When While Gore Vidal was correct in predicting the end of the military/industrial complex, he did not Nostradamus the new rising sphere of the consumerist/industrial state. With the very existence of EuroDisney, ads appearing on the Internet and the launching of the "Infotainment Superhighway", AmeriKKKa is set to debt it way out of subsistence: enter the high-tech, hyperconsumer-catering demimonde that is Niketown.
Entering the building, one is immediately struck by the museum-quality displays for various Nike schlock. In the "Running" area on the first floor, a huge globe embossed with the Nike logo spins above the heads of hyperconsumers trying on shoes. Nearby, a Lazy Susan of sneakers is rotating around another globe. (Nike rules the world?) Juxtaposed right next to these globes is a life-sized photo of Kenya's Running Team outfitted completely in Nike wear: the powers that be at Nike probably cannot even fathom the imperialist/vaguely racist aspect of this depiction.
If you look up, hanging from the ceiling are Herculean, whitewashed sculptures depicting agonized victory. One man is biking his way to a better "lifestyle" while two homeboys are shooting hoop (they, too, are made of plaster and are completely white giving rise to the imperialist/racist theory anew). The castings are reminiscent of George Segal's carvings mated with the celebrity mocking style of Jeff Koons (yet lacking any of Koons' irony). Just another shining simulacra for the hyperconsumer to follow.
Another design element employed is the ubiquity of the Nike "swoosh" logo. If one uses a changing room at Niketown, both the door handle and the hook to hang your soon-to-be-purchased goods on are bright, metallic swooshes. Stair railings are festooned with silver swooshes and it becomes a macabre game to spot the swoosh product placement. According to Donald Katz's book, Just Do It, Nike employs a cadre of corporate trouble-shooters called "Ekins" (Nike backwards, duh) who ritually get tattooed with the swoosh. The most popular spot to get tattooed: the toned leg (n'est pas). The permanence of product placement and corporate brand loyalty has never had a finer hour.
Another striking example of the "Build It And We Will Come" mentality of the hyperconsumer is that they are ready-made to consume themselves to death. Most are already "sporting" Nike shoes and the majority is wearing the badge of Middle America: the "I Consume" T-shirt. To qualify, most of the denizens of Niketown had on T-shirts proclaiming that they had been someplace and bought something (e.g. Hard Rock, Planet Hollywood, Disney World, "ad" infinitum, literally). One young girl even had the chutzpah to wear a Hooters T-shirt! Nike knows its demographic and caters to it forthright.
The majority of hyperconsumers in line to make purchases were not buying shoes: instead, they were purchasing anything that proved that they had indeed experienced Niketown. Most importantly, no matter what you buy, you always get the immediately recognizable Niketown shopping bag, no doubt, the most important piece of product that they offer.
One can try on "Aquasocks" or "Sport Sandals" while a high-tech, Gibsonian video grid of water babbling over stones is playing beneath one's feet. (One is, of course, separated from any real world contact by a plane of transparent Plexiglas). To sit down and try on the shoes, Nike has fashioned clear, puffy, inflatable pillows atop stools. Black mesh pilasters and broad porticos reinforce this see-through ideal. Lava Lights abound and an aquarium bubbles nearby with a display of sandals in front of its glass tank.
This veneer of transparency is, in fact, a ploy to keep the hyperconsumers away from the opaque and dubious practices of the Nike corporation. While people purchase product in this diaphanous atmosphere, they do not have to think about Asian women toiling in the charnel vaults of Nike, Inc. manufacturing shoes for sub-minimum wages that go on to be sold to underclass youth at prices that pay for Michael Jordan's astronomical endorsement fees. The hyperconsumers also need not think about how Nike lines the pockets of college athletic departments, outfits them completely in Nike Wear (which the schools have to purchase) and then, in turn, sells the college team logos and athletic wear as if it were their own. The bi-polarity of opaque/ transparent consumerism has never been so slick.
Long ago, in some Byzantine, Americana epoch, workers were outfitted with sandwich boards and paid to walk around town squares and hawk various fares. Now, the hyperconsumer pays companies for the right to be a walking, stupefied billboard by wearing prominent "I Consume" pret a porter. With four Niketowns already in existence (and, coming soon, one in Seattle), from a capitalistic stance, Nike is doing quite well. But from a moral and anti-consumerist stance, my advice is : JUST ESCHEW IT .