Earlier this month Cornell University followed the lead of Rutgers, Georgetown, UC Santa Barbara, and Northeast University, and severed ties with Nike and Branded Custom Sportswear. Cornell, like the other colleges, drew a line in the sand putting factory workers’ rights over brand popularity. Neither Nike nor Branded Custom Sportswear would sign a standard IMG Collegiate Contract, so they were both given the boot off campus.
What does the IMG contract require? According to the organization’s website, “A company’s current and on-going commitment to CR (Corporate Responsibility) throughout its supply chain, as well as its ability to meet the requirements and/or the compliance with the investigations of the Fair Labor Association and/or the Worker Rights Consortium. This will be considered by many institutions as an essential part of the approval and renewal process.”
We’ve talked here before about labor abuses that surfaced in October 2015 in a Nike Factory in Hansae, Vietnam. Cornell students, along with the other universities across the nation, launched a campaign in conjunction with workers organizing in Vietnam, Cambodia, Honduras, and Mexico to demand Worker Rights Consortium access. WRC is an independent monitoring organization working in factories in these countries. The students organized teach-ins, photo campaigns, call-ins, store actions, rallies, and engaged with Union leaders from around the world to demonstrate that student-worker solidarity really can work.
At the end of last year, the Worker Rights Consortium released a report outlining Nike’s numerous violations in the Hansae factory, a manufacturing facility that produces university licensed goods for Nike and employs nearly 8,500 workers. These violations include extensive wage theft, above 90-degree conditions within the factory, spraying of toxic solvents, mass firings of pregnant women, and physical and verbal abuse of workers.
The WRC, trying again to draw attention to the issue, released another updated report on the Hansae factory in April. That report states that “this factory has enacted remedial measures to improve working conditions but that the ‘overall progress has fallen short’ of what the Worker Rights Consortium and universities require.”
The report further claims that Nike has still failed to provide plans for back paying workers for off the clock work, installing cooling systems to bring the temperature in the factory building down to the legal maximum, and the purchase of proper seating for thousands of sewing operators. And this is concerning just one of Nike’s collegiate apparel factories—of which there are many.
So, that’s all about the hard place, and here is the “swoosh” you’re going to be caught between. Nike is a popular brand that naturally creates demand from your clients with younger audiences. Just how popular is Nike? Piper Jaffray Companies, a leading investment bank and asset management firm, completed its 33rd semi-annual Taking Stock With Teens research survey, which highlights spending trends and brand preferences among 5,500 teens across 43 U.S. states. Since the project began in 2001, Piper Jaffray has surveyed more than 150,000 teens and collected over 38 million data points on teen spending in fashion, beauty and personal care, digital media, food, gaming and entertainment. “Share of fashion spending has moderated but we continue to see undisputed strength in athletic—Nike remains the No. 1 preferred brand and adidas was the fastest-growing brand in our survey,” said Erinn Murphy, Piper Jaffray senior research analyst.
Other findings of interest:
• Athletic is seeing no slowdown with 41 percent of teens citing an athletic brand as their preferred apparel brand—up from 26 percent last year.
• Nike is the No. 1 apparel brand at 31 percent market share—up from 21 percent last year. As mentioned above, adidas, is quickly gaining ground, nabbing the top spot in the fastest-growing footwear and apparel brand.
• Brands losing relevance with teens include UnderArmour, Michael Kors, The North Face, Ralph Lauren, and Vineyard Vines.
So, how will your client expect you to source apparel for a brand with a younger customer base? By popularity, or by responsibility? Might be something worth exploring in advance, so that you can steer them in the direction they, and their end-users, will be most comfortable with.
Jeff Jacobs has been an expert in building brands and brand stewardship for 40 years, working in commercial television, Hollywood film and home video, publishing, and promotional brand merchandise. He’s a staunch advocate of consumer product safety and has a deep passion and belief regarding the issues surrounding compliance and corporate social responsibility. He retired as executive director of Quality Certification Alliance, the only non-profit dedicated to helping suppliers provide safe and compliant promotional products. Before that, he was director of brand merchandise for Michelin. You can find him still advising Global 500 Brands on promo product initiatives, working as a volunteer Guardian ad Litem, traveling the world with his lovely wife, or enjoying a cigar at his favorite local cigar shop. Follow Jeff on Twitter, or reach out to him at jacobs.jeffreyp@gmail.com.