Basketball players "wanna be like Mike", but shoe companies "wanna be like NIKE." NIKE is the worlds #1 company and controls more than 40% of the US athletic shoe market. The company designs and sells shoes for just about every sport, including baseball, volleyball, cheerleading, and wrestling. NIKE also sells Cole Haan dress and casual shoes and a line of athletic wear and equipment, such as hockey sticks, skates, and timepieces. In addition, it operates NIKETOWN shoe and sportswear stores and is opening JORDAN in store outlets in suburban markets. NIKE sells its product to about 19,000 US accountants, in about 140 other countries, and online. Chairman, CEO, and co-founder Phil Knight owns. Nike Co. is very interesting, as well is a popular brand.

Nike, pronounced NI-KEY, is the winged goddess of victory according to Greek mythology. She sat at the side of Zeus, the ruler of the Olympian pantheon, in Olympia. A mystical presence, symbolizing victorious encounters, NIKE presided over history's earliest battlefields. A Greek would say, "When we go to ba

In the fall of 1999, an Indonesian human rights organization interviewed 3,500 workers in Nike contractor factories in Indonesia about their pay and working conditions. The survey, conducted by Indonesia's Urban Community Mission in conjunction with U.S.-based Press for Change, was the most comprehensive investigation of working conditions in Nike's Indonesian plants in three years. Here are some of their findings:

There have always been numerous predictions and questions asked about what Nike pays its people. An average salary for a Nike Spokesman (Tiger woods) is $55,555 dollars per day, which adds up to 20,277,575 dollars in a one years earned salary. Other salaries of Nike employees such as an Indonesian factory worker who is making shoes makes $1.25 per day and an on average of $456.25 per year. Lastly, Nike CEO Phil Knight is worth roughly over $5.8 billion dollars. Nike ads like any other businesses require interpretation. Some of this reading goes on at the conscious level, some unconsciously. As opposed to extremists on either side of the interpretative question, I fall most nearly to the constructivist point of view in that I view meaning as interplay between text and the reader. Ads work on a variety of different levels including, but not limited to, sign typology, paradigmatic meaning, psychological appeals, emotion, roles, values/beliefs, and knowledge. Again, the impact of an ad comes from the interplay between these various aspects of make-up and the reader's own notions about him/herself and the world. Rubber-soled shoes were first mass-marketed as canvas-top "sneakers" by U.S. Rubber, with its kedsc in 1917. But the elevation of athletic shoe manufacture to both a science and a fashion was due largely due to Phil Knight and Steve Bowerman of Oregon.

 Even Lower Wages for Apparel Workers. Nike apparel workers in Indonesia earn even less than Nike footwear workers. The survey found that 31 percent of the 1,200 Nike apparel workers interviewed earned less than the equivalent of $33 U.S. dollars per month (Rp 250,000). That is 25% percent less than what even Nike says that it takes to meet one person's minimum physical needs, without taking into consideration providing for family members or savings. According to surveyors: "Workers struggling to survive on wages this low are in a desperate position."

 Forced Overtime: Workers' most common complaint was being forced to work excessive overtime - more than 72 hours per week during peak periods. Nike's code of conduct calls for working hours to be limited to 60 hours.

 Cruel Treatment: 57 percent of Nike athletic shoe workers and 59 percent of Nike clothing workers reported that they had seen workers being shouted at or subjected to cruel treatment by their supervisors. Examples of abuse that workers cited included wage deductions, having their ears pulled, being pinched or slapped, being forced to run around the factory or having to stand for hours in factory yards (known as "being dried in the sun"). As punishment on the job, workers were made to clean the toilets. Reported verbal abuse included the Indonesian equivalent of phrases like "You Dog," and other vulgar words like this one that should not be repeated.

 Poverty Wages for Shoe Workers: The second most serious complaint cited by footwear workers was low wages. The vast majority of Nike shoe workers interviewed told surveyors their basic wages at the time of the survey were between $33 U.S. (Rp 251,000) and $39 U.S. (Rp 300,000) per month - which comes to about 16 - 19 cents an hour. This wage does not even come close to covering the costs of a family's basic human needs. Since these interviews, the cost of living has continued to deteriorate, and Nike contractors' increases in the nominal wage have not been adequate to account for inflation and currency devaluation.

Another meaning and definition of a word is SWOOSHING. Main entry: Swoosh, function is nou

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Approximate Word count = 3840
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)