Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is putting fresh heat on Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE), one of the world’s most recognisable brands, this time shedding light on the conditions faced by its workers, deep inside its globalised supply chains.
What Happened: On Thursday, Sanders trained his guns at sportswear giant, criticising its labor practices abroad, and going as far as to call it “corporate greed at its worst.”
In a post on X, the independent senator from Vermont said he met a worker at one of Nike’s factories, named Dinar, who sews 222 labels per hour onto Nike products and is paid just $202 a month.
Sanders argues that this was despite the company making $23 billion last year, and its founder amassing a fortune worth over $35 billion, and yet “Nike pays just dollars a day to the workers who make its products.”
Here, Sanders is referring to Nike’s billionaire founder, Phil Knight, with a net worth of $31.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, however, the claims of how much the company “made” last year are wrong. In 2024, Nike reported $51.4 billion in revenue, with a profit of $5.7 billion, or $3.73 per share.
His post, nonetheless, echoes the growing concerns surrounding global supply chains and wage disparities at large multinational corporations.
Sanders, a longtime critic of labor exploitation and income inequality, used the moment to spotlight the gulf between executive wealth and factory-level compensation.
Why It Matters: Two months ago, at the onset of President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, Nike’s global supply chains were once again in the spotlight.
Economist Peter Schiff used the company as an example, saying that Nike would not be building factories in the U.S. to “manufacture its sneakers,” since the resulting costs would be “higher than the 40% tariffs,” clearly highlighting the importance of global supply chains and cheap labor for the company’s bottom line.
Nike’s shares are down 14.93% year-to-date, amid the tariffs and trade tensions, with its key supply regions, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia being subjected to reciprocal tariffs ranging from 32% to 46%, which have since been lowered, pending trade negotiations.
Price Action: Nike shares were down 0.16% on Thursday, trading at $62.67, and are down 2.03% after hours.
According to Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings, shares of Nike score poorly across key ranking metrics, and the stock has an unfavorable price trend in the medium and long-terms, but fares well in the short term. Click here for deeper insights into the stock.
Photo Courtesy: Joshua Sukoff on Shuttertsock.com
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