Where Are Nike Products Made?

Nike is one of the most recognizable brands in the world and one of the top global producers of athletic shoes and apparel. They were founded in Oregon in 1964 by University of Oregon track star Phil Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman. Nike still has their roots in Oregon today, but it’s pretty obvious and well documented that they outsource a ton of their manufacturing to Southeast Asia, Central America, and other regions of the world to take advantage of cheap labor and material costs, no matter what the hit on our economy or the quality of their products is. So, the question isn’t necessarily “is Nike made in the USA”, but rather – are there any Nike products at all that are still assembled and sourced in the United States? We did the research to find out. Our verdict is below.

Verdict: Are Any Nike Products Made in the USA?

According to the latest data we have from November 2020, Nike has 35 U.S. factories (30 focused on apparel), which makes up 6.4% of their total number of worldwide factories. Those 35 factories employ 5,430 workers, a measly 0.5% of Nike’s total workers across their entire manufacturing footprint. Averaging that out, each U.S. Nike factory employs 155.1 workers on average, compared to the average across all of their factories of 2,010.1 workers.

Vietnam, China, and Indonesia make up most of their footprint, totaling 51.6% of their manufacturing plants. Those countries are clearly the hotbeds for manufacturing where they really “pack it in”, each factory employing 2,888.6 workers on average.

So, where is Nike made? Below is a breakdown of all Nike factories sorted by country and the types of products they produce.

Nike is perhaps most renowned for its shoes and sneakers. So if you are wondering where are Nike shoes made, if you look at the graph above, you’ll see that most of their shoes are made in China, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Regardless of whether or not you decide to buy any Nike products, I would be remiss not to bring up their controversial past of not just abandoning American manufacturing, but producing their products in factories with absolutely atrocious working conditions. Nike drew major criticism starting in the 1990s for their use of child labor and sweatshops in countries like Cambodia and Pakistan. There have been several video documentaries following children in Nike’s factories who were working 7 days a week and 16 hours a day. Those types of employment controversies have continued recently as well, including a strike at a Chinese factory where the public discovered that Nike had been underpaying their factory workers for nearly 20 years.

Additional controversy surfaced more recently with another example of Nike saying one thing and doing another – the Hong Kong protests, a large social justice event in 2019 and 2020. Nike loves a good social justice campaign, but when Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey spoke out in support of the protests, Nike removed all Houston Rockets apparel from their stores in China.

Anyways, I think there are tons of better options for athletic shoes and apparel from companies that support fair wages, working conditions, and the American job market and economy. If you do want to buy Nike, I would recommend going straight to the source from one of their U.S. manufacturing partners, which I’ve listed below.

Good luck in your search! And let us know if you have any questions.

American Made Alternatives

• American made shoe companies
• American made sneaker companies
• American made shorts
• American made activewear

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Data source: nikeinc.com