BY LAUREN CARROLL HARRIS
A recent survey of 10- to 17-year olds, conducted by YouthSCAN, shows that the popularity of the world's most iconic clothing manufacturer, Nike, is dropping among Australian teenagers.
Two years ago, Nike was popular with around 41% of teenagers, but the study, performed this year, indicates a steep 10% decline in Nike's popularity. The drop in popularity is part of a global downward trend for major brands like Adidas, Converse and Reebok.
Nike's marketing director Carl Grebert suggests that the decline in Nike's popularity is due to the "increasing number of other brands on the market and the rise of newer fashion forces". He discounts the effect of growing outrage directed at Nike for its abuses of human and workers' rights.
The entire Nike empire is built upon child, sweatshop and outworker labour, and young people are waking up to this.
The Nike "swoosh" is no longer a sign of freedom and status, but of corporate greed and exploitation, with Nike's reputation falling lower and lower each time a demonstration against sweatshop labour takes place.
Young people, Nike's "target market", are the prime participants in these demonstrations. Whole high schools in Sydney's inner west have been designated "sweatshop free", as students unite to take action around Nike's exploitation of its workers here and overseas.
It's no longer a secret that Nike pays its workers a dollar a day in Indonesia and Vietnam, or that it routinely intimidates and sacks workers who attempt to organise themselves into unions.
It's no longer a secret that Nike pays golfer Tiger Woods more for his sponsorship each year than its entire Indonesian workforce, or that it would take an Indonesian sweatshop worker nine and a half years to earn the same amount as Nike CEO Phil Knight does in a day.
Sydney anti-Nike campaigner Andrea Myles says that young people are far from indifferent to Nike's treatment of its workers.
"The Nike protests are a symbol of the growing sentiment of anger at corporations like Nike who systematically exploit their workers all in the name of making a buck. Corporations like Nike, McDonalds, BHP and Rio Tinto have been the targets of massive demonstrations at S11 and M1, where thousands of people have said 'enough is enough' and sent a loud and clear message to these corporations that what they're doing is not all right."
Fred Fuentes, an organiser of Melbourne's weekly blockades of the Nike Superstore, which regularly attract 100-200 predominantly young people, says that there has been a great upsurge of interest in the anti-sweatshop campaign among young people.
"The blockades have been able to capture the imagination of young people because they feel they are actually making a difference, and they are", said Fuentes.
"Although the impact on Nike's profits would almost be unnoticeable, the blockades have played an important role in undermining the image that Nike attempts to give itself. It is clear the attitude of young people towards Nike is changing, not just because of the blockades, but they have been able to have an impact, which is visible, every Friday night."
Fuentes says "everyone should get involved and make a difference", by contacting your local Resistance branch and campaigning against Nike's exploitation of sweatshop workers and outworkers.