Rory McIlroy, Nike and the $250m, 10-year sponsorship deal

Absurdistan

I f*ckin hate Nike.
A company built on paying top sportsmen silly money for their endorsement, so they can sell overpriced replica gear to the poor, while paying peanuts to third world sweatshop workers to make the stuff in the first place.
Young Rory has just become the richest British sportsman ever. Crazy money, crazy world.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/21018786

MattD

Thats business

Lincsaddick

Golf is a huge market. Affluent men and women of all ages all wanting the latest 'gear' and Nike is now going big into golf clubs (a lá equipment), balls and all the other over priced good stuff that golfers like and need to keep up with the golf playing nineteenth hole Jonses.
Rory is a such a little sweetie. He'll make Nike millions and will turn out to be a 'cheap date'

GretnaGreenAddick

Worst thing for me this season is our kits being made by Nike, only 3 and a half seasons before i can buy Charlton merch again, hopefully.

cafc999

GretnaGreenAddick said:

Worst thing for me this season is our kits being made by Nike, only 3 and a half seasons before i can buy Charlton merch again, hopefully.

To be honest the Nike kit is much better quality than the macron rubbish that we had. Still reckon our kit will be made by avec soon

johnnybev1987

What a life!

Ormiston_Addick

Crazy money, but if they are willing to pay it then its up to them.

I just can't believe they recoup their investment, I love Rory but he's got a face only a mother could love and is not exactly blessed with charisma (although he seems a good guy) so are millions of folks going to buy Nike golf gear because Rory uses it?

sralan

Just goes to show that sport isn't sport any more but a mega business. Crazy money being thrown about these days. The bubble is going to burst one day.

All_Thaid_Up

Have you seen the latest Nike advert with him and Tiger? I thought it was pretty good.

stilladdicted

Absurdistan said:

I f*ckin hate Nike.
A company built on paying top sportsmen silly money for their endorsement, so they can sell overpriced replica gear to the poor, while paying peanuts to third world sweatshop workers to make the stuff in the first place.
Young Rory has just become the richest British sportsman ever. Crazy money, crazy world.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/21018786

100% with you but too many people do seem to like showing off their celeb. labels. Hopefully I will still get a chance to buy Charlton wear again before I expire.

GretnaGreenAddick

cafc999 said:

GretnaGreenAddick said:

Worst thing for me this season is our kits being made by Nike, only 3 and a half seasons before i can buy Charlton merch again, hopefully.

To be honest the Nike kit is much better quality than the macron rubbish that we had. Still reckon our kit will be made by avec soon

Not about the quality, i can't buy Nike due to where & how it is made.

killerandflash

GretnaGreenAddick said:

cafc999 said:

GretnaGreenAddick said:

Worst thing for me this season is our kits being made by Nike, only 3 and a half seasons before i can buy Charlton merch again, hopefully.

To be honest the Nike kit is much better quality than the macron rubbish that we had. Still reckon our kit will be made by avec soon

Not about the quality, i can't buy Nike due to where & how it is made.

Are the other manufacturers any different? Surely they all make stuff in the far east.

oohaahmortimer

cafc999 said:

GretnaGreenAddick said:

Worst thing for me this season is our kits being made by Nike, only 3 and a half seasons before i can buy Charlton merch again, hopefully.

To be honest the Nike kit is much better quality than the macron rubbish that we had. Still reckon our kit will be made by avec soon

the kits for 4 and under are made by Avec i think already ...

GretnaGreenAddick

killerandflash said:

GretnaGreenAddick said:

cafc999 said:

GretnaGreenAddick said:

Worst thing for me this season is our kits being made by Nike, only 3 and a half seasons before i can buy Charlton merch again, hopefully.

To be honest the Nike kit is much better quality than the macron rubbish that we had. Still reckon our kit will be made by avec soon

Not about the quality, i can't buy Nike due to where & how it is made.

Are the other manufacturers any different? Surely they all make stuff in the far east.

Yes if you really look in to things, each company is different, they will all do something that some will see as immoral but not to go in to loads of detail, i have seen where Nike make many of there products with my own eyes, nobody should have to work in an enviroment like that, especially Children in some cases.

Sillybilly

Like Rory. Good luck to him but the world has gone completely bonkers. The irony is that, like Tiger before him (allegedly), Rory will probably still use far superior alternative gear (Titleist in his case) with the Nike swoop stuck on it. Tiger apparently used Bridgestone balls all the time but they had a side deal with Nike to put the label on (or so my pro tells me).

addick16

truth be told, nike quality is actually better then other competitors in the market (titelist, taylor made, ping .... etc) ... but only because they do use sweatshops and 3rd world country labor to produce a high quality product which they can price cheaper in the market and still maintain their massive profit margins ...

All_Thaid_Up

Nike golf balls are made by Bridgestone. Nike golf clubs are made partly in the US (heads) the shafts are made in china.

daveaddick

I love Rory but he's got a face only a mother could love

What about that girlfriend of his? she loves him to

GretnaGreenAddick

All_Thaid_Up said:

Nike golf balls are made by Bridgestone. Nike golf clubs are made partly in the US (heads) the shafts are made in china.

Good for them, im still not happy thinking of Charlton shirts potentially coming out of one of the two places i have seen.

Stu_of_Kunming

GretnaGreenAddick said:

All_Thaid_Up said:

Nike golf balls are made by Bridgestone. Nike golf clubs are made partly in the US (heads) the shafts are made in china.

