Nike Globalization Essay

2273 Words10 Pages
NIKE Tells the World to “Just Do It” Nike is a multinational corporation that is “the leading the designer, marketer, and distributor of athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessories for a range of sports and fitness activities” (Datamonitor, NIKE Inc.). Nike was originally named “Blue Ribbon Sports” and was founded by a man named Phil Knight in 1963. This company changed to the name “Nike” in 1978. He began this company by selling athletic shoes from the trunk of his car (Hincker). Now, Nike offers goods that are aimed at numerous athletics, including the following: basketball, football, baseball, volleyball, soccer, track, golf, tennis, and cheer. Although Nike is primarily dominant in the Americas, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa, it has manufacturing plants in thirty four different countries. As of May 31, 2008, Nike had around 32,500 employees (Datamonitor, NIKE Inc.). The globally dominant company sells its goods through factory stores, company owned stores, third-party stores, and on the internet. When you log onto the company’s website (www.nike.com), the site is offered in fourteen different languages, which pertains to nearly the entire world. This particular company is one of the most dominant multinational corporations that exist across the world. In this paper, I argue that multinational corporations, mainly focusing on Nike, promote globalization by linking nations through the sales of identical products worldwide. What exactly is globalization? Globalization is the widening, deepening, and speeding up of worldwide connectedness. By this, I mean geographically spreading out, the deepening of particular issues, and the speeding up of interdependence between nations. This involves cultural expansion, trade, and technology. Multinational Corporations advance globalization by selling identical goods and services to
Open Document