GOLF:

Nike's true actions shadowed by advertisements promoting ethnic minorities

Last 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.