Although it is unsettling, child labour is a common issue these days. What is even more frightening is how a popular brand like Nike has previously employed young children in third-world countries… a lot of them.

Nike claims that it’s too difficult to specifically tell whether or not a worker is of age, due to the cheap and available quantities of fake identifications in countries such as Pakistan, Cambodia, and Bangladesh. However, the neglectful watch over their various factories led to the sub-contracting of the work, allowing multiple local villages to funnel their young into the workforce.

Co-founder/chairman of Nike, Phillip Knight, admitted that Nike “blew it,” when they allowed kids of the age of ten to join their manufacturing team.

Sadly, the public eye associates Nike’s brand with their world-renowned clothing/sporting goods line; rarely does anyone think to peer behind Nike’s curtain and delve into the disturbing reality of unethical behaviour. Perhaps if the consumers were more aware of Nike’s cruelty, we would think twice before buying a pair of $300 shoes.

This is why the world desperately needs labour groups, such as the Clear Clothes Campaign, to bring multi-million dollar monsters to justice when they stray from regulations.

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