Skip to content
1981
image of A woke brand? An analysis of Nike and the limits of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the fashion-industrial complex

Abstract

In an era marked by heightened social consciousness and impacted by Black Lives Matter (BLM), fashion brands worldwide endeavour to position themselves as socially responsible. This study scrutinizes Nike, a global leader in the fashion-industrial complex, and its ‘woke’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. By conducting a detailed case study of Nike’s ‘woke’ CSR initiatives and analysing social media user comments, the research seeks to unveil the tensions and constraints of ‘woke’ CSR. The study investigates the social media discourse surrounding Nike’s image, focusing on racial consciousness and concludes that the brand’s ‘woke’ CSR initiatives are not transformative; they merely perform wokeness. The analysis uncovered three common themes in the social media data: (1) the commodification of BLM, (2) commodity activism and (3) woke-washing. By examining the limits of Nike’s ‘woke’ CSR practices within the fashion-industrial complex, this study provides insights into the challenges and opportunities for brands seeking to meet socially conscious consumers’ evolving expectations.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/fspc_00256_1
2024-05-03
2024-11-05
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Adelman, J. (2015), ‘What caused capitalism? Assessing the roles of the West and the rest’, Foreign Affairs, 94:3, pp. 13644.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Ashgar, J. (2013), ‘Critical paradigm: A preamble for novice researchers’, Life Science, 10:4, pp. 312127.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bailey, R. (1990), ‘The slave(ry) trade and the development of capitalism in the United States: The textile industry in New England’, Social Science History, 14:3, pp. 373414.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Barber, A. (2021), Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism, New York: Grand Central Publishing.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bauck, W. (2020), ‘Former Everlane employees claim they were unlawfully fired after they tried to unionize [updated]’, Fashionista, 2 April, https://fashionista.com/2020/04/everlane-union-bust-covid-19. Accessed 2 March 2022.
  6. Beckert, S. (2014), Empire of Cotton: A Global History, New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Bidet, J. and Kouvélakis, E. (2008), Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism, Leiden: Brill.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Black, S., la Haye, A. de, Entwistle, J., Root, R., Rocamora, A. and Thomas, H. (eds) (2017), The Handbook of Fashion Studies, London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Brucculieri, J. (2019), ‘Iconic LGBTQ moments from some of fashion’s biggest runways’, 18 June, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lgbtq-runway-moments_l_5d07adf1e4b0f5338d4112bb. Accessed 5 January 2020.
  10. Carroll, A. B. (1999), ‘Corporate social responsibility: Evolution of a definitional construct’, Business & Society, 38:3, pp. 26895.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Cernison, M. (2019), Social Media Activism: Water as a Common Good, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Charmaz, K. and Belgrave, L. L. (2019), ‘Thinking about data with grounded theory’, Qualitative Inquiry, 25:8, pp. 74353, https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800418809455.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Cho, E., Cho, A. and Park, M. (2014), ‘Designing social sustainability with one foot at a time’, Archives of Design Research, 27:2, pp. 2943.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. cmaadmin (2007), ‘Nike, HBCUs strike deal: Historically Black colleges and universities’, 14 July, https://www.diverseeducation.com/sports/article/15084738/nike-hbcus-strike-deal-historically-black-colleges-and-universities. Accessed 5 January 2020.
  15. CNN (2016), ‘Mario Woods shot more than 20 times in San Francisco, autopsy says’, 12 February, https://www.cnn.com/2016/02/11/us/san-francisco-police-shooting-mario-woods-autopsy/index.html. Accessed 5 January 2020.
  16. Commission of the European Communities (2001), Green Paper: Promoting a European Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility, Luxembourg: European Commission.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Crenshaw, K., Gotanda, N., Peller, G. and Kendall, T. (eds) (1995), Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement, New York: New Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Debreceny, R. S., Wang, T. and Zhou, M. (2019), ‘Research in social media: Data sources and methodologies’, Journal of Information Systems, 33:1, pp. 128.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Desai, R. (2019), ‘The Amazon wildfires are a product of environmental racism’, The SWDL, 4 September, https://theswaddle.com/the-amazon-wildfires-are-a-product-of-environmental-racism/. Accessed 5 January 2020.
