e-mail to Mr Mark Parker, CEO, Nike Inc.

To: mark.parker@nike.com
From: peter.gerngross@gmail.com

Subject: Working conditions / Nike factories


Mr Parker,

I am writing this e-mail to inform you that I will not buy any more Nike products until an independent organization like TeamSweat acknowledges a significant improvement of working conditions in Nike's factories in Southeast Asia.

I live in Germany and have been a serious runner since 12 years. I have always worn your shoes and apparel. In fact, my first serious running shoes were a pair of Nike Air Edge Max, and I loved them. Currently my favorite shoes are my Nike Air Zoom Elite, which I wore during three Marathon races. I also like my pair of Nike Free because of the barefoot feeling.

I would love to buy their respective successors when my old ones will be worn off, but I can't.

Research by the people of TeamSweat, an organization founded by Jim Keady, showed the miserable living conditions of the people who make the Nike products in your factories in Indonesia. When I saw the video "Behind The Swoosh" and read about Jim's work I asked myself two questions:

1. Wouldn't the people be worse off if they hadn't these underpaid jobs at Nike? Obviously there are no better jobs there. My answer: Yes, they would be worse off. But not much worse. And Nike as the market leader would have the opportunity to make their lives better. Just use some of the money you would otherwise pay to celebrities like Jordan or Woods to increase the wages of the factory workers. So, in my eyes, Nike is not responsible for the poor living conditions in Indonesia, but you are responsible for not improving those conditions.

2. Why accuse Nike and not all the other companies that do the same? The answer: I know that other companies also pay very low wages and have their workers spend long hours in the factories. But you have to start somewhere. Nike is the market leader, so TeamSweat focuses on Nike. Bad luck for you! But you have the choice: pay your workers decently, and you will improve both their lives and your company image considerably.

The awareness of poor working conditions in developing countries is growing in Germany. Small companies like the Hamburg-based running store company Lunge (www.lunge.com, www.lunge.de) build own factories in Germany because they recognized the poor quality of shoes made in the sweat shops. They are very successful with their high-quality clear-conscience not-at-all-fancy shoes. The running community is big and well connected. News about the behavior of companies like Nike, whether bad (today) or good (tomorrow?) will spread like wildfire.

Use your power to make the world better! I want to buy a brand new pair or Nike Free as soon as possible. Today this is impossible for me.

Kind regards

Peter Gerngross

My List

Inspired by Stephen Andert's To-Do List I have decided to think about my own list and to publish it here. There are no deadlines for the items of my list, but I feel I should accomplish at least one task per year, given my age of 42 and my presumption that the list will grow longer the more I think about it. So let's start with this:

1. Run the Boston Marathon
2. (Condition for 1.) Run a sub-3:30 marathon
3. Learn the Polish language (my current level: I can ask for a hotel room or order a beer in Polish) 
4. Live in Ireland, at least for a while
5. Travel to America, especially New England and Canada
6. Travel through a foreign country by bicycle
7. Read all the books in my library that I haven't had the time to read by now - an almost impossible task

I think that's enough for today. I'll update the list each time one task is completed or another one crosses my mind. I'm afraid the list grows longer since I'll be adding more tasks than I'll be able to accomplish. I know that from my library. I always buy more books than I'm able to read.