Research the life history of one fashion item, from its raw materials through present “life” and give recommendation for how it could be re-manufactured more sustainably.

HISTORY OF A FASHION ITEM
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History of a Fashion Item (Nike)
This essay discusses the history of Nike and its manufacturing process from raw materials to its present life. Recommendations on how their shoes could be manufactured more sustainably are outlined in the essay. Nike was formerly known as Blue Ribbon Sports at the time of its inception in 1964. It was founded by two gentlemen by the names Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. Phil was a runner at the University of Oregon and Bill was his track and field coach (Childs and Jin, 2018). Their first retail store was opened up in 1966, and in 1972 the brand shoe Nike was launched in the same store. The company name was then changed from Blue Ribbon Sports to Nike Inc in 1978 and after two years, it had gone public. By the early 2000s, Nike had shops and distribution outlets in nearly 180 countries worldwide (Childs and Jin, 2018).
The company logo and the logo imprinted on the shoes produced were and are still a checkmark well known as the “swoosh.” Nike shoes gained more popularity over the years and their business expanded; they even diversified their product portfolio through the acquisition of other firms. For example, Nike acquired a shoe company called Cole Haan in 1988 and sold it in 2012 (Childs and Jin, 2018). The firm further acquired Umbro in 1994 and sold it in 2008. Nike also bought Canstar Sports Inc. in 1994, and then renamed it to Bauer, before selling it in 2008. Converse was acquired in 2003 and is still a subsidiary of Nike (Childs and Jin, 2018). The company continued expanding its operations by forming the Nike All Conditions Gear (Nike ACG), which focused on marketing products for extreme sports like mountain biking and scuba diving (Childs and Jin, 2018). In the early 2000s, the shoemaker introduced sports technology into the market, such sports technology included heart rate monitors and wrist compasses.

The Nike Product Life Cycle
In order for a shoe to be produced, instruction templates are produced to guide the employees on how to build the product. Different designs of Nike shoes are inspired by creating a solution that can solve the problems of the customer or the manufacturer (Armenteras, Paech and Politiek, 2017). Nike has a triad professional team that is the most crucial in its shoe production process. The first professional team is the marketing team who interpret customer demands into specifications that are suitable for a final product. The second professional is the designer who creates the concept and design layout for the shoe, he is the one responsible for making the shoe look appealing to the customers’ eyes. Then the third professional is the developer who works on the shoe’s technical details to make sure the shoe’s functionality is optimal and efficient. Achieving this acquires a lot of coordination with the production department in the Nike factories (Niskanen, 2019).
The design process is the first stage of the shoemaking process of Nike. The factors that are taken into consideration during this process are the availability of raw materials, aesthetic of the shoe design, amount of energy consumption, quality of the material to be used, and the impacts the shoe production will have on the environment. The raw materials that are used in Nike shoes manufacturing are bamboo rayon which takes about 20.4% of the total raw materials, cotton takes about 22.6%, ethylene, vinyl acetate and copolymer 36.24%, hemp 22.3%, fusion type cardboard 34.8%, aramid 19.5%, down 35%, and polypropylene which uses about 34.4%. (Moorhouse, 2017). Shoe designers should anticipate how the production of a certain shoe will impact the environment, the industry in general and the production process (Potter and Schrock 2017). For example, when planning to use leather as raw material, some advantages make customers prefer in comparison to other raw materials. In particular, leather is not only flexible but also light, strong and durable. Nonetheless, the design team makes sure that these raw materials are procured efficiently and sustainably because leather production consumes a lot of energy and raising of cows for leather takes a lot of work and resources. Nike supports good practices in acquiring raw materials hence the 2009 Amazon Leather Policy, where they declined getting leather from the Amazon because it resulted in deforestation of the tropical rain forests due to rearing cattle in those forests (Castle and Bebek 2017).
