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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?

#671

Post by hattmall »

decimalenough wrote: post #603
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 would dismiss this article as pure fantasy. Why? The article starts from the point where Nike pays $25 per shoe boarded into a container on a boat, where that number covers all expenses until that point. Yes, this includes the shoe workers' wages, but it also has the factory construction and maintenance, manufacturing equipment, the inputs that go into the shoe, transport to get the shoes packed into a container…

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.

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

#672

Post by ta8645 »

marenkay wrote: post #664

This makes a good argument against centralized production and knowledge. It would economically be much more reasonable if any good could be produced anywhere at any time. Smaller production facilities for localized sourcing. Would IMHO also be much more in line with a free market. Everyone would be free to source goods in any country or location of their choice. Coupled with open knowledge this could be a truly free…

It sounds like you're advocating for a centrally planned market that allocates resources according to a grand, rational vision. A free market will by definition be messy, sometimes inefficient, adhoc, and defy any notion of a grand vision. You have to trust the free market to produce the best results in the long run, and to be the most responsive to change (opportunity).

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

#673

Post by sien »

horns4lyfe wrote: post #625
sien wrote: post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DJI is the premier drone company in the world. Also in places where Chinese electric cars are not being blocked they are really taking off. In 20 years for billions of people the most common car will be a Chinese one. China is able to build nuclear reactors while the US is floundering. The Chinese may well be the first to produce electricity from fusion. People come back from Shenzhen now to the US and say that the U…

Those things are all optimizing…

Fusion would be something totally new.

The other thing to look at is the number of high impact papers in Materials Science, Chemistry, Engineering, Comp Sci and Physics and look at where they are being written. Check the image from The Economist in the article below :

https://asiatimes.com/2025/03/behold-chinas-innovative-golde...

It's great for the world that China now has hundreds of millions of people who are able to have much better lives and tens of millions who are making great contributions to the world.

China has done what the US did in copying Europe 150 years ago. The US copied Europe and then went further. China is now doing that.

If fusion is successfully done in China rather than the US it will still be great for people in the US. The US can copy it.

The only thing is that the US's dominance is ending.

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

#674

Post by marenkay »

ta8645 wrote: post #672
marenkay wrote: post #664

This makes a good argument against centralized production and knowledge. It would economically be much more reasonable if any good could be produced anywhere at any time. Smaller production facilities for localized sourcing. Would IMHO also be much more in line with a free market. Everyone would be free to source goods in any country or location of their choice. Coupled with open knowledge this could be a truly free…

It sounds like you're advocating for a centrally planned market that allocates resources according to a grand, rational vision. A free market will by definition be messy, sometimes inefficient, adhoc, and defy any notion of a grand vision. You have to trust the free market to produce the best results in the long run, and to be the most responsive to change (opportunity).

Not really. The opposite. The current market is centralized a lot more than people want to see or admit. I had trust in the free market for a long time but it has not really materialized the best results. As can be seen by the current state of affairs. Everyone fighting over who gets to have money and production is not freedom, it's a war without guns.

Just to make this clear, a truly free market would be desirable but I don't see it materialize on this world.

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

#675

Post by yellowapple »

myrmidon wrote: post #171
pjc50 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> US will find itself in the same position the UK is in now The thing is .. there's a point here, but it's not at all tied in with physical products. People are obsessed with one side of the ledger while refusing to see the other. Most of the stuff the UK is struggling with (transport, healthcare, energy) are "state capacity" issues. Things where the state is unavoidably involved and having better, more decisive lead…

> Fishing is less profitable for the whole UK than Warhammer. This sounded completely insane to me. I tried to look up numbers and found that Games Workshop brings in > 0.5 billion in revenue (!!), compared to all of UKs fisheries at 1 billion-ish (profit margins are, as you'd expect, pretty favorable for the plastic figurines that they don' even paint for you). Thanks for this interesting fact.

The UK ain't alone in that either. California's agricultural sector is one of the largest in the world (let alone in the US) in terms of revenue and output, in many cases providing most/all of national and even global supplies of various fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Virtually all American almonds and broccoli, 90% or more of American dates and avocados, top producer of peaches and dairy products, the list goes on.

And yet, California's entire agricultural sector only totals to $50 billion in annual revenue. There are multiple tech and entertainment companies in California that individually surpass that, in some cases (like Apple and Amazon) by an order of magnitude.

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

#676

Post by hattmall »

phkahler wrote: post #314

I've always wondered why the supply chain has exponential price increase at each step. The example given (guessed at) is the factory produces the shoe for $12.5 and sells it to Nike for $25. Nike then sells it to Footlocker for $50 and they then sell to a customer for $100. Everyone expects to mark up their costs by about 100 percent. Why is that the case? Even if we say the markup isn't 100 percent, why is it a perc…

It's more of a work backwards thing. The price is set by demand, what the market will bear, etc. Then for well established supply chain / commodity goods overhead tends to rise to meet COGS. The reason is that there exists profit taking at every level of "overhead" but when the cost of revenue exceeds the cost of goods it becomes a marker of inefficiency. In the same way when manufacturers recognize that their cost are less than the retailers overhead to generate sales they see room to raise costs so markets trend to 50/50.

But consider Footlocker sells a lot of other shoes for much less than Nikes. Those shoes don't cost any less to manufacturer and depending on the brand are just as well established so the 50/50 ratio still applies. It's just that at each level the overhead adjusts to meet the ratio over time.

For fringe brands the retailers markup can be huge 10x or more.

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

#677

Post by pjdemers »

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…

Darn right. Lots of smart, hard working, innovative people in China. And every single one of them would get on plane tonight if they could get a visa to live in US or UK (and a few other countries). So, which countries offer a better future for our children?

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

#678

Post by vasco »

pjc50 wrote: post #102
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…

> US will find itself in the same position the UK is in now The thing is .. there's a point here, but it's not at all tied in with physical products. People are obsessed with one side of the ledger while refusing to see the other. Most of the stuff the UK is struggling with (transport, healthcare, energy) are "state capacity" issues. Things where the state is unavoidably involved and having better, more decisive lead…

Can't really eat plastic figures. And you maybe only ate frozen fish in your life but fresh fish is great.

It's way more profitable for me to work than to sleep but I still sleep.

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

#679

Post by hattmall »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #510
Spivak wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, direct from the manufacturer— no. Direct from the retailer without touching a physical store— yes.

You can buy shoes directly from Nike here in Australia. Is that not the same in the states?

You can, but most people go to a shoe store and check out different brands. Most people that end up buying Nikes aren't the people that only buy Nike and know what they want without trying on a few pairs.

Like unless you just know you specifically want some Nike shoe you aren't likely to visit Nike.com to buy shoes.

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

#680

Post by bbreier »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #520
Symbiote wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yesterday your vice president referred to the Chinese as "peasants".

Something like 35% of China's population works in the agriculture sector, many of whom are poor with little or no land holdings living in small villages. Is there a word for that kind of person?

Peasant has a more specific meaning than this. More importantly, it has been used as a pejorative for a very long time now and that is clearly the intent the vice president had in mind.
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