Jon Emont

Nike also faced allegations of poor working conditions in its overseas factories, including the use of child labor.

Here's Knight responding to those allegations and announcing reforms in 1998.

— Still, none of this seemed to stop the company's momentum in China.

In 2008, Beijing hosted the Olympics for the first time.

It was a huge moment for China, and Nike sponsored many of the country's Olympic teams.

Around that time, the country transitioned from being a Nike manufacturing base to being a big buyer of its sneakers.

So Phil Knight carries out this strategy.

He steps down as chairman of the board in 2016.

And so at the end of his tenure, how big and how important had China become at that point?

Wow, that's enormous.

Double digit growth.

But Nike was about to hit a gray wall.

That's next.

The first hint of trouble for Nike in China started on social media.

Around 2021, there was a lot of global attention on Xinjiang, a region in western China where a lot of companies source cotton, and where the U.S.

accused China of human rights abuses.

Chinese customers were furious about Nike's boycott and posted videos online burning Nike sneakers.

It was almost like Nike was trying to make a statement to the American market that they were not going to be perceived as supporting these allegations of human rights abuses.

And then they got almost canceled in China for making a statement that a lot of American brands did.

Meanwhile, homegrown Chinese athletic shoe companies were starting to eat into Nike's business.