Open letter to Liberty’s AD
Ian McCaw must get answers from NIKE
This is the logo for all Liberty University Flames atletic teams competing in NCAA athletics or as club teams. Liberty Flames/X
Dear Liberty University Athletics Director Ian McCaw,
Congratulations!
The Liberty University men’s and women’s basketball teams competed in March Madness. LU has already proved itself in a mid-major conference, and can beat Power 4 conference schools.
However, this open letter isn’t a pat on the back for helping to put LU athletics on the national map. As a Liberty University alum, I plead with you to reconsider the university’s sponsorship with NIKE.
I do so from a perspective of Liberty University’s mission: training young champions for Christ. That mission focuses not only on sending out graduates with training under a Christian worldview, but the university’s witness to the world and the stewardship of that.
That witness includes having business relationships that honor human rights for all of God’s image bearers, no matter their location.
I don’t know how the LU Athletics Department operates with its business partners. However, NIKE’s supply chain for gear sported by LU athletes is where NIKE deserves scrutiny.
This isn’t rehashing the 1990s with labor conditions in some of NIKE’s Asian factories. Rather, this is about supply chains tied to China, arguably the most oppressive nation on earth, with connections to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
I’m aware of NIKE’s Statement on Forced Labor, Child Labor, Human Trafficking, and Modern Slavery. NIKE should be commended for its proactive approach on this issue. The 2024 NIKE statement includes:
NIKE takes seriously and fully supports national and international efforts to end forced labor and child labor. NIKE’s requirements for suppliers are contained in our Code of Conduct and Code Leadership Standards. The Code of Conduct lays out the required minimum standards we expect each supplier to meet in producing NIKE products and includes strict requirements around forced labor, the minimum age of workers, excessive overtime, compensation, and freedom of association amongst other requirements. The Code Leadership Standards specify how the Code of Conduct should be implemented. This document also articulates how we measure suppliers’ compliance efforts and progress against our Code of Conduct, including specific requirements on the management of key forced labor and child labor risks.
We have progressively raised expectations for our suppliers through evolving the standards within our Code of Conduct and Code Leadership Standards. NIKE’s Code of Conduct and Code Leadership Standards include specific requirements to address key risks of forced labor and child labor. NIKE regularly reviews and updates NIKE’s Code of Conduct and Code Leadership Standards.
Controversies on labor conditions and other factors drove NIKE’s Code of Conduct in 1992 and other updates. New laws, such as the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA) in December 2021, have driven intensity in knowing the supply chain. The UFLPA requires all American companies to evaluate their supply chains connected to the XUAR. The UFLPA entity list is at the Department of Homeland Security website. This list will grow as suppliers connected to the XUAR are revealed.
These are the photos of the Liberty University Flames women’s and men’s basketball teams after winning their Conference USA basketball tournaments. LibertyFlames/X
Where NIKE tells Liberty University to “trust us,” LU should respond with “trust, but verify.”
LU has connections at NIKE that you trust, and that’s understandable. Do those NIKE contacts provide details on the suppliers of the footwear, jerseys, and warmups going to LU? If so, do you transparently communicate that to LU alumni, students, staff, parents, and LU’s supporters? If NIKE doesn’t provide that information to LU, it’s time to demand it.
Most people blame the covid pandemic for NIKE having a smaller percentage of their product coming from China. The nation that benefited from this change was Vietnam. There are videos and articles documenting this.
Both China and Vietnam are communist countries. However, they have something else in common: both are on the Open Doors US World Watch List for the worst offenders of Christian persecution on earth. Unless you have information confirming every step of the footwear, jerseys, and warmups production before they’re worn by LU athletes, it’s likely that gear originates in Vietnam or China.
And this is where LU’s testimony to the world rises to the forefront. LU has seen more than its share of bad headlines in the past 4 ½ years. Since Colin Kaepernik kneeled during the national anthem, NIKE hasn’t escaped controversy either.
For example, NIKE’s recent Super Bowl ad titled, “So Win,” confused the prominent issue unfolding in American culture of boys and men playing girl’s and women's sports. This ad made it seem like people were telling girls and young women they can’t win. That’s not the issue at all. The issue is males stealing females’ titles. Nike didn’t address this prominent cultural issue with honesty.
If bad news on a supplier whacks NIKE, it will cast poor light on everyone they’re connected to. There will be no compartmentalizing “that doesn’t impact us.”
This is a moment to “trust, but verify” NIKE. If NIKE can’t provide needed assurances, it's time for LU to stand with the persecuted church in China and Vietnam and for religious freedom in both countries, but especially the Uyghur Muslims in the XUAR. China has been conducting a genocide against them for most of the past decade.
Surely the largest Christian university in the world can set that example for everyone else to emulate.
