Shame Star Awarded to Michael Jordan and Nike
How many more deaths, robberies and beatings need to occur before these two forces step in?
Michael Jordan and Nike have been laughing their way to the bank for years and at the expense of deaths, robberies and beat downs. The duo have been making billions off of one of America’s most well known brands since 1984.
The latest robbery was caught on surveillance video where a 15 year old girl wearing Air Jordan’s was viciously beaten by a group of African American teen thugs in Brooklyn.
The young female was approached by the teen boys who punched, kicked and beat her to the ground and to add insult to injury, they did it all for her Air Jordan shoes she was wearing. There are others responsible for this occurring besides just Jordan and Nike. It is also the fault of the thug teen’s parents for raising such scum, the teens themselves and the harmful policies of Mayor Bill de Blasio who prevents police from doing their job and keeping New Yorker’s safe. Under his watch crimes like this occur almost daily and the murder rate and crime in general has sky rocketed. But this occurs in many other cities as well and that is the fault of Nike and Jordan with their marketing practices and price gouging.
The girl suffered head trauma as well as massive bruising but is expected to recover. But it does lead us to ask, where is Michael Jordan and why is he not working with Nike to stop all of this violence? Both him and Nike manage the Air Jordan dynasty with tactics that encourage these crimes to occur. They release the shoes in very limited quantities and charge an arm and a leg for their product. The average cost of the shoes runs $180 or higher. We are not slamming capitalism. However the very demographic that Nike and Michael target to is the same demographic that is suffering from the crimes that are occurring.
The main demographic is teen boys and girls who typically cannot afford the price points on the shoes. Nike markets to the athletic departments of many middle schools and glorifies the importance of looking trendy with expensive shoes. Also, Jordan and Nike have instilled that these shoes are more important to purchase than put food on a table or pay rent and bills. With this kind of promoting, it puts the shoes in a high demand and hurts communities that purchase them.
World wide revenue for Nike is over $27.7 billion dollars, $90 billion is from shoes. The key demographic is teen kids in lower income communities although with some of the nostalgia marketing, it has increased up to the mid 30’s.
If Michael Jordan and Nike really care about this demographic, they would work together to end this violence. They should stop marketing to demographics who cant afford the cost of the shoes. They should stop marketing that the shoes are more important than paying bills or feeding families. The shoes cost pennies on the dollar to make overseas but they do not pass that discount along to the consumer. That is another whole story in itself. Nike has been using sweat shops with women and children in places like Indonesia, Vietnam and China to manufacture the shoes. It is reasonable to assume that if Jordan and Nike do not even care for Nike’s own worker’s safety, they are not going to care about the safety of the consumer.
Michael Jordan should take lead on this by working with communities to downsize the importance of these shoes, especially among consumers who cannot afford them in the first place. Over the years we have seen mobs at stores where people are trampled, robberies, beatings, theft from stores, etc. It is time for him to take action to stop the violence. There are many ways he can do this such as increasing volume and lowering pricing. He could also network with the parents and kids in communities that are impacted by the related violence.
One can almost bet that Michael Jordan or Nike will not reach out to the victim or any other victim and offer support, to pay medical bills or even give a free pair of shoes. It speaks volumes that Michael and Nike are silent in all of this and therefore we award them this week’s Walk of Shame award.