  20. Djelic, M.-L. and Etchanchu, H. (2017), ‘Contextualizing corporate political responsibilities: Neoliberal CSR in historical perspective’, Journal of Business Ethics, 142:4, pp. 64161.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Dumas, D. (2011), ‘Zara was accused of employing children as young as 14 in “slave labor” factories in Brazil’, Daily Mail, 19 August, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2028041/Zara-accused-employing-children-young-14-slave-labour-factories-Brazil.html. Accessed 20 January 2020.
  22. Edwards, W. (2008), ‘African American vernacular English: Phonology’, in B. Kortmann and E. Schneider (eds), A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool: Volume 1: Phonology, Volume 2: Morphology and Syntax, Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 38392.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Ellis, K. (2016), ‘Fashion industry contributions favor Clinton’, WWD Women’s Wear Daily, 31 October, https://wwd.com/business-news/government-trade/fashion-favors-hillary-clinton-10691202/. Accessed 5 January 2020.
  24. Everlane (n.d.), ‘We believe we can all make a difference’, https://www.everlane.com/about. Accessed 2 March 2022.
  25. Fifteen Percent Pledge (n.d.), ‘Home page’, https://www.15percentpledge.org. Accessed 2 March 2022.
  26. Gwynn, S. (2020), ‘Nike CEO: We must get our own house in order on racism’, PRWeek, 8 June,https://www.prweek.com/article/1685618/nike-ceo-own-house-order-racism. Accessed 6 June 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Hafenbrädl, S. and Waeger, D. (2021), ‘The business case for CSR: A trump card against hypocrisy?’, Journal of Business Research, 129, pp. 83848.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Hall, H. (2019), ‘Woke consumers won’t put up with tainted brands’, The Independent, 15 June, p. 37.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Hawkins, D. F. and McKean, J. B. (2017), Roots of African American Violence: Ethnocentrism, Cultural Diversity, and Racism, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Hesse, A. and Rünz, S. (2022), ‘“Fly responsibly”: A case study on consumer perceptions of a green demarketing campaign’, Journal of Marketing Communications, 28:3, pp. 23252.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Hill, C. A. (2019), ‘Marshalling reputation to minimize problematic business conduct’, Boston University Law Review, 99:3, pp. 1193228.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Hirst, P. (2010), Marxism and Historical Writing, London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Hoskins, T. (2022), Foot Work: What Your Shoes Tell You about Globalisation, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Hsiao, A. (2000), ‘Standing up to the swoosh’, The Village Voice, 3 October, https://www.villagevoice.com/2000/10/03/standing-up-to-the-swoosh/. Accessed 6 June 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Inditex (n.d.), ‘Supporting communities’, https://www.inditex.com/en/our-commitment-to-people/supporting-communities. Accessed 2 January 2020.
  36. Ingenhoff, D. and Marschlich, S. (2019), ‘Corporate diplomacy and political CSR: Similarities, differences, and theoretical implications’, Public Relations Review, 45:2, pp. 34871.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Intravia, J., Piquero, A. R., Leeper Piquero, N. and Byers, B. (2020), ‘Just do it? An examination of race on attitudes associated with Nike’s advertisement featuring Colin Kaepernick’, Deviant Behavior, 41:10, pp. 122131.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Johnson, C., Reddy-Best, K. and Sanders, E. (2022), ‘Swagger Like Us: Black Millennials’ perceptions, knowledge, and influence of 1980s and 1990s urban fashion brands’, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 40:4, pp. 25570.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Kapitan, A. (2016), ‘Ask a radical copywriter: Black with a capital “B”’, Radicalcopyeditor.com, 21 September, https://radicalcopyeditor.com/2016/09/21/black-with-a-capital-b/. Accessed 13 August 2020.
  40. Kotz, D. M. (2015), The Rise and Fall of Neoliberal Capitalism, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Martinez, G. (2018), ‘Despite outrage, Nike sales increased 31% after Kaepernick ad’, Time, 8 September, https://time.com/5390884/nike-sales-go-up-kaepernick-ad/. Accessed 8 June 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Miller, A. and Jacobo, J. (2017), ‘Taking a knee wasn’t the first time athletes protested social injustice on the field’, ABC News, 26 September, https://abcnews.go.com/US/taking-knee-time-athletes-protested-social-injustice-field/story?id=50081504. Accessed 8 June 2021.