Nike shoes are manufactured in factories all around the world. Currently, Nike has over 900 factories in different continents producing its shoes. It also has over one million casual labourers who diligently work on shoe production. (Laukkanen, 2017). The majority of these Nike factories are contracted by the company, Nike Inc. to produce its products on its behalf due to the large scales of production. So, these other factories are not owned by the shoemaker. This decentralisation of production process enables other companies to provide employment to their local populations and even beyond. However, there is a bit of controversy when it comes to the well-being of workers because the contracted corporations have their policies in regards to taking care of employees (Laukkanen, 2017). For this reason, Nike has been advocating for the right of these workers for years, with some countries complying and others ignoring their pleas. Nike has an equitable, lean, green and empowering vision. The production of shoes in Nike Inc entails the collaboration of developers, factory staff and the factory engineers. There is a three-step model to producing a shoe, which includes cutting the components of the upper materials and stitching them up, using tools to mould and shape the soles and lastly, bonding the finished upper part with the finished sole (Ping, 2017). Different tools and moulds are used to shape different shoe sizes. In some instances, the shoe sizes have discrepancies of half sizes (Ping, 2017).
Just one mould is very expensive and can cost several thousands of dollars (Ping, 2017). Tooling in shoe production means that the materials and fabric used in making a certain type of shoe are cut out by patterns that are developed by the factory engineers. The engineers use a blueprint created by the triad developers to create the pattern. The upper part of the shoe is bonded to the lower part with the use of primers, bonding agents and adhesives. These parts can also be bonded through mechanically sewing them together (Campos, Elder, Monfils and Peyton, 2016). At the start of the 1990s, Nike started using bonding agents that are water-based in making their shoes to avoid the pollution of the environment.
For design and quality standards to be met, Nike shoes have to go through other processes (Kaufman, 2016). To graduate and become a big brand like Nike, the quality of a firm’s products has to be taken very seriously. Hence, the reason for Nike’s stringent quality assurance measures. The production of just one type of shoe requires a lot of information, vision, factory machinery, and collaboration of skilled individuals. This production is quite an intensive process that is why the quality of Nike shoes is uncompromised (Kaufman, 2016). The production process explained, in a nutshell, is: first, the marketer aftermarket research explains how the ideal shoe for a customer should look like (Kaufman, 2016). Secondly, the designers come up with sketches that have to be carefully scrutinised by a team and after one of the sketches is approved, they go ahead to make the blueprint for the design. Thirdly, a prototype is made of the design and feedback is gathered from potential customers and team members. After that, the necessary enhancements and adjustments are made. The product is then mass-produced and officially launched into the retail market (Kaufman, 2016).
After the production process, the final shoe products are shipped to various distribution centres across the world (Kaufman, 2016). The distribution centres transport and sell the shoes to different retail outlets and are ready to be received by eager clients. Some of the retailers are even chain stores, which makes it easier for distributors as they can drop loads of cargo in one retail outlet. Examples of such stores are Champs, Kohl’s, Foot Locker (both for men and women), and Macy’s (Kaufman, 2016). All of the sales done on Nike shoes are documented using a point of sales (POS). The POS system helps the head office to keep track of all inventory, deliveries, and sales made to the retail stores (Kaufman, 2016).
Nike’s Sustainability Approach
The modes of transport used to get Nike products to the distribution centres and various retail stores are ships, trains, planes and delivery trucks (Regan, Liao, and Chang, 2016). Unfortunately, all these modes of transportation lead to carbon dioxide emissions. Nike is environmentally conscious in all its endeavours as part of its contribution to social responsibility. That is why Nike works closely with the transportation companies that it hires. The shoemaker constantly tries to find solutions that can reduce excessive carbon emissions in the air.
