UNC STUDENTS KICKING UP THEIR HEELS OVER NIKE APPAREL DEAL

          Nike "wars are heating up to a sweat" at the Univ. of
     NC Chapel Hill where one student group is "decrying Nike's
     alleged labor abuses in Southeast Asian factories," while
     another, calling itself "Support the Swoosh," is preparing a
     campaign to promote Nike, according to Jane Stancill of the
     Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER.  The dispute is "all part of the
     fallout" from UNC's recent 5-year, $7.1M, contract with
     Nike.  The deal has become a "hot topic on campus, where
     students are debating the 'corporatization'" of UNC and
     Nike's "treatment of workers in Southeast Asia."  In
     addition to "plastering" fliers on campus, Anti-Nike
     students are passing out petitions calling for UNC
     Chancellor Michael Hooker to set up a committee to look at
     the ethics of corporate contracts, and are organizing a
     letter-writing campaign to Nike CEO Phil Knight.  Members of
     "Support the Swoosh" said they are looking to enlist UNC
     athletes to help them in supporting Nike (N&O, 10/1).
          URBAN DECAY? In an SGB cover-story, Andy Bernstein
     examines Nike's inner-city popularity and writes that "trend
     watchers say that the most influential sphere of the urban
     market is slowly losing its Nike appetite," as Nike has
     "become too big, too mainstream, and misfired too many times
     on styling and design" (SGB, 9/22 issue).
          MOTHER, DO YOU THINK NIKE'S GOOD ENOUGH?  Nike and
     Patagonia are the only two companies in the sporting goods
     industry honored in Working Mother magazine's 12th annual
     survey of best companies for working mothers.  Nike made the
     list for the third time, the first in two years (Nike).