Adidas; a Multi-National Company

Adidas; a multi-national company
By Callum Niddrie




Adidas is a multi-national sports brand with factories and stores in many countries. Popularity and profits have risen in recent years, due to immense sponsorship of sportsmen and women and sponsorship of sporting events; such as the Olympics.  
As we can see from this image, Adidas has factories in an extremely large number of countries. With such a large profit in the year of 2012; €14.883 Billion, you may be wondering if there are any ethical concerns. In my report I will attempt to sort the fact from the fiction concerning their ethics.
The 2012 Olympics
Before the London 2012 Olympics many concerns arose as to the workers behind the company’s Olympic range of clothing. Many protestors attached 34p price tags to sportswear across the range; this is the minimum wage for the Indonesian manufacturers of their products. Such wide interest was given to this matter because in the agreement with the Olympic organisers and Team GB, Adidas stated that all workers and manufacturers of their product would receive a fair wage and decent working conditions. These allegations arose from 9 Indonesian factories which had licences to produce Olympic sportswear for Team GB. It was also stated that some of the workers faced physical abuse on a daily basis.
The €1 Shoe
In 2010 Adidas announced the €1 shoe in an attempt to improve their image following a report about Chinese workers and their low wage and poor living conditions. The €1 shoe was suggested to Adidas by former Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus and will first appear in Muhammad’s home country of Bangladesh. Adidas have announced that the shoe will cost no more than the cost of materials and manufacturing, so many sceptics have speculated that the shoe, despite its catchy name, will in fact cost more than €1. However, the shoe will still be very cheap and still has the ability to improve the standard of living for many people who live in developing...