Woods swings into big moola

Thursday, October 10, 1996

GOLF:

Nike’s true actions shadowed by advertisements promoting ethnic
minoritiesLast Sunday at the Las Vegas Invitational Golf
Tournament, 20 year-old Tiger Woods let out a loud roar in the
professional golf world. With the win coming in only his fifth
tournament since leaving Stanford, Woods has already raised his
career earnings to $437,194.

To many people who know the game of golf and have seen Woods
play, this was just a matter of time. While covering the UCLA men’s
golf team two years ago when Woods was competing in the collegiate
ranks as a freshman, I asked former Bruin golfer Brian Bock just
how good Woods was. The answer: "He’s the Michael Jordan of golf.
He’s that good." No further explanation needed.

Aside from the ability to dominate his competition in the
playing arena, Woods shares commonalities with Jordan away from it.
Namely, a multi-million dollar Nike endorsement.

For Nike, the marketing scheme for Jordan was all too clear.
Gravity defying dunks and major hang time, naturally creating the
image of Air Jordan. It just might be the most recognized sports
nickname in the world.

With Woods the golfer, Nike decided to take a different
marketing approach. Instead of focusing on his ability to drive the
ball 350 yards, or his proficiency to sink the 30-foot putt, Woods
has become the 20-year-old African-American golfer wearing Nike
caps and cleats trying to break through the racial barrier in the
sport. The Nike television commercial features Woods remarking that
"there are courses I can’t play because of the color of my skin."
In other words, Nike wants to make Woods the Jackie Robinson of
golf.

There’s no doubt that Woods draws additional attention to
himself because of his ethnicity. The world knows that he’s part
African American and part Asian American, and whenever I see Woods
on television, I cheer for him partly because of that fact. Whether
he consciously sets out to accomplish this goal or not, Woods is
someone who can do a lot of good to his community by breaking the
conventional stereotypes.

What I have trouble swallowing about the whole Nike marketing
strategy, however, is that a multinational corporation that has a
track record of ignoring basic human rights in developing nations
wants to be an advocate of Woods as a minority golfer. Behind the
shield of television commercials and glamorous billboards, Nike not
only wants to hide its third world exploitation, but also seeks to
build itself up as a firm that is conscious about social
issues.

The truth about Nike products are grim, to say the least. For
starters, all Nike shoes are manufactured offshore. Think back to
the time when you last saw a pair of Nike shoes with a "Made in the
USA" label on them. Chances are, you probably can’t do it. That’s
because Nike shoes aren’t produced in this country at all.

Instead, the Air Jordans or the Air Flights or whatever fancy
new line of shoes you might be wearing right now are made in
countries such as Indonesia and Thailand for a very small fraction
of what you paid at the counter. In 1992, for example, Nike had a
contract with a firm called the Hardaya Aneka Shoes Industry, which
had a factory in Jakarta that employed 6,700 workers producing
2,000 pairs of Nikes shoes an hour.

For a pair of men’s Air Pegasus, which typically sell for
approximately $70 at a retail store in the states, the Indonesian
firm received about $16 from Nike to produce them. If the factory
as a whole received that small of an amount, one can only imagine
the small amount that trickles down to the actual laborers.

It’s time for multinational corporations such as Nike to pay
back the low-skilled laborers for their help in amassing gargantuan
sums of profit. It’s also time consumers sift through the fantasy
world created by $180 million of Nike advertising money and
recognize the reality.

The buzz phrase for social movements is "think globally, act
locally." I believe this phrase is very operative in the case with
Nike. Whenever you buy a pair of Nike shoes, think about the people
in Indonesia that sewed the outsoles and the famous logo. I can’t
say that people should purchase products from other sporting
equipment firms that are less exploitative than Nike because
research shows that most of them are not. Unfortunately, that’s the
nature of the global capitalist system that is driven by the usage
of cheap labor.

However, acting locally does not merely mean boycotting a
product, but includes educating the people around you and mustering
a consciousness within oneself.

Try it out. Go to the Wooden Center and join in on a pick-up
basketball game. After you have established a rapport with your
teammates, tell those who are wearing Nikes about the Indonesian
laborers. Then maybe, just maybe, you might make a difference.