What holds up: Nike has published where its factories are since 2005, and the facilities it owns or operates went from 96% renewable electricity in fiscal 2023 to 100% in fiscal 2025.
The asterisk: that figure stops at Nike’s own doors. The contract factories it reports on were at 38%. A typical pair of running shoes carries about 14 kg of CO2, and an analyst’s estimate for 2020 points to roughly 700 million pairs. Marketing cost US$4.75 billion in fiscal 2026, against US$142.7 million for community investment in fiscal 2023, the last year its impact reports give a figure. About 100 workers at factories supplying Nike in Indonesia told reporters they earn around the legal minimum, as little as US$150 a month in parts of the country.
the company
Nike, Inc., based in Beaverton, Oregon, calls itself the world’s largest seller of athletic footwear and apparel. In the year to 31 May 2026 it reported revenue of US$46.4 billion and had about 73,000 employees.
Its annual report says: “Nearly all of our products are manufactured by independent contractors.” At July 2026 its manufacturing map listed 570 finished-goods factories in 37 countries and regions, with about 1.2 million workers. Vietnam, Indonesia and China made 52%, 27% and 16% of Nike Brand footwear in fiscal 2026.
hold on to this one
what nike does and what it buys in
Nike designs, markets and sells. Contract factories do nearly all of the making. Each figure below sits on one side of that split.
what holds up
Nike has published where its products are made since 2005, and ProPublica describes it as the first major apparel brand to disclose the names and locations of its suppliers.
On energy, its 2019 Move to Zero goals included 100% renewable energy at its owned and operated facilities by 2025. Its sustainability data puts renewable electricity there at 96% in fiscal 2023 and 2024 and 100% in fiscal 2025.
Nike also reports that Flyknit uppers are made with 60% less waste on average than traditional uppers, that its first Nike Forward fleece had a carbon footprint 75% lower on average than its traditional knit fleece, and that Nike Grind has recycled over 155 million pounds of scrap and worn-out shoes since 1992.
what the 96% covers
The 96% and the 100% are measured at the facilities Nike owns or operates: retail stores, distribution centres, headquarters and its Air manufacturing sites. Among the contract factories and dyeing mills Nike reports energy data for, 38% of electricity was renewable in fiscal 2025, up from 16% in fiscal 2023.
Nike’s own operations are also under 1% of the footprint it reports: 7.43 million tonnes of CO2e in fiscal 2025, 99.3% of it Scope 3, which is mostly suppliers and freight. Scope 3 has fallen from 11.7 million tonnes in fiscal 2020.
the carbon in a pair of shoes
An MIT-led study published in 2013 put the carbon footprint of a typical pair of synthetic running shoes at about 14 kg of CO2 equivalent, 68% of it from manufacturing. The shoe was made in China for ASICS, so the figure describes the category and no particular Nike model.
Nike’s annual report gives no count of pairs. The research firm BTIG estimated that Nike made about 350 million pairs in Vietnam in 2020, CNBC reported, when Vietnam made 51% of its footwear. That works out to roughly 700 million pairs that year.
marketing and community
Nike reports its marketing as “demand creation”: advertising, brand events and sports marketing, which includes endorsement contracts. In fiscal 2026 it came to US$4.75 billion.
The most recent community figure in Nike’s impact reports is for fiscal 2023: US$142.7 million, or 2.1% of the previous year’s pre-tax income. Demand creation that year was US$4.06 billion.
what the factories pay
In the 1990s Nike faced accusations of sweatshop conditions in the factories making its products. In May 1998 co-founder Phil Knight told the National Press Club: “The Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse.” In the same speech he said Nike would raise the minimum age of its workers and let independent monitors into its factories.
Nike’s pay analysis for fiscal 2025 covers the 111 supplier facilities that make 80% of its product, with over 700,000 workers. It found average gross pay of 1.92 times the local minimum wage before overtime, and 71% of those suppliers at or above a living wage benchmark on average. Nike adds that “wages in some countries fall closer to the minimum wage while others exceed it”.
In January 2026 The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica reported that about 100 workers from more than 10 factories supplying Nike in Indonesia all said they made around the minimum wage, as little as US$150 a month in parts of the country. In Vietnam, two workers said they made the minimum, about US$204 a month, and two said twice that. Nike told the reporters its figure is a global average. The Global Living Wage Coalition’s 2025 estimate of a living wage in Vietnam’s Region 1, the highest of its four regional estimates, is US$356 a month.
On Nike’s own code of conduct, 90% of the facilities in its extended supply chain met its foundational labour, health, safety and environmental standards at the end of fiscal 2025, against a target of 100%.
what this means for your money
Nike is in the S&P 500, so a fund that tracks the index owns it. The ASX-listed iShares S&P 500 ETF held 0.06% of its portfolio in Nike at 2 October 2026. In super, HESTA’s default option, Balanced Growth, listed Nike among its holdings at 30 June 2026.
That is the gap inaam works in: knowing what you own, so that owning it is a choice you made.
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key sources
Nike 2026 Form 10-K · Nike FY25 Sustainability Data · Nike FY23 Impact Report · Nike manufacturing map · MIT footwear study · The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica · Global Living Wage Coalition
General information only. It does not take your objectives or circumstances into account. Consider the PDS and TMD, and we recommend independent advice, before investing. This article is general information only and does not constitute financial advice. Readers should do their own research before making investment decisions. The inaam Impact Investments Fund is ARSN 691 614 132. inaam is not affiliated with Nike, Inc. or any entity discussed in this report.
