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What is the Nike supply chain for their shoes?
Hi! Thanks for your question about Nike's shoe factory supply chain. Here's the short version: Nike's factories are all independently-owned and contracted, mostly in China and Southeast Asia, and this is where the bulk of their raw materials come from as well. Read on for a list of Nike's largest factories and a deeper dive into their supply chain.
METHODOLOGY
Since Nike's manufacturing standards and supply chain are a perennial hot topic, they've actually provided a fair amount of tools and info themselves. I started my research by looking at that info on their site and on mainstream news sites/blogs. This map, provided by Nike, was helpful, as were other sources that have examined Nike's disclosures about its factories worldwide.
To analyze the supply chain process, I looked at Nike's claims about their suppliers and processes and also looked at some outside sources examining how those claims work in practice.
Since your question specifically mentioned footwear, I filtered the data on these sources to only show footwear-focused factories. And since China, Indonesia, and Vietnam by themselves account for close to 96% of Nike's total manufacturing, I focused on those three countries in building the list.
SUPPLY CHAIN
Nike's manufacturing process looks like this: they send their shoe designs to independently-owned factories, who procure their materials from local sources. Nike requires their contracted factories to sign a code of conduct pledging to adhere to standards in environmental impact, lowering waste, fair wages, and worker empowerment. However, that code of conduct only applies to manufacturers -- raw material suppliers are exempt.
From the manufacturer, shoes and apparel are shipped to Nike distribution centers in the USA and worldwide. From there, they go to retail at Nike's 1,000-plus stores worldwide.
Nike uses six raw materials for its footwear manufacturing: Polyester, Rubber, EVA foam, Cotton, Synthetic Leather, and Leather. I've created a basic flowchart showing the sources for these materials as well as the overall supply chain -- take a look at it here.
LIST - NIKE SHOE FACTORIES
Click here to view my list of the 15 largest Nike shoe factories -- 5 each in their largest manufacturing countries (China, Indonesia and Vietnam).
CONCLUSION
Since your question was focused on the factories themselves, I didn't dig as deeply into the exact sources of the raw materials. Nike is making more of an effort toward transparency in their supply chain overall, and are increasing their environmental-impact efforts across the supply chain significantly as well.
One more time, here's the list of Nike's biggest factories in Vietnam, Indonesia, and China, and here is my basic flowchart of Nike's global supply chain. A standard Wonder list is composed of 10 items. If you need more information for yours, please feel free to submit another request. Thanks for using Wonder!