Nike Controversy

The company I selected was Nike. Nike is engaged in the marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories and much more around the globe. The primary reason I selected this was the company was despite proving itself to be one of the most sustainable businesses in the world. There is quite a significant amount of controversy on just how sustainable some of its business practices truly were in the past. The main controversy being its use of sweatshops to produce its merchandise.
Nike is quite possibly the most sustainable company in terms of their current goal and methods of achieving them. Nike is clearly extremely focused on putting its bad history behind it and focusing on making its business as sustainable as it can be for
Nike has been notorious in the past for using sweatshops to manufacture its products. Which leads to the question, how green is Nike? Over a decade ago, an Australian TV reporter was able to gain entry to a Malaysian factory. Workers had been forced to give up their passports and were paid incredibly low wages and were forced to work under horrible working conditions. However, it is worth noting that this is a thing in the past and after the scandal Nike went through great lengths to amend its wrongdoings. From reimbursing the workers to relocating them. Furthermore, according to Tim Connor, a labor-rights advocate with the antipoverty group Oxfam Australia "Ten years ago Nike wouldn't have acted so quickly to redress the wrongs that had been committed”. Granted, Nike’s change of heart has only occurred after Nike was exposed and as a result, Tim Connor went on to state "But we're looking for systematic change that improves conditions across the supply chain, not solutions once the problems are
I believe it’s sustainable business programs have truly done a remarkable job and have done a great deal to fix its image among the general population. As for its use of sweatshops, in such a competitive market and consumers wanting a low price of goods it is only natural that companies would outsource to underdeveloped countries and pay them extremely low wages to help minimize costs. Fortunately, in the present day, we are getting more and more conscious consumers. With these types of consumers who are more pro-sustainability, companies will be forced to adjust their businesses to maintain good relationships with these customers. In fact, in the present day, companies who do more in terms of sustainable practices tend to outperform those whose main goal is to maximize