Nike Review

    If you’ve ever bought any clothes in your life or seen someone wearing clothes, you know what Nike is. It’s been one of the biggest clothing companies for a long time now, known most for high-quality, stylish, innovative products. But how sustainable are they? On their website, they boast the use of recycled polyester, sustainable cotton, and sustainable blends (of cotton and polyester) to create their products. They also have an almost 30 year old program called Reuse-A-Shoe, which uses recycled shoes to make “community spaces”, such as basketball courts and running tracks. For 2020, they have some impressive goals, including “eliminate footwear manufacturing waste to landfill or incineration” and “enabling Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHS)”, which is a program that encourages companies to use sustainable chemicals. Additionally, they are “on target” to reach a goal of only using renewable energy by 2025! 

But, a long time ago (maybe 30 years ago), Nike was known for its unethical labor practices as well. Sweatshops were used in countries like Indonesia and there were reports of people being paid incredibly low wages while suffering verbal and physical abuse. After a lot of backlash, they made an effort to change by raising the minimum age, increasing wages, and preventing abuse. Now, Nike has definitely improved but still pays their workers too little for how much the company is making. 

In my opinion, I’ve never really liked Nike because all the clothes were low quality. I’d have socks that would last two soccer games, which made me favor other brands. However, I’m really impressed with how much Nike is doing to improve its sustainability and ethics. They’ve joined some great programs, including the UN Climate Change and Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action. I had heard of the sweatshops they used, but when researching for this post, it was genuinely hard to find recent articles about Nike’s ethics/sustainability-related problems. I wouldn’t really recommend Nike because of my experience, but it’s good to know that Nike has had incredible improvements.