often choose based on color or style. The background story of how it was made or history of its prior use usually is irrelevant as long as it is fashionable. The converse sneakers that were for sell on Ebay and “All My Life” have similarities in their descriptions in a different approach to capture the buyers attention.…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nike flat out denied any obligation, and separated itself from its subcontractors, considering the low wages and mistreatment of workers neither its issue nor responsibility. But Nike did understand that the wages were considered severe and would be a potential problem in the future. Nike reacted with a responsive CSR and by creating new “Codes of Conduct” and a “Memorandum of Understandings” with its contractors that gave provisions for seven aspects of working conditions, safety conditions, environment regulations, and workers’ insurance. This document outlined Nike’s principles of respect, honesty, and nondiscrimination (Spar…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nike Case Study

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Such as: having to care for their living cost, rent, food, clothing and health, so the minimum the workers should get is at least $4 day. Other than that there is also the issue of problems in the working environment of the workers, which is working over times, chemical and ventilation problems. So Nike with its subcontractors has the responsibility to provide safe and satisfactory conditions to its workers, which can increase its efficiency and reputation. 4: Could Nike have handled negative publicity over sweatshops better?…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Country Of Origin Effect

    • 1799 Words
    • 8 Pages

    As the world is becoming more inconclusive, it is clear that Country of Origin is more important than ever to consumers; origin is not as much of an option, but more of an asset for products and brands. Consumers have the ability to find out where products are created and are more aware of the fact that products can be manufactured anywhere in the world; this greater knowledge has created a broader social and environmental cost than it used to. While Country of Origin might have been limited to associations with a place in the past, where something is manufactured is now also a more important factor when consumers make a decision. Throughout history, competitive advantage has been attained through differentiation and sustainability, however ethics and authenticity are now becoming and will continue to become more relevant in order for brands to gain competitive advantage. This is because there is a greater awareness and knowledge of the brands and production of goods and the greater importance of ethics set by…

    • 1799 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nike is a perfect example of the abuse of Intellectual property rights. Nike starts with a design for a shoe or product. This product design is immediately brought to lawyers and the lawyers go through the process of patenting the design. Once the design is patented, Nike goes to a third world country and sells its design in a bidding process to a factory that will use the least amount of labor and production costs. This free market competition is fierce because of the Nike brand Most importantly, Nike never sells the designs of their shoes and the designs of their other clothing products tot eh same factory.…

    • 987 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nike Case Study

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages

    For example Nike, which outsources most of its manufacturing tasks to other companies, had to face stiff public censure for possibly encouraging labor practices that provided very little compensation to the workers. Most of Nike’s shoe and apparel manufacturing units are situated in the Asian region where the labor costs are far less when compared to rates in the US. Additionally, the workers in the Asian region are less organized, are constrained to work at lower wages in order to overcome poverty and familial pressures, and so were easily available even if the conditions in the factories were pathetic according to US labor standards. The main issue that often came in for public criticism was that Nike used the services of ladies who could be paid much less in the Asian job markets. Similarly, the peculiar societal culture in the Asian region ensured that large numbers of ladies were available to take up the jobs offered by Nike's business associates in these countries.…

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nike Stakeholder Analysis

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The company that i will be talking about is nike, i will talk about its description, the stakeholder model, the external factors, internal factors and the closing remarks. All this factor are what makes a company successful, without any of this a company nothing. But the most important parts that i will talk about are the stakeholders model and the external factors. NIKE, Inc. engages in the design, development, marketing, and sale of sports and lifestyle footwear, apparel, and equipment, accessories and services. there athletic footwear products are mostly designed for specific athletic use, But most of the people use their products for casual or leisure purposes.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Retail Market Strategy Target Audience Levi Strauss a leading brand name in the world of jeans who designs and markets jeans, Casual wear and related accessories for men, women and children under the Levi‟s®,Dockers®, Signature by Levi Strauss & Co. ™, and Denizen™ brands appears to be on the spectrum of standardization versus adaptation, putting it in a position closer to the globalization polarity, giving them advantage over their competitors. It can be seen that there is a global market jeans and capitalizing, their market maximizes the ability of Levi Strauss to benefit fromeconomies of scale, global uniformity and consistency with the mobile consumer. A global strategic and tactical approach therefore enables Levi Strauss to maximize…

    • 1609 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Businesses do not operate in isolation. Instead, their success is largely dependent on the various stakeholders such as suppliers and clients that exist within the same sphere, and businesses should therefore account for the actions of these two defined stakeholders – namely suppliers and clients. This thesis statement gives rise to an ethical dilemma, namely holding an organization accountable for the actions of independent bodies over which the organization cannot exert direct control or influence. It was found that in the early 1970s, Nike was outsourcing to foreign suppliers who were running sweatshops with unacceptable working conditions – such as verbal abuse, overworking employees, child labor and minimum wage salaries. This unethical situation was the core of an attempt to minimize costs.…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Knights Apparel Case Study

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Survival of Knights Apparel When Knights Apparel made the decision to reopen a company that is based overseas in another country to assist in their production, the challenges began. Bozich wanted to eliminate unjust treatment that many individuals who work in factories overseas endure. It is crucial to communicate clearly, what the changes will entail along with addressing any dilemmas that may develop during the transition. This modification does not just affect the employees; it affects the company as a whole.…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Transnational Retailer

    • 1010 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This has been deployed to control individual power and this has also given greater scope for the realisation of mutual interests and the development of production and marketing strategies (Becker and Jäger, 2012). What is more, the revolution of capitalism leads the global structural changes, also will help global retailer to trade (Huselid, 1995). For instance, among these capitalism, such as trade liberalisation and the concomitant globalisation politic linked to the case of IKEA and Wal-Mart (French, 2006). Both of the retailer expanded by improve labour standards in supply chains after being targeted in activist campaigns, the degree to which these policies actually changed employees working environment, reflecting differences in the way these global retailers organise their subcontracting relationships and interact with supplier in numerous countries (French, 2006). Finally, the capitalism has resulted an economy problem of gendered (Bakker, 2007).…

    • 1010 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Fast Fashion In America

    • 1608 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Fast Fashion When I enter a Forever 21, I am overwhelmed with the amount of clothing. The endless varieties of styles, colors, and jewelry to choose with rock bottom prices. I spend hours in the store making sure I haven’t surpassed anything. As I finish up my rounds, I find my arms full of treasures I discovered along the way. It’s always a nerve-racking experience, knowing I have all of these cute things, but only a limited amount of money in my pocket.…

    • 1608 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The essay finishes with the conclusion paragraph and the references. Nike Inc. is one of the most popular brand in the world in terms of designing, marketing, distributing shoes, accessories for various of sports and fitness activities. It was founded in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) and became Nike Inc. in 1978. On the one hand, there are numerous factors that contribute to the success of Nike as an industry leader for a long time and the most importance one is quality of product.…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays