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How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

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Re: How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

#651

Post by slt2021 »

hx8 wrote: post #83

> But if we bump the cost of freight, insurance, and customs from $5 to, say, $28, then they wholesale the shoes to Footlocker for about $75. And if Footlocker purchases Nike shoes for $75, then they retail them for $150. Everyone needs to fixed percentages to avoid losses. I don't understand this paragraph. If Footlocker was okay with $50 profit/shoe, why do they need to claim $75 profit/shoe in their costs per shoe…

more expensive shoes will lead to longer lead times to sell inventory, due to downward slope of the Demand curve (less demand for more expensive shoes).

If you sell $75 shoes, you can sell 1000 units/mo, but if your shoes are $100 you can only sell 700/mo and it will take 1.5 months to sell 1000 units.

This effectively increases fixed overheads per pair of shoes and decreases net margin per pair, given constant demand

Re: How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

#652

Post by vitorgrs »

zppln wrote: post #492
ninetyninenine wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We need to anticipate a future where China is equal to America on a per capita basis, This is a nice way to put it. Anticipate a world within your life time where China is the dominant economic, technological, military and cultural super power. Anticipate jealousy, anticipate fear, but know that as Americans who have been top dog for decades there is nothing wrong with not being the best. Additionally anticipate a c…

> cultural super power My impression is that Chinese culture has very little appeal elsewhere (at least in the West). They can't seem to be able to (or care to) package it in an appealing way. Sure, they're being catered to in films and video games but I see very little organic interest in Chinese culture, especially compared to Japanese or Korean culture.

I also had the same thinking, when somehow my mother started watching Chinese TV shows. She first started with kdramas on Netflix, tried to watch a few Japense and didn't liked... then moved to Chinese dramas. And it seems, it's getting really popular here in Brazil. All anecdotical, but I know a few people that watch besides her.

Tencent has a streaming focused on international market called WeTV, there's also IQIYI. There's Viki too, that is from Rakuten - that is Japanese, but there's a ton of Chinese content there (which she also watches).

My nephew even learned a few words of mandarin (and Korean too) because she keep watching that all day.

Kdramas are really popular here, and don't think it's as popular as the US, my guess it's just the soap opera consumption Latin America was always huge, so it makes Asian dramas more palatable, as they are more soap opera style.

Now for music yeah, don't think Chinese music is that popular or will ever be compared to kpop.

Re: How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

#653

Post by dfee »

hemabe wrote: post #426
rayiner wrote: post #42

Americans need to get over their view of “Asia” as being about making shoes. When I was working in engineering in the early aughts, we mocked the Chinese as being able only to copy American technology. Today, China is competitive with or ahead of America in key technology areas, including nuclear power, AI, EVs, and batteries. We need to anticipate a future where China is equal to America on a per capita basis, but f…

China could not only be ‘equal’ but ‘better’ than the USA - we should get used to the idea. China has an average IQ of 104 out of 1.4 billion people, while the USA has an IQ of 97. In purely statistical terms, this means that the USA has around 700,000 people with an IQ >= 140. China has 11,480,000 people with this IQ. This human capital will make the difference.

There are a lot of sleeper or new accounts in this discussion. I’m afraid there’s a bunch of astroturfing.

Oh, hackernews, how you’ve fallen :(

Re: How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

#655

Post by listless »

ForOldHack wrote: post #425

"I encourage you to note assume that every Asian worker is a slave." I do NOTE, that I was on Korea for 18 months, and saw over 20 factories, and knew a few people that worked there. They were making 1/10 of the minimum wage in America at the time, $0.75 vs $7.50, Today they are making $6.94, so I would assume that They are making few shoes in Korea. "While it's difficult to pinpoint exactly which country pays the ab…

“I encourage you to not assume that every Asian worker is a slave."

That’s a hell of a dodge. The problem isn’t that these workers are mistreated, it’s that you’re a racist.

Re: How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

#656

Post by seanmcdirmid »

rayiner wrote: post #643
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #618

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of our “value chain” is bullshit. No it isn't, productivity has to increase, that's why we constantly get rid of jobs that do not provide much value. People want more money, and the only way we get there is with more productivity (doing jobs that make more money). > If and when China becomes twice as big an economy as the US, much of our “edge” in marketing, finance, and services isn’t going to mean squat. Ch…

> No it isn't, productivity has to increase, that's why we constantly get rid of jobs that do not provide much value. Our measures of “value” are wrong. > I don't know what you are ranting about My point is that a lot of what we think of as “higher value” activities are actually derivative of and downstream of our industrial supremacy. As China takes up that mantle, the higher value activities will go along with it.…

We basically agree then: as China takes up higher value activities, they won't need those activities from the US anymore. Also, France is the cutting edge designer of nuclear power plants these days.

> Why did the software revolution happen in the same place we were building the microchips?

Hardware people becoming software people was extremely common back then, and still is today (EEs can make more coding than using their degree directly). Now we have the opposite problem (we don't have enough hardware people because software sucked all the oxygen out of the room) and China has less of it (although increasingly...they are repeating history as well). If anything, this just backs up my point in how higher value activities de-emphasize manufacturing (even super high end manufacturing as in semiconductors).

You can replace perceived value with actual value if you don't agree with the value judgement calls that were made, which is entirely reasonable.

Re: How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

#657

Post by throwaway173738 »

myrmidon wrote: post #143
pfannkuchen wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn’t really make sense to me. The market cares about dollar returned vs dollar invested. If some piece in the middle of the chain goes up and end customer prices go up as well, that doesn’t directly affect investors at all. The way it could and likely will affect investors is if people start buying fewer shoes, but that is a different process than what you are describing. If I’m off base can you help me under…

If you can make $5k/year by investing $100k into shoe-selling, then those profits have to rise at the same rate as base costs, otherwise, people will just invest into eggplant-selling, instead. Another perspective is that Footlocker would sell you those $25 Nikes for $300 if they could-- but if they tried, someone else would get active in the retail business and invest into a slightly less profitable operation (with…

You can only raise prices so much before people look for alternatives to what you’re selling or do without. What we’re going to see with tariffs isn’t just price increases. We’re going to see some price increases, some reduction in selection, some stores closing, and some layoffs.

Re: How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

#658

Post by marenkay »

rayiner wrote: post #42

Americans need to get over their view of “Asia” as being about making shoes. When I was working in engineering in the early aughts, we mocked the Chinese as being able only to copy American technology. Today, China is competitive with or ahead of America in key technology areas, including nuclear power, AI, EVs, and batteries. We need to anticipate a future where China is equal to America on a per capita basis, but f…

Hasn't that point already been reached given the US could not sustain itself in any reasonable way without Chinese labor and knowledge?

There seem to be a lot of companies in the S&P500 that would dry out without access to Chinese workers and goods. Just take cloud providers. Where is their gear sourced from? Is there any realistic chance to provide that from within the US? Given the current state that would become necessary but seems highly unlikely to be achievable.

Re: How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

#659

Post by padolsey »

Thaxll wrote: post #358
rayiner wrote: post #42

Americans need to get over their view of “Asia” as being about making shoes. When I was working in engineering in the early aughts, we mocked the Chinese as being able only to copy American technology. Today, China is competitive with or ahead of America in key technology areas, including nuclear power, AI, EVs, and batteries. We need to anticipate a future where China is equal to America on a per capita basis, but f…

Average American would be shocked to see a city like Shenzhen. It's like living in the future.

Agree! I wish Americans would travel more and escape their media bubble. China is incredible. I was in Chonqing and then Shenzhen recently, and live in Beijing. Truly it's very divorced from what western people have grown to expect.

Re: How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

#660

Post by znkynz »

watwut wrote: post #433
sdwr wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this is arguably the tail wagging the dog - Trump is a reaction to the end of US hegemony, not the cause

Trump has zero to do with previous level of US hegemony. He represents what large part of Americans are - for internal reasons that have nothing to do with geopolitics.

The (relatively) uninformed US population is 100% an intentional domestic outcome of US geopolitics.
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