Nike, Inc. and Adidas-S

Nike was started in Eugene, Oregon by a former University of Oregon track coach and one of his runners (www.nikebiz.com). It grew from $8,000 in sales the first year to becoming one of the best-known corporations in the world.

Adidas was started after World War II by a sport shoe manufacturer who used the first syllables of his first and last names to designate the company. After dominating the European market and reaching a penetration of 17% market share in the United States, Adidas fell on hard times and declared bankruptcy. Following the lead of nearly every other Western corporation in the apparel business, the company laid off its higher paid European workers and globalized, exploiting Third World poverty to save overhead costs.

In the relatively bland financial data to follow one should not forget that both of these companies have been repeatedly charged with exploitation and abuse of their foreign employees. Adidas has been proved to have bought soccor balls produced by forced labor in a Chinese prison. Both companies have been criticized by labor and human rights organizations for their use of foreign contractors who don't give their workers even the most elementary workplace rights.

In that sense they can be seen as typical of American or multinational corporations such as Walmart, who stalk the world looking for ever cheaper labor in ever more de