Where Are Nike Shoes Made

The Nike brand is an American footwear company which surprises a lot of people, but nearly all of the Nike shoes are made in other countries. Nike shoes are made mostly in Vietnam, and China, followed by Indonesia, South Korea, and Taiwan. There are approximately 600 factories located in 46 different countries solely producing Nike shoes. Conversely, Nike shoes are manufactured in 14 countries, and 96% are made at Nike factories located in China, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Almost all Nike shoes are made abroad, in countries such as China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. More important than the manufacturing process, Nike also relies heavily on freelancers, or independent contractors, who procure raw materials for Nike shoes in the countries where they are manufactured. Rather than having its own processing plants to handle and manage, the shoe department at Nike requests the management of independent, contracted manufacturers from 14 countries across the globe.

Nikes supplies any necessary materials, which are mostly located in China, all the way to the factories from the United States. All of those materials are sourced either around the factory or in various parts of the world and are shipped out to suppliers located in various countries to carry out their production processes. As you can see, the majority of the products at Nike are manufactured in Vietnam and China.

China is still the place where the bulk of the production for Nike products takes place. In 2010, Vietnam was the largest producer of Nike shoes, surpassing the production in China and Indonesia. Yes, Indonesia is now the third largest producer of Nike shoes, with 28 factories, just after China and Vietnam. China and Vietnam make up 36% of total production for Nike shoes, whereas Indonesia has 22% share of the production, with rest divided between other countries mentioned above.

Nike has 35 factories in the United States (30 focusing on apparel, the others shoe manufacturing), making up around 6.5% of the total of their factories worldwide. According to one report, China has as many as 72 factories producing Nike shoes, making it almost 15% of the total number of their factories. There are a total of 10 Nike shoe factories in Taiwan, which make both Nike and Converse shoes.

In addition to those two countries, Nike shoes are also made in Indonesia, Japan, Brazil, Taiwan, South Korea, and Italy. You may also find Nike shoes made in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Japan, Brazil, Italy, India, Argentina, Bosnia, and the UK. Most of the Nike socks are manufactured in Turkey, but you may find a few made in China as well.

Nike tennis shoes are made in China and Vietnam, as are so many of Nikes other styles. Nikes Flagship shoes, which are manufactured in China, are distributed across China. Nike apparel may be manufactured in a number of different countries, with production being mostly done in Vietnam and China. Nike shorts can be made in many different countries, mainly made in Vietnam and China.

Even though there are a lot of different places that produce Nike products, there are two dominant countries that produce Nike. In Vietnam, the conditions are very good to produce the shoes with Nike trademark. Many wonder why Nike does not make shoes in America, instead choosing another country.

In the back of my mind, I had this idea that because Nike is a U.S. company, then shoes should be made in the United States, but it is surprising to see this is not true. You may be able to find certain parts of Nike shoes made in the United States, but you will not find any of the Nike shoes made 100% in there. In stores, I have found Nike products made in Vietnam, China, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Indonesia, Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, and India. In my own experience of making shoes in China (not for Nike), we specifically looked for footwear factories with current production of Nike.

This is also the reason Nike has chosen to source all its materials and manufacturing from countries outside of North America. The reason that Nike has all its main factories located in Asia is because of its lower wage costs, as well as its ability to manufacture higher-quality products at a fraction of the North American costs. Because of the volume of products Nike has to develop in order to fulfill its large orders, it has had to outsource to 533 factories and 1.1 million workers around the globe.

Nike products are effectively manufactured in 41 countries,A with 533 factories and 1.1million workers. With 41 countries and 533+ factories, one wonders, Where is actually made Nike?.

Thanks to its numerous factories and workers, the overall Nike-branded footwear manufacturing in China is 36%. According to recent data, the largest producer of Nike shoes is China, which has 149 factories with almost 140K workers. Today, it is reported that Nike has about 200 contracted factories in Vietnam, making Vietnam one of Nikes largest manufacturing markets globally.

Nike is known to market shoes and various products, however, it does not own any factories owned by its company. With its excellent management systems, Nikes shoe manufacturing has managed to manufacture and market hundreds of millions of its products with their sophisticated supply chains. Nike continues to produce a wide variety of products under the brand Nike, featuring its own product designs that are innovated by their effective management systems, in order to produce and deliver high-quality finished goods to their customers.

Now, I am not saying that a shoe that you purchase from Walmart is guaranteed to be from a factory that has ethical manufacturing issues, but I know that a Nike shoe is going to be from a better factory. The Nike-certified factories are better in terms of quality, better in terms of safety for workers, Nikes own worker labor inspections, etc. What I am concerned with is more about quality in the off-brand or off-brand shoe factories.