Adi Dassler, a German shoemaker, started the Adidas company in the early 1920’s with the help of his brother, Rudolph. In the mid 1930s Adi was already making 30 different shoes for eleven sports, and he had a workforce of almost 100 employees. In less than two decades Adidas advanced to become the world’s leading sports shoe manufacturer. For the full history as provided by the adidas Group, click here. Adi Dassler first made Adidas for athletes could wear them in the Amsterdam Olympics and is still a well known brand for the Olympics to this day. The Laborers Unfortunately, because most of these factories are “independent” or unheard of, the workplace standards experienced by their employees are less than acceptable. Though the Adidas Company’s profits increase by millions of US dollars a year, the monthly wages these factory workers are making (after inflation) are not even equal to the 1995 minimum wage in the United States. In some factories, workers aren’t even given their country’s minimum wage, have difficulty getting paid for overtime and lack any statutory benefits. There are around 31,000 people that make Adidas products. These workers are typically lower class young women who, on a regular work day, work from ten to fifteen hours a day. In an article written in 2001 by Dana Orourke, a team of inspectors visits sweatshops in Indonesia and Mexico and discover attempts to try to cover up much of the extremely poor labor conditions workers face: Fortunately in more recent years, Adidas has created a set of company Workplace Standards. These are a list of standards that Adidas, their business partners, and their suppliers must obey. Adidas claims that it will only do business with the companies that follow their rules as to how the workers should be treated. Some of these rules include:
Check out this video on Adidas:  The Profiteers A typical pair of Adidas shoes may cost up to $80, so where is that money going? The people making these shoes are only making 56 American dollars a month so you do the math; who is getting the rest of the profits from the eighty dollar pair of shoes? Adidas is worth over 8.3 Billion dollars. Herbert Hainer, the Ceo of Adidas makes a large chunk of that money, along with the many endorsement deals with famous celebrities. Many other people that profit from Adidas are the stockholders and the owners of the Adidas stores. As well as stores that sell Adidas products such as, Dicks, Sports Mart, Macys. Employees of Adidas profit because in order for the workers to get paid, Adidas must be able to continuously sell and profit from their products. The last people that make a profit from Adidas are the suppliers. Without Adidas constantly making a lot of money from their products, they wouldn’t be able to pay their suppliers. Unfortunately, the least amount of profit always goes to the laborers in the factories who actually create the final Adidas product, whether it is a soccer cleat or a sweatshirt. Marketing Adidas is marketed in many different ways. Adidas advertises through television commercials, internet websites, and many stores all over the world that sell their products. Adidas usually sells their shoes through stores such as Footlocker, Finishline and sporting goods stores such as Sports Authority or Dicks. Adidas also sponsors many athletes in hopes that fans will see their products and then go out and purchase them. Some of the athletes that Adidas sponsors are Reggie Bush, Andre Agassi, David Beckham, Kevin Garnett, and Tracy McGrady. They have even started to sponsors entire sports teams. Recently in 2006, Adidas announced that they have become the global provider of sports apparel for the NBA and WNBA. This is an eleven year contract with the two organizations and states that Adidas will make all of their uniforms and footwear, starting with the 2006-2007 season.
Gender Adidas has two clothing lines, one dedicated to men and one dedicated to women both featuring the three stripes. Each line is specifically gendered to either males or females to where it is sometimes impossible to buy sports apparel even though it was made for the opposite gender. Through celebrity endorsements and clever marketing Adidas has made it clear which styles and collections are for men and which are for women and try to make it hard for one to cross over to the other. This is apparent through the color and styles of shoes, sweats, shirts, shorts, pants, and anything else that Adidas can come up with. Adidas has always been geared and advertised for men’s sportswear and has led this brand to be perceived as masculine, making it hard for women to associate themselves with Adidas and hard for them to purchase the brand. Check out our page of Adidas Commercials and Adds | Facts to Know From 2004 to 2007 Adidas profits went up 68.28% from 646,770,453 to 1,088,393,584 but full time wages are still as low as 2 dollars a day, making a monthly income of 56 American dollars. Union involvement can lead to dismissal, being physically assaulted or sent to jail. Workers are forced to send their children away to distant families due to no money. Ngadinah Binti Abu Mawardi from the Panarub factory was arrested and put in prison for joining a union. Workers are shouted at if they are working too slowly. Even fired for asking for better working conditions After factories closing in Indonesia, workers were left without severance and other entitlements for months. Factories closed in 2006; some people still have not gotten their money. Adidas employees (not workers) have many benefits of working for Adidas, including a discount, flexible hours, children and elder care, access to sports facilities  Interviews Interviews were conducted to see how much people knew about Adidas, or if they liked the product or not. All three interviewees pretty much got the same response, People only used Adidas products if they had to. Some find the brand too expensive for the typical college student.   Take Action The Clean Clothes Campaign is a great organization that spends time making sure people know about the working conditions of factory workers. The companies they are watching over are the huge corporations that most Americans purchase their sporting goods from; Adidas being one of them. On their website they post stories about problems going on in the factories, mostly for Adidas, in Indonesia. When reading about these factories in Indonesia there is always an option on the bottom of the web site to “Take Action.” Clicking on this, the Clean Clothes Campaign will show who someone could write to and demand better conditions for the factory workers. One can also join the Clean Clothes Campaign Urgent Action Network. CCC will send u emails and updates on different factories, and a place to email to the people that can do something about it. Here they will update you on how certain cases are doing and outcomes. This however is not strictly for Adidas, other companies will appear here. When going to purchase Adidas products make sure you ask the sales person as many questions about the product as you can. Where did it come from, How are the working conditions, ect. The CCC says the probably will not know the answers, however, if enough people ask questions, maybe management will look into it and get answers for us! On Adidas Website, they have a section as where one can contact them, at the bottom they have a part on how you can complain about their suppliers. Here they give you the steps that they will take when one sends in a complaint. They also say if you do not want to email them they are part of the Fair Labor Association, and one can contact them to complain about Adidas. If you don’t like any of these ideas you always have the option of not purchasing Adidas products or any products that come from sweatshops or places with bad working conditions. Visit Go Green. to find out how. Links To these websites: Sources A few of our main sources For a full list of sources click here. "Adidas." Adidas. 2008. 25 Oct. 2008 <http://www.adidas.com>. "Adidas Watch, Labor Rights." Oxfam Australia. 2 Dec. 2008 <http://www.oxfam.org.au/campaigns/ labour-rights/adidaswatch/>. Clean Clothes Campaign. 2 Dec. 2008 <http://www.cleanclothes.org/index.htm>. Oxfam Australia. (2007) Adidas Watch, Oxfam Australia, Nov. 2008. http://www.oxfam.org.au/campaigns/labour-rights/adidaswatch/ Play Fair 2008. (June 2007) No Medal for the Olympics on Labor Rights, Play Fair 2008, Oct. 2008. http://www.playfair2008.org/docs/playfair_2008-report.pdf |