  43. Mirzaei, A., Wilkie, D. C. and Siuki, H. (2022), ‘Woke brand activism authenticity or the lack of it’, Journal of Business Research, 139, pp. 112.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Mukherjee, R. and Banet-Weiser, S. (2012), Commodity Activism: Cultural Resistance in Neoliberal Times, New York: New York University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Nabi, M. N., Akter, M. M., Habib, A., Al Masud, A. and Pal, S. K. (2022), ‘Influence of CSR stakeholders on the textile firms’ performances’, International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science, 10:8, pp. 2538.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. National Museum of American History (n.d.), ‘History of sweatshops: 1880–1940’, https://americanhistory.si.edu/sweatshops/history-1880-1940. Accessed 13 August 2020.
  47. Nike (n.d.), ‘Nike’s purpose moves us’, https://purpose.nike.com. Accessed 9 June 2020.
  48. PMI (2012), A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), 5th ed., Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute Inc.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Rall, D. N. (2016), ‘Thinking through Fashion: A Guide to Key Theorists ed. by Agnès Rocamora and Anneke Smelik’, review, Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture, 1:2, pp. 26670.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Reddy-Best, K. (2020), ‘The politicisation of fashion in virtual queer spaces: A case study of Saint Harridan, one of the pioneering queer fashion brands in the twenty-first century’, in A. Reilly and B. Barry (eds), Crossing Gender Boundaries: Fashion to Create, Disrupt and Transcend, Bristol: Intellect, pp. 91108.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Robinson, C. J. (1983), Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, London: Zed Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Robinson, C. J. (2000), Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, 3rd ed., Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Sanchez-Chaparro, T., Soler-Vicen, M. A. and Gomez-Frias, V. (2022), ‘Be good and look good: Communicating the triple bottom line through corporate websites’, Journal of Business Research, 144, pp. 13645.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Schaefer, Mark (n.d.), ‘Woke washing: How purpose-driven marketing is being hijacked’, International Labor Rights Forum, 28 March, https://businessesgrow.com/2019/06/24/woke-washing/. Accessed 9 June 2020.
  55. Schanberg, S. (1996), ‘Six cents an hour’, https://laborrights.org/in-the-news/six-cents-hour-1996-life-article. Accessed 9 June 2020.
  56. Strähle, J. (ed.) (2017), Green Fashion Retail, Gateway East: Springer Singapore.
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Statista (2022), ‘Fast fashion market value forecast worldwide from 2021 to 2027’, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1008241/fast-fashion-market-value-forecast-worldwide/. Accessed 7 June 2020.
  58. Target (2020), ‘Target commits $10 million and ongoing resources for rebuilding efforts and advancing social justice’, 5 June, https://corporate.target.com/press/releases/2020/06/target-commits-10-million-and-ongoing-resources-fo. Accessed 6 June 2020.
  59. Thomas, D. (2019), Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes, London: Penguin Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Tulloch, C. (2016), The Birth of Cool: Style Narratives of the African Diaspora, London: Bloomsbury Academic.
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Tworzydło, D., Gawroński, S. and Szuba, P. (2021), ‘Importance and role of CSR and stakeholder engagement strategy in Polish companies in the context of activities of experts handling public relations’, Corporate Social Responsibility & Environmental Management, 28:1, pp. 6470.
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Van der Kaajj, J. and Vinke, N. (2015), ‘Why sustainability meant opportunity to innovate for Nike’, 9 July, https://dyecoo.com/why-sustainability-meant-opportunity-to-innovate-for-nike/. Accessed 12 August 2021.
  63. Walker, R. (2012), Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness, New York: Soft Skull Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  64. Wettstein, F. and Baur, D. (2016), ‘CSR’s new challenge: Corporate political advocacy’, in M. C. C. de Arruda and B. Rok (eds), Understanding Ethics & Responsibilities in a Globalizing World, New York: Springer, pp. 17187.
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Wilkins, D. J., Livingstone, A. G. and Levine, M. (2019), ‘Whose tweets? The rhetorical functions of social media use in developing the Black Lives Matter movement’, The British Journal of Social Psychology, 58:4, pp. 786805.
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Woke’ (n.d.), Merriam-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/woke. Accessed 13 August 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  67. Wyche, S. (2016), ‘Colin Kaepernick explains why he sat during the national anthem’, NFL, 27 August http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000691077/article/colin-kaepernick-explains-protest-of-national-anthem. Accessed 31 January 2020.
  68. Yang, N. (2017), ‘A case study on NIKE’s environment footprint valuation of the whole value chain’, Wool Textile Journal, 45:4, pp. 6569.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/fspc_00256_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error