Nike announced that it has "withdrawn its offer to
install a rubberized gym floor worth" C$50,000 at an Ottawa
recreation center, following what Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson
called "corporate assassination" of Nike by city
councillors, according to Laura Bobak of the OTTAWA SUN.
Instead, Nike will donate the gym floor to the Boys and
Girls Club of Ottawa-Carleton. City councillors have
criticized Nike for the working conditions at the company's
overseas sub-contracted factories. Nike Dir of Global
Community Affairs Doug Stamm said that this "is the first
time" Nike has ever "withdrawn a sponsorship offer," but
that the company "did not want to be used as a 'political
football' by city councillors." Bobak: "Ironically, the
same councillors who opposed the sponsorship also reacted
angrily to Nike's decision to withdraw" (OTTAWA SUN, 3/12).
JUST DOWNSIZE: Nike confirmed Wednesday that it "is
laying off an unspecified number of its estimated 2,000 non-
manufacturing employees in Asia as the economic crisis takes
its toll on the sneaker maker," according to Fara Warner of
the DOW JONES NEWS SERVICE. Nike Communications Dir of
Asian Ops Martha Benson: "We've been growing at double-digit
rates for the past five years in Asia. Now we're taking a
breather, although this breather wasn't really planned."
Benson said that a shoe that normally costs $75, "with the
devaluation" of Asian currency, now costs "about" $140.
Employees "already have been let go" in South Korea, which
Nike "once expected" to be a $250M business. Benson: "We'll
be lucky to make half of that this year" (DOW JONES, 3/12).
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH: In CO, Charley Able reports that a
tax incentive offered to Nike for a research and development
campus in Jefferson County, CO, "could amount to as much as"
$3M over four years, the "largest such incentive ever
offered by the county." Nike execs "could not be reached
for comment" about the offer (ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, 3/11).
