In 1963, Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight founded Nike with the concept of importing affordable, high-tech athletic shoes from Japan, challenging the dominance of German brands like Adidas and Puma.
By 1981, Nike became the top athletic footwear brand in the US, eventually going public and launching iconic products like the Air Force One and Air Jordan basketball shoes.
However, in 1997, the company faced controversy when accused of using subcontractors employing child labor.
In 2021, Nike faced challenges due to the Covid-19 crisis, leading to the withdrawal of sponsorships from certain athletes and non-renewal of contracts worldwide.
Moreover, allegations emerged regarding deceptive commercial practices and complicity in forced labor concealment, particularly concerning the treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, China. Nike's involvement in lobbying efforts to weaken legislation banning imports of products from Xinjiang further added to its controversies and challenges in maintaining its reputation and market position.
Tax optimization
The Paradise Papers, published in November 2017, show that the equipment manufacturer practices tax optimization through a series of financial arrangements between the Netherlands and the Bahamas, which would enable it, according to the newspaper Le Monde, to "reduce its tax rate to 2% in Europe " compared with 25% on average for European companies.
In detail, since 2014 Nike has repatriated all its European revenues to a subsidiary in the Netherlands, which pays another subsidiary, Nike Innovate, the right to use the Nike brand, artificially drying up its profits. Nike Innovate takes advantage of a loophole in Dutch legislation, known as "CV-BV": the Dutch tax authorities consider that the subsidiary should be taxed in the United States, and vice versa. As a result, Nike Innovate pays no tax at all.
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