Annie Minoff
speaker
239 appearances
11 recordings
1 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard Jun 2025
Annie Minoff’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
But getting rid of all those toothbrushes and all those workers wasn't as simple as Tom imagined.
By 2016, Nike and Flex had set up a sneaker factory in Guadalajara, Mexico. But it didn't take long for the project to run into problems.
That's our colleague John again.
The project's success hinged on Nike's ability to cut costs, including by replacing humans with machines. But that was turning out to be easier said than done. For example, an early challenge was getting robots to attach the Nike swoosh to the side of the shoe. Here's Tom from Flex.
It took Tom and his team eight months to figure out an automated way to add the Nike swoosh to one specific shoe model.
Now the swoosh is slightly to the right. Fine.
Another problem was fashion. At Nike, design was king. And the company didn't want to be limited by what robots could handle.
Robots are a lot less accommodating. All of these challenges added up. So in 2019, Nike packed up from the Mexico facility and went back to focusing on making shoes in Asia. According to Tom, the factory never hit its targets. The company produced fewer than 200,000 pairs of shoes in its Mexico factory and never reduced the workforce there below 3,000 people.
They also never achieved Tom's goal of automating all those toothbrushes out of the production line. Was it a surprise that robots weren't better at shoemaking?
Nike wasn't the only shoe company to throw in the towel. Adidas and Under Armour had set up similar projects around the same time. And they actually did set them up in the U.S. Adidas in Atlanta and Under Armour in Baltimore. Under Armour called their effort Project Glory. Did they have better luck?
Adidas, Under Armour, and Nike declined to comment on their past reshoring efforts. All three companies refocused on Asia. And that might have been the end of the story. Except... Tariff.
Tom from Flex said that when he first heard about the tariffs, including on Vietnam, Indonesia, and China, he had to laugh.
So a big goal of these tariffs, according to Trump, is to bring manufacturing back to America. How hard is that going to be? Like, what's that going to take to happen?
— Representatives from Nike and Under Armour said that the companies are working out responses to tariffs. John says we shouldn't expect North American-made sneakers to become the norm anytime soon.
That's all for today, Thursday, May 8th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're out every weekday afternoon. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.
Oh, my God.
If I die, I hope you guys turn this into a meme coin.
Hey, it's Jess. Annie Minoff, one of our senior producers, is going to be stepping in to do some hosting this summer while Ryan is out on leave. Enjoy. Every year, a ski resort nestled in the Swiss Alps hosts the world's biggest party for the rich and powerful. Some people call it the Magic Mountain. Most people know it better as Davos.
Over the years, the Davos Conference has taken on big topics. Peace in the Middle East, climate change, gender equality, And they've touted big wins. Organizers have taken credit for major diplomatic breakthroughs, including averting conflict between Greece and Turkey and bringing together the leaders of East and West Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
But as Shalini discovered, there was a lot more happening behind the scenes. She and our colleagues have been investigating allegations of sexism, racism, and harassment at the organization that runs Davos, an organization called the World Economic Forum.
Showing 161–180 of 239 · page 9 of 12
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