Is Nike Fast Fashion? An Expert Breakdown!

Nike is a name that has existed for centuries in Greek mythology and people interested in this subject are quite familiar with it. However, there is another entity with the same name that has managed to establish a worldwide status of itself by selling premium-quality athletic shoes. Nike is a shoe-wear brand that cannot escape notice because it is everywhere and has made itself into a household name. Everyone has at least one pair of Nikes at home and it's always on the television as well, with the biggest stars showcasing the brand.

One wonders where and when the idea of Nike came into being. It was interesting to discover that Nike was initially called Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964. It started with the duo Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman, a football student and coach who had an interest in not only playing football but also redesigning athletic shoes. Bowerman tinkered with one of the shoes that Knight designed and the student loved it so much that he called it his first pair of running shoes.

In 1962, Knight made a trip to Japan because he believed that shoes could be manufactured for cheaper there as compared to Germany. He struck a deal with a local company there and brought their shoes to the US. That is when Blue Ribbon Sports came into being. However, Bowerman kept experimenting with those shoes and came up with more designs that skyrocketed the company into success and soured relations between the brand and the Japanese company who believed that Nike was trying to copy their design and sell it under their name. The matter was settled soon and Nike emerged as a new and independent brand that had already made a reputation for itself.

The famous Waffle Trainer was also an invention of the coach, Bowerman, who wondered whether the shoes would have better grip if they had the design of an inverted waffle on the back. This thought proved to be quite fruitful for the brand as the design took off and Nike has only seen good days from that day onwards.

 

Sustainability Rating: 6/10

Category: Shoes, Clothing

For: Women, Men, Kids

Products: Sneakers, T-shirts, Jordans, Leggings

Style: Trendy, Athletic

Quality: High

Prices: -

Size: 3.5 – 22 (US Men’s Size), 5 – 23.5 (US Women’s Size)

Fabrics: EVA, Leather, Mesh, Cow Suede, Silicone, Organic Cotton, Rubber, PVC, Recycled Polyester, Spandex

100% Organic: No

100% Vegan: Yes

Ethical and Fair: No

Recycling: No

Manufacturing Countries: Taiwan, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, China

Certifications: LEED, FDA, ISO 9001:2008

Nike’s “Just Do It” ad campaign has established itself in the forefront of pop culture and you would rarely find an individual who would not be able to recognize the brand by this line. Moreover, it has also signed many celebrities like Micheal Jordan, Serena Walkers, and Roger Ferderer to promote the shoes and it has brought increased revenue to the brand.

Nike is known for its simple yet unique designs with interesting color combinations. They are often lightweight and offer good grip, especially in athletic shoes that are made to prevent injuries and increase speed by providing a better grip. Even though it also makes shoes for everyday wear, they are designed to offer support during intense movement and maximum comfort which is why the brand has made a respectable name for itself among the people.

Nike has managed to keep both comfort and fashion hand in hand which is a big indicator of its large-scale success. Keeping fashion in mind, we may not be far off in saying that Nike is fast fashion in some ways and not in other ways. Its basic model does match the fast fashion model but Nike has worked to pull itself away from the stereotype of a typical fast fashion brand as much as it can. The brand does rely on trends and cheap labor, but it also offers premium-quality products and has been working on improving its sustainability practices.

Nike was not always concerned about being sustainable. It made use of sweatshops and unfair labor just like most of the other fast fashion brands. However, 1991 proved to be a turning point for the brand because it was exposed for its practices by Jeff Ballinger who damaged its reputation and people demanded transparency from the brand. Nike took its time to respond but ultimately calmed the public down by promising to improve its ways.

It also contributed a lot to the yearly waste generated by the fashion industry because it is a shoe company and a trainer sole can lie in a landfill for over 1000 years. However, Nike strived to stay committed to its recent endeavor of making the brand sustainable. It became a member of SAC (Sustainable Apparel Coalition) and has been trying to transform to using 100% renewable energy resources in all of its factories.

To combat the issue of waste, Nike has taken several initiatives towards reuse and recycling in which it encourages customers to donate used shoes and clothing to the company. These products are then either donated or recycled depending on their condition. This has largely helped the brand reduce waste at landfills. It also started an initiative in 1992 called Nike Grind that takes old shoes and breaks them down into rubber, leather, and other materials to be used for other purposes.

While some brands just label their products as “made from recyclable materials” even though they contain merely 5% of recycled material, Nike is on the right track. It has shown improvement in this category as well as the amount of recycled content in its shoes has gone from 41% to 59%. Business of Fashion even called Nike a “recognized sustainability leader” after witnessing its continuous efforts to become more sustainable each year. The GoodOnYou directory gives it a rating of “It’s a Start” which is great considering other fast fashion brands and the 2021 Fashion Transparency Index even gave it a rating of 51 – 60%. This highlights that even though Nike has been doing great in the path of sustainability, its journey is nowhere near the end.

Because of the high demand for some designs that contain leather, Nike has used 35% more leather in recent years. This automatically increases its carbon footprint because leather has some of the highest carbon footprints in the world. Despite this, Nike is trying to bring awareness to the problem of climate change by encouraging customers to care about the planet. It has also come up with a mission called “Move to Zero” that includes goals to be met for a zero waste and zero carbon future.

It promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, use 1005 renewable energy, reduce 99% of the waste from landfills, and use more than 1 billion plastic bottles to create yarn and other materials. The good thing is that Nike is on track to reach these goals and if it manages to do so, it would be one of the most sustainable shoe-wear brands in the world.

We can safely say that Nike does follow fast fashion trends but it has managed to elevate itself above fast fashion in many ways too. If it continues on the current path, then Nike may be one of the best options for eco-conscious people to shop for shoes.

 

Nike Sustainability. Move to Zero. Nike.com

History of Nike: Timeline and Facts - TheStreet

Is Nike Sustainable? Focusing on a Brighter Future (weavabel.com)

How Ethical Is Nike? - Good On You

Is Nike Sustainable? A guide to Nike's ethics and sustainability. (eco-stylist.com)