February 28, 2001, 1:03 PM PST
Nike 'Sweatshop' Story Has Legs
What started as private correspondence between an MIT grad student and Nike has gotten major media play, and it's not slowing down.
By Anya Schiffrin
It all started as a sardonic e-mail snipe from an MIT grad student to Nike, but within days, the correspondence had become a global news event. The subject of the e-mail – not exactly news – was an implication that the sports-apparel company runs Asian sweatshops. On Wednesday the media mushroom hit prime time when the e-mail author Jonas Peretti and a Nike representative appeared on the "Today" show.
At issue is the Nike.com Web site, where customers get the chance to order personalized sneakers for a $10 charge. Most people ask the company to put their own names on the shoes. But in mid-January, Peretti asked Nike.com to emblazon the word "sweatshop" on his sneakers. Nike.com refused, saying it wouldn't put "inappropriate slang" on its merchandise.
An e-mail correspondence ensued. Peretti used his Webster's dictionary to argue that "sweatshop" is standard English. Nike was unmoved. Peretti gave up on the personalization but asked if the company could at least send him a "color snapshot of the 10-year-old Vietnamese girl who makes my shoes."
Peretti forwarded the correspondence to 10 friends. That's when the story really picked up steam. The thread is all over the Web, and the story has made it to the pages of the Village Voice, the Wall Street Journal and the London Independent.
Many rice farmers in Vietnam would welcome a job assembling sneakers, given that the alternatives – growing rice, or working for a locally owned factory – pay as little as $25 a month. But in the U.S., Oregon-based Nike has often been viewed as a ruthless exploiter. Nike's Asian subcontractors pay workers about $50 a month, depending on exchange-rate fluctuations.
Peretti, who is not actively involved in the anti-sweatshop movement, says he never expected to get the shoes. He just wanted to make a statement.
"Nike's Web site is bitterly ironic," Peretti says. "Nike invites wealthy consumers to Build Their Own Shoes when the people who actually make the shoes do so under terrible conditions."
Both sides say they have received a lot of supportive e-mail. Peretti is getting about 500 messages a day. Nike says its sales have gone up as a result of the publicity, though it did not provide figures.
Nike.com says its refusal to print the word on the shoes is not a matter of free speech. "We don't want to put something derogatory to our shoes on our shoes," says Nike.com PR manager Beth Gorny. "Would you print an article saying the Industry Standard was a bad magazine?"
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Carl
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