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Because $25 per "pair" of shoes is absurd. That's Nike "juking" the stats to make it look like they pay far more than they do per pair of shoes. For one thing,

Because $25 per "pair" of shoes is absurd. That's Nike "juking" the stats to make it look like they pay far more than they do per pair of shoes. For one thing, as a consumer you can buy individually shoes that are at least as good of quality as any Nike Shoe for anywhere from $8-$12 delivered. So the idea that Nike, in bulk, is running factories that are known to be questionable and paying $25 per shoe is "pure fantasy". Just based on known labor rates and material costs it's safe to say $4 on the high end if you factor in a bunch of operational and brand based overhead.

decimalenough 2y ago
The $25 number comes from Steve Bence, Nike's Program Director in Footwear Sourcing and Manufacturing. I would also take that number with a grain of salt, but another cited source, Sole Review, an independent sneaker review site, estimates that manufacturing a shoe that's $100 at retail shoe costs $22. So those are the article's sources. What are yours? I'm also curious about your claim about $8-12 shoes that are equivalent in quality, because while you can, indeed, buy very cheap shoes on Aliexpress etc, the quality or lack thereof is usually commensurate.
- Kon5ole 2y ago
  I can't believe Nike spends 25 dollars on the actual making of the shoes, it just doesn't add up. Nike sneakers regularly sell to consumers for ~25 dollars, in brick-and-mortar stores, in countries that have 20% VAT. Naturally Nike wants to claim their shoes are as valuable as possible, and they can perhaps somewhat truthfully claim 25 dollars by including the cost of R&D, sponsorships and marketing etc in the cost of making the shoes. Then they can spread the total cost of Nike operations creatively over models that sell 1 million units and others that sell only 50 000 units. If shoes cost 5 dollars to make but you feel you need to pay Serena and Tiger 20 bucks per shoe to sell them, suddenly they "cost" 25 to "make".
  - decimalenough 2y ago
    They're not saying the incremental cost of making a single shoe is $25. They're saying that, after everything is accounted for, it costs Nike approx $25 to get a $100 retail shoe onto a boat in China. And yes, Nike has cheaper shoes too, but per article, if it's retailing for $50, it probably costs $12 tops to make.

decimalenough 2y ago

The $25 number comes from Steve Bence, Nike's Program Director in Footwear Sourcing and Manufacturing. I would also take that number with a grain of salt, but another cited source, Sole Review, an independent sneaker review site, estimates that manufacturing a shoe that's $100 at retail shoe costs $22. So those are the article's sources. What are yours? I'm also curious about your claim about $8-12 shoes that are equivalent in quality, because while you can, indeed, buy very cheap shoes on Aliexpress etc, the quality or lack thereof is usually commensurate.

Kon5ole 2y ago
I can't believe Nike spends 25 dollars on the actual making of the shoes, it just doesn't add up. Nike sneakers regularly sell to consumers for ~25 dollars, in brick-and-mortar stores, in countries that have 20% VAT. Naturally Nike wants to claim their shoes are as valuable as possible, and they can perhaps somewhat truthfully claim 25 dollars by including the cost of R&D, sponsorships and marketing etc in the cost of making the shoes. Then they can spread the total cost of Nike operations creatively over models that sell 1 million units and others that sell only 50 000 units. If shoes cost 5 dollars to make but you feel you need to pay Serena and Tiger 20 bucks per shoe to sell them, suddenly they "cost" 25 to "make".
- decimalenough 2y ago
  They're not saying the incremental cost of making a single shoe is $25. They're saying that, after everything is accounted for, it costs Nike approx $25 to get a $100 retail shoe onto a boat in China. And yes, Nike has cheaper shoes too, but per article, if it's retailing for $50, it probably costs $12 tops to make.