Nike isn’t a corporate monstrosity that uses sweatshop labour to make ugly clothing, oh no, they virtue signal for ‘freedom’
I’m sorry, but I just can’t take Nike’s sudden decision to stand up for freedom as anything more than corporate virtue signalling…
…look I think Colin Kaepernick is a social rights legend and hero and I hope that Nike is paying him a fortune, but let’s not allow their corporate virtue signalling to overshadow their questionable record in using sweatshop labour to make their ugly overpriced clothing in the first place…
Among them are claims that workers at a Nike contract factory in Hansae, Vietnam, suffered wage theft and verbal abuse, and labored for hours in temperatures well over the legal limit of 90 degrees, to the point that they would collapse at their sewing machines. Nike is also accused of cutting jobs at the Hansae factory and pulling production from a factory in Honduras with a strong union presence, resulting in hundreds of workers losing vital jobs. The company has also allegedly denied the independent monitoring group Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) access to inspect its contract factories.
…corporate virtue signalling works wonderfully for the woke, but anyone with a conscience longer than the attention span of your average twitter feed will see it for the hollow gesture it is.
The only thing worse than corporate virtue signalling are those clowns burning or cutting up their own Nike’s for their brand of virtue signalling.
At no point is the impoverished and vulnerable worker who is making this stuff even allowed in this picture of ego outrage.
I wonder how many of the woke social justice warriors even buy Nike gear. I hazard to say not many, if any. This has all the hallmarks of yet another “get woke, go broke” moment. People don’t want identity politics and virtue signalling in their sports gear. No-one asked for this. Cue the Nike announcement when this campaign backfires that everyone is racist (despite them having very successful ad campaigns with Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan).
Nike’s labour record was my immediate thought when the Kaepernick role was announced, but he is not stupid and will hopefully make something positive out of it–his comment on RNZ shows this–“America has never been great for African Americans–lets make it great for the FIRST time”
secondly–time to retire “virtue signalling” to the graveyard of online terms along with “PC” and “snowflake”
The whole Colin Kaepernick take a knee BS is just tragic and illustrates how the American media doesn’t cover real news. This sort of BS all comes under the umbrella of Fake News.
Nike may or may not make money out of this, one thing is for sure; their shoes are ugly az!
Martin, totally agree with you. Interestingly when this campaign was launched Nike lost $4bn in market value overnight. What isn’t mentioned is that Nike in the US is facing a suit for discrimination against minority staff. What doesn’t make sense is Nike partnering with a man who is currently involved in a lawsuit against the NFL for which Nike has signed a 10-year deal to supply uniforms to the NFL.
I can only assume that Nike thinks by targeting 15-19yr olds with this campaign that they can make money.
I agree on principle, but it’s depressing when older lefties adopt the lingo of the right. Please don’t say “virtue signalling” again. Ever.
Ah, capitalism and the abuse it generates to make a few people wealthy.
Don’t you just love it?
/sarc