Revealing Adidas Olympics Quote

The Sydney Morning Herald has the following quote by Ray Tai, an intellectual-property enforcer for Adidas in Asia:

"The Olympics will be the ultimate test when it comes to counterfeit goods. All sponsors of the Games are stepping up their enforcement efforts now-or they should be, because they'll get hit more than nonsponsors, that's for sure. I am very proud to say that, right now, if you go to any large or midsize city in China, you can't find any fake Adidas. We want to keep it that way. Our strategy is to raid wholesalers, or even the retailers. Typically, companies raid the counterfeiting factories. That gets a big splash in the paper, but it's a waste of money. At the factory, shoes may be worth only a few dollars a pair. But at the wholesale and retail levels, they're worth a lot more. That's where you can make a much bigger financial dent. There's an incentive for them not to buy fakes anymore. We ordered more than 1,000 raids last year. We'll probably start seeing Olympic fakes surface six months or so before the Games. We'll be hiring extra security to watch for them. For now, we've found a way to deter the problem. I am a strong believer in prevention. Most lawyers are too bogged down with crime and punishment."

Interesting that adidas can employ an army of IP agents, while simultaneously finding it so difficult to enforce labor standards.

Oregonian Opinion Column on Nike, Funny Quote from Yours Truly

Check out Steve Duin's column appearing tomorrow in The Oregonian. According to Google, Sunday's circulation of The Oregonian is apparently 375,913 readers. I hope lots of them write angry letters and put in annoyed phone calls to Beaverton. The article also mentions former USASer Agatha Schmaedick Tan, who was a great organizer at the University of Oregon, and is an alum I have a ton of respect for. The first two comments are amusing too. I have half a mind to respond pointing out how the Associated Students of the University of Oregon/student activities office have historically banned funding for groups interested in waging USAS campaigns on campus since 2000...

American Association of University Professors Attacks Nike Conflicts of Interest at UWashington

Recently, the University of Washington American Association of University Professors (AAUP) passed a resolution condemning a school provost's appointment to Nike's Corporate Board of Directors. There has been a lot of controversy over Nike at the UW recently, as USAS activists have been trying to get their school to force Nike to fork over roughly $2 million in unpaid severance to Honduran workers. Although the students have successfully lobbied a university committee to recommend putting Nike on notice of violating Washington's lucrative clothing contract, so far UW President Mark Emmert has not listened to his own joint-governance committee. Instead, he sent the company a weakly worded letter which you can view here.

Most of Emmert's letter is fairly weak, asking for the company's "perspective" on the Honduran situation and "information on the remediation" due to workers. But, Emmert doesn't exercise the only leverage he has short of cutting Washington's contract with Nike, which is officially putting the company on "notice" for labor violations. Given this lack of action by the school's president and the provost's newly minted association with the company, concerned faculty seem to have a lot of ground in questioning the integrity of the university's leadership. For more information check out Seattle Weekly and Crosscut coverage of these issues.