A few days ago, I watched a pretty interesting documentary called “The Corporation.” It’s old, I know, but I don’t happen to watch a lot of films. A segment that stood out to me was filmed inside a sweatshop in Central America.
I’ve always considered sweat labor to be awful, but it’s amazing how much more there is to it than just the labor. It reminded me of the stories I heard in history classes about mining towns in West Virginia, where the mine owns your house, your land, your grocery store and everything else you interact with on a daily basis. It was a lot like that, except with armed goons and spies that at one point attempted to prevent workers from meeting with an independent watch group outside of the factory.
Anyway, I’ll cut to the chase here. I was impressed by how hard they try to make it to contact workers in these factories, while seeing all the footage of slamming gates, palms covering the camera lenses, etc… But what about contacting workers with the merchandise itself? NIKE iD lets you customize products with your own personal iD, a short combination of letters, numbers and spaces. What am I suggesting here? Exactly–a pair of shoes with “sweatshop made” on them or a sports bag that says “made by children”. That would surely create some kind of reaction in the factory, eh?
I tested this idea out at the NIKE iD site. I picked out a messenger bag, and began to customize it. At this point, I have to admit; it’s actually pretty cool to be able to select various color combinations and make your bag look exactly how you want it. I played with the colors for a few minutes and after a few combinations I decided I liked it mostly green with a little light blue, dark green binding and a dark green Swoosh.
The fun began at step 3–”Personalize”. I chose an iD color of “safety orange” and tried out my first iD, “Zac.” Click submit; verifying… Wow! My name shows up on the bag! Though, it does look a lot cheesier than the color customization step did.
Since my name is short and not-so-exciting, I decided to try something else. “Sweatshop made,” click submit, verifying… “iD DECLINED. Try a different iD. Create your iD using letters, numbers and/or spaces.” Hmm, maybe there’s just a glitch and it thinks I’ve entered an unacceptable character. How about “Nike rules”? Works fine. “Sweatshops rule”? Nope. Interesting. How about “kid friendly”? Also works. “Made by kids”? DECLINED. Definitely a trend here. “Made by children”, no. “Forced labor”, no. “Minimum wage plz,” no (are you serious?). “Break records,” yes, “break workers,” no.
So, apparently Nike doesn’t want its customers and the people who see its customer’s shiny new messenger bag to be reminded of what went into its making. Oh, they have a little personalization policy that I might as well mention to make sure to give you all the facts…

For most NIKEiD products, you can submit a combination of letters, spaces and numbers to form an iD - a personalized message that appears on your creation. While we accept most iDs, we cannot honor every one. Some may contain other trademarks, or the names of certain professional sports teams, athletes or celebrities that NIKE does not have the right to use. Others may contain material that we consider inappropriate or simply do not want to place on our products.
Unfortunately, at times this obliges us to decline iDs that may otherwise seem unobjectionable. If your personal tag is unacceptable, your order will be canceled and you will be notified via email. NIKE reserves the right to cancel any iDs after they have been submitted.

So that pretty much sums it up. Anything related to Nike’s suppliers’ dirty labor practices is considered inappropriate, But I still wanted to hear from them why they considered those words inappropriate, so I decided to look a little further. I entered the live chat under “Contact Us” using the innocuous yet applicable subject “NIKE iD question.” My conversation with Lanette went as follows:

Lanette: Hi, my name is Lanette. How may I help you?
Zac: Hi I’m having trouble getting an iD to work.
L: Hi Zac.
L: I will be happy to assist you today.
Z: Okay. It keeps telling me iD Declined
L: I am sorry to hear you are having problems on our NIKE iD site.
L: For most NIKE iD products, you may submit a combination of letters, spaces or numbers for a personalization that will appear on your NIKE iD product.
L: While we honor many personal iD’s, we cannot honor every one. Unfortunately, at times we must decline personal iD’s that may otherwise seem unobjectionable.
L: If your personal iD is unacceptable, your order will be cancelled and you will be notified via e-mail. A Personal iD may be declined for any one of the following reasons:
-It might violate another party’s trademark or other intellectual property rights. These may include words, phrases, celebrity’s names, and even certain color combinations when used in connection with particular words or geographic designations.
-It contains profanity, inappropriate slang, might be considered insulting or discriminatory, might be construed to incite violence, or may simply contain material that we do not wish to place on our products.
Nike reserves the right to cancel any personal iD after it has been submitted.
Z: Yeah I already read that and I made sure there was nothing bad on it.
L: The name you are using may be a trademark.
Z: It just says “Made by children.”
Z: And I’ve tried a few other’s like “Child labor” and “Sweatshop made” but it declines them all.
L: I am sorry if it is not being accepted this is because it is under one of the guidelines.
Z: What guideline is it under?
L: It might violate another party’s trademark or other intellectual property rights. These may include words, phrases, celebrity’s names, and even certain color combinations when used in connection with particular words or geographic designations.
Z: It’s not a trademark or intellectual property, celeb name, or anything to do with a geographic region.
Z: Why is it objectionable?
L: Zac, our system checks all of the pid before an order is placed.
L: I am sorry you pid is not being accepted.
L: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
Z: Well obviously it checks it.
Z: I asked why it was rejected.
Z: You didn’t say how it was objectionable.
L: There are so many reasons it could be. There are far to many variables to know.
L: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
Z: Just one more question.
Z: Is it objectionable because the item is made in a sweatshop?
L: Zac, I will have to let you go now. Please visit www.nikebiz.com.
L: Have a great day.
L: Thank you for visiting Nike.com.
Z: Great answer. Thanks.
Z: Bye
Lanette Has Disconnected

If that was too long for you to read, the gist of it was me being fed automated responses and when I finally asked a question that’s too hard to dodge she says she has to let me go and refers me to nikebiz.com.
I figured someone else must have already tried this, and a quick Google search reveals a pretty popular email correspondance between one Jonah Peretti and a Nike customer service rep. He got similar results, which you can see here. I’d like you to try this yourself. Email, chat or even call them and ask them why your iD was declined. I doubt any results would come of it, but it still might be amusing to bug them on this issue. If you’d like, send me any results you get and I’ll credit you for them.