The Globalized Woman
In the book, The Globalized Woman by Christa Wichterich (2000) it states: “All this means that the global conveyor-belt is becoming ever longer. The leading brands are in fact, ‘hollow firms’. They do not have factories or their own; they design goods, get others to produce them, and then take care of the marketing.” Page 16.
This quote captures the overall point the author is trying to make. Wichterich supports this statement with Nike as an example. Nike is a brand of sports shoes that handles the marketing and design of the shoe, however, does not produce any of the shoes. Nike shoes are made in thirty countries mostly in Asia. Wichterich refers the brands as hollow firms because just like Nike, companies hire contractors who produce the shoes in other countries due to the need of lowering the production cost to gain more profit. Wichterich uses the term conveyor-belt because again using the Nike example, the marketing and design comes from the United States which then is given to the contractors who produce the shoes at lower costs and then give the shoes back to the US. Nike’s contractors were using sweatshops, just like in the article “The Discarded Factory” and the film “Made in L.A.”, to produce these shoes that Nike required a huge demand for. These workers worked overtime to make as much was demanded, yet did not even make minimum wage for the work. The US sells the Nike shoes for $70 dollars each, while the women who made the shoe only make 3.9 per cent of that. Wichterich explains how the women had to deal with the extreme heat of the sweatshops, water twice per day, and bathroom once per day. She also emphasized how “Wages do not cover even the bare necessities” (Wichterich, 2000) which also stood true for “The Discarded Factory” and “Made in L.A.”.
In the Chapter, “The Discarded Factory” from the book No Logo by Naomi Klein (1999) it asks: “What better way to keep costs down than to make yesterday’s casualties today’s wardens.” Page 225.
This quote captures the overall point the author is trying to make. Wichterich supports this statement with Nike as an example. Nike is a brand of sports shoes that handles the marketing and design of the shoe, however, does not produce any of the shoes. Nike shoes are made in thirty countries mostly in Asia. Wichterich refers the brands as hollow firms because just like Nike, companies hire contractors who produce the shoes in other countries due to the need of lowering the production cost to gain more profit. Wichterich uses the term conveyor-belt because again using the Nike example, the marketing and design comes from the United States which then is given to the contractors who produce the shoes at lower costs and then give the shoes back to the US. Nike’s contractors were using sweatshops, just like in the article “The Discarded Factory” and the film “Made in L.A.”, to produce these shoes that Nike required a huge demand for. These workers worked overtime to make as much was demanded, yet did not even make minimum wage for the work. The US sells the Nike shoes for $70 dollars each, while the women who made the shoe only make 3.9 per cent of that. Wichterich explains how the women had to deal with the extreme heat of the sweatshops, water twice per day, and bathroom once per day. She also emphasized how “Wages do not cover even the bare necessities” (Wichterich, 2000) which also stood true for “The Discarded Factory” and “Made in L.A.”.
In the Chapter, “The Discarded Factory” from the book No Logo by Naomi Klein (1999) it asks: “What better way to keep costs down than to make yesterday’s casualties today’s wardens.” Page 225.