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Nike can't afford to lose UA

To the editor,

I applaud Yisrael Ari Espinoza's letter in Thursday's Wildcat. The letter shows a thoughtful consideration of Students Against Sweatshops actions in regard to Nike. Espinoza raises important questions about the effects of the anti-sweatshop movement, such as, what will happen if Nike pulls its contract with the university? After all, the university depends on that money, correct?

Correct. The Athletic department in particular relies heavily on money from Nike's sponsorship. However, I'd like to add another piece to the puzzle: Nike relies on the university. Nike makes a lot of money off of sponsoring Arizona athletics. I don't know how much money they make, but they must make more than the $7 million they spend on sponsorship. Otherwise, they wouldn't do it.

Thus, I would argue that it is relatively unlikely that Nike would decide to not renew its contract with the University of Arizona. What makes it even more unlikely is that students here at the U of A have banded together with students at other large universities.

Nike would stand to lose millions and millions of dollars if they canceled their contracts at all those schools. A wiser business move for Nike would be to reform their labor standards - which is what we have always wanted them to do in the first place. I hope it should be clear from this, then, that our strategy is careful: by forming coalitions with students at other universities, we believe we have made it cheaper for Nike to reform itself than to cancel contracts.

Rachel Wilson

Psychology graduate student