Good for them, im still not happy thinking of Charlton shirts potentially coming out of one of the two places i have seen.

I'll probably get shouted down for this, but what would happen without those sweatshops? People would starve, I, personally don't agree with judging what happens in 3rd world / developing countries by English standard, of course it's exploitation, but people would be a lot worse off without it.

All_Thaid_Up

Stu, I was going to say the same thing but thought better of it. Easy to judge from a western point of view.

GretnaGreenAddick

Stu_of_Kunming said:

GretnaGreenAddick said:

All_Thaid_Up said:

Nike golf balls are made by Bridgestone. Nike golf clubs are made partly in the US (heads) the shafts are made in china.

Good for them, im still not happy thinking of Charlton shirts potentially coming out of one of the two places i have seen.

I'll probably get shouted down for this, but what would happen without those sweatshops? People would starve, I, personally don't agree with judging what happens in 3rd world / developing countries by English standard, of course it's exploitation, but people would be a lot worse off without it.

Thing is they only just about survive and don't starve on the "wage" most of them are paid, when the simple fact is, the companies can afford to pay them even a tiny amount more and still make huge profits.

Combine that with the fact many of them will die much younger or have life long disabilities due to working to make Nike products, it really feels morally wrong.

I certainly would not want my family working there or either of my two young nephews but it is a free world so people are free to keep supporting them because they want that nice new Nike sports wear, just don't kid yourself where it comes from and the price other's pay for it.

iaitch

GGA

Do you only boycott NIke products? I would imagine that most items from the third world are produced where the wages, conditions and health and safety would be unacceptable compared to western standards.

Leroy Ambrose

GretnaGreenAddick said:

Stu_of_Kunming said:

GretnaGreenAddick said:

All_Thaid_Up said:

Nike golf balls are made by Bridgestone. Nike golf clubs are made partly in the US (heads) the shafts are made in china.

Good for them, im still not happy thinking of Charlton shirts potentially coming out of one of the two places i have seen.

I'll probably get shouted down for this, but what would happen without those sweatshops? People would starve, I, personally don't agree with judging what happens in 3rd world / developing countries by English standard, of course it's exploitation, but people would be a lot worse off without it.

Thing is they only just about survive and don't starve on the "wage" most of them are paid, when the simple fact is, the companies can afford to pay them even a tiny amount more and still make huge profits.

Combine that with the fact many of them will die much younger or have life long disabilities due to working to make Nike products, it really feels morally wrong.

I certainly would not want my family working there or either of my two young nephews but it is a free world so people are free to keep supporting them because they want that nice new Nike sports wear, just don't kid yourself where it comes from and the price other's pay for it.

Every single other sports and fashion wear brand uses sweatshop labour - either at 'home' or abroad. The rag trade has always been utterly notorious for exploiting it's worker class. It's just got more 'visible' over time with large-scale publicisation of practices in the third world. It isn't just the rag trade though - pretty much every large industry exploits third world workers. There isn't anything you can do about it.

GretnaGreenAddick

Nope i look in to each company, on it's own merits before i choose who gets my money, but i will admit i have a special dislike for Nike due to the fact i have seen there workings for myself because of my line of work, even if i was there under false motives, they don't like my sort round there, for obvious reasons.

Leroy Ambrose

So do you not buy sportswear then?

iaitch

So when you buy a product you know exactly where every component of that product is made and under what conditions?

GretnaGreenAddick

No but due to my work i can normally find out just how far over a moral line that i wish the human race could live by,many companies go, none of us can live a perfect moral life unless we live on a desert island and make our own clothing/food/whatever else and i don't have an issue with people making the choice to support companies like Nike.

I just think people should no the truth about where many of there items come from before they make that choice.

I will back out of this debate as i can see where this is leading which only ends with me realising just how far a modern society still has to go.

Leroy Ambrose

Don't want to turn this into a witch hunt against GGA - his heart is in the right place. Personally, I find it a problem that pretty much anything I buy will have come via exploited labour - be it the cotton being picked by children in India, the dye applied in factories with dreadful safety records in Indonesia, or the 14 year old girl stitching it together over fourteen hour days in China - but I long ago realised that there isn't a damn thing that I, you, or anyone else can do about it. You just have to reconcile yourself to this one thing and live with it:

"The world's fucked".

In fact, that's pretty much my mantra nowadays.

All_Thaid_Up

There are far worse industries than the rag trade especially in Asia for human rights abuses and child labour. To be honest I have visited many garment manufacturers across SE Asia and compared artisanal mining operations they are angels.

GretnaGreenAddick

Leroy Ambrose said:

Don't want to turn this into a witch hunt against GGA - his heart is in the right place. Personally, I find it a problem that pretty much anything I buy will have come via exploited labour - be it the cotton being picked by children in India, the dye applied in factories with dreadful safety records in Indonesia, or the 14 year old girl stitching it together over fourteen hour days in China - but I long ago realised that there isn't a damn thing that I, you, or anyone else can do about it. You just have to reconcile yourself to this one thing and live with it:

"The world's fucked".

In fact, that's pretty much my mantra nowadays.

Oh ok one more message.(who am i kidding);)

Dont worry i have the same attitude sometimes, we can't spend our life worrying about everything we do but im sure everybody has that personal line or something they boycott, that is important to you.

Im aware that i come on strongly to much, as my personal journey is due to seeing this stuff in person, i fight for something i believe in, similar to people who decide to support a certain charity, often cancer when they have had help or help for a family member that has needed it.