Learn English via Listening - Level 3 - Nike | Текст песни

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Nike and its swoosh corporate symbol are among the most recognized brand names in
world, alongside McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and Disney. Starting in 1964 as a sport shoe
outlet, the company grew to become the market leader in footwear and apparel. Nike has
since diversified into a range of activities, including sports event promotion.
Owned by Phil Knight, Nike has become synonymous with world-class sport, especially
through its sponsorship of events and elite athletes such as Michael Jordan and Tiger
Woods. Nike is so ever-present in the sports consumers' minds, that a survey conducted
during the Atlanta Summer Olympic Games in 1996 revealed an extremely high
awareness of Nike, despite that fact that Nike was not an official sponsor of the Games.
Nike's success has, to a great extent, been due to the fact that the company and its
swoosh symbol have become ubiquitous in consumers' minds. Nike has even run
television commercials without even mentioning its own name, being confident enough
that the checkmark swoosh is more than enough to make the company known.
Phil Knight has been the main inspiration behind Nike and its corporate direction. A
competent, although not elite, middle distance runner at the University of Oregon, Knight
went onto Harvard business school where the Nike idea emerged out of a paper he
developed for a class on entrepreneurship. Knight's former coach, Bill Bowerman,
developed lightweight running shoes that became the new company's trademark in the
early days. From these modest beginnings, Nike eventually grew to become the sports
giant it is today.
Ironically, part of Nike's status in the world of competitive sports merchandising has
come from the attention it's received by critics. A short article published in the early-
1990s in Harper's Magazine quickly mushroomed into an international outcry against
Nike's practice of placing their factories in underdeveloped countries and paying workers
below-subsistence wages. Nike quickly responded to the criticisms with a number of
tactics to either divert attention away from the criticisms (ones that Knight, interestingly,
at first denied), or by acknowledging the practices but claiming Nike was "cleaning up its
act."
In many cases, Nike has made an effort to create better working conditions for those in
underdeveloped countries making shoes and other merchandise. However, the overall
effect of Nike's changes is not known, and several groups around the world regularly
check, and often criticize, Nike's labour practices.
Nike's recent marketing extravaganzas include a $200 million (U.S.) deal with the
Brazilian National Soccer Federation. It has been rumoured that Knight's ego has much
to do with Nike's marketing strategies. Some critics have suggested that Knight's hidden
agenda is no less than controlling sports marketing and merchandising throughout the
world. Nike's corporate headquarters in Oregon reflect these aspirations. Nike's
buildings and surrounding grounds are constructed very much like a religious cathedral,
only with elite athletes, and Knight himself, as the gods.


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