Even though quality shoes have extensive durability, it comes a time when they can no longer be worn due to wear and tear. In the quest to go green and avoid waste, recycling facilities have been put up to recycle old and worn-out shoes. Some of the shoes which are not badly worn out are recycled by giving them out to the needy in America and other countries overseas. Nike has a program known as “reuse a shoe” where worn-out shoes are collected at their grinding facilities. After collection, the shoes are taken to sorting facilities owned by the company in Belgium, Tennessee, Meerhout, and Memphis (Kaufman, 2016). This is where the dissembling of the shoes takes place. Different parts of the shoes produce different important raw materials. The sole produces rubber, the cushion from the shoe produces foam and the cloth part of the shoes produces fabric fibres. These raw materials produced by Nike from recycled shoes are called “Nike Grind” (Kaufman, 2016). The raw materials are used by the corporation to make garments, zippers or athletic fields (Potter and Schrock, 2017). Some of the athletic fields, basketball courts, tennis courts, and playgrounds around the world are made from recycled rubber from disposed Nike shoes. Therefore, the waste of fresh rubber is reduced. Defective shoes that are recalled are dismantled into parts and the parts are used to make new shoes.
The “Re-use a shoe policy” by Nike plays a great role in reducing carbon emissions, as well as the degradation of soil in landfills (Kaufman, 2016). Almost one and a half million shoe pairs are received by Nike’s re-use a shoe approach every year, in addition to the scrap they also receive from manufacturing plants. To date, Nike has disassembled and recycled close to thirty million pairs of shoes since it commenced this rehabilitation program (Ahmed, 2016).
The purposes for which shoes were intended have changed tremendously with the increase in technology. Their use has become more diversified as compared to the common norms of the shoe uses, such as running, gaming, and not hurting your feet (Peyton, 2020). Different purposes that the shoes are intended to influence the design and materials of the shoes used to manufacture them. Nike shoes are made for different purposes such as fashion, casual wear, and for serious athletes like runners and basketballers, footballers and golfers. Nowadays, shoes are even enhanced with trackers and performance monitors, as well as shoe conditioning. These sensors alert the shoe owner when the shoe needs to be repaired, replaced or upgraded (Curtis and Hansson, 2019). Information collected from the microchips embedded in the shoes can be used to improve the next shoe design and features according to the shoe wearer’s preference.
Recommendations on how Nike’s Shoes could be Manufactured more Sustainably
Despite the aforementioned sustainability approaches taken by Nike, the shoe manufacturer can still make its products more sustainable in various ways. First, apart from using waste from fresh materials and recycled shoes through its “Nike Grind” program, Nike can also use other recycled materials to make their shoes more sustainable. Such materials may include post-consumer PET plastic fibres, as well as post-industrial recycled foams from foam factories. Nike can also include biodegradable additives to such materials to allow them to degrade much faster and reduce waste in the environment.
Secondly, speaking of degrading, Nike should engage more with other stakeholders to understand how to minimise the resistance to decomposing. In other words, research indicates that most of the materials that Nike uses to manufacture its shoes, take almost half a century to decompose (Grahame, 2014). Such a period implies that these materials take a toll on the environment. What is worse, at least 300 million shoes are purchased in the UK alone, which will, in the end, become landfill (Grahame, 2014). Even though Nike uses biodegradable materials, such as leather in its shoes, when these materials go to the landfill, they release greenhouse gases, such as methane and volatile compounds like benzene and toluene in the glues used in the shoes (Grahame, 2014). Therefore, there is an urgent need for Nike to come up with ways to reduce the long-term impact of its shoes. One approach is for Nike to design its shoes for both assembly and disassembly in an environmentally friendly manner. Another way is for Nike to reproduce its sustainable innovations on a mass level to reverse the negative effect that its products have previously had on the environment.
Conclusion
The dream of an athletic coach and his student gave birth to one of the most successful shoe brands to ever exist. Nike caters to the needs of customers concerning footwear in all corners of the world. The Nike products’ high demand is a result of giving customers’ needs and recommendations the priority in the manufacturing and production of its brands. The production of Nike’s quality brands is attributed to the team of experts in each production process, enhanced technology in choosing its factory machines, as well as the organisation’s vision. Technology has improved in recent times even in shoe manufacturing where companies such as Nike invest in state-of-the-art machines for designing and manufacturing shoes such as 3D scanning and printing technology. This effort helps in modelling and designing different parts of the shoe, especially when making the blueprint. Lastly, Nike has set a trend in for other corporations to follow by going green in its production process as part of its social responsibility.

 
References
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