In the freshly painted factory, rows of workbenches have been arranged, on which a sewing machine is placed at intervals.

When Nike was first established, Chen Qiang began to prepare the factory, and he already had several properties in his hands, so he took out one of them and transformed it into a factory for the production of sneakers, and then purchased a batch of sewing machines.

Next, Chen Qiang needs to recruit a group of female shoemakers, and the shoe factory can be regarded as completely opened.

Shoemaking is a labor-intensive industry, and it takes a lot of workers to open a shoe-making factory, Chen Qiang estimates that with the current scale of the factory, at least 100 female shoe-making workers must be recruited.

The first half of the twentieth century was definitely the most glorious era of American industry, and the United States at this time was the world's factory, which could produce all kinds of industrial products, from small screw caps to large aircraft carriers.

At the same time, this era is also the golden age of American workers, the whole United States is full of workers, and there is absolutely no shortage of jobs for workers, and those skilled jobs can also get relatively high wages.

Of course, the vast majority of skilled workers are men, and the number of female skilled workers is very small. Women are engaged in low-skilled, physically demanding work.

In Western countries, there is no saying that "a woman can hold up half the sky", but in the wealthy United States, it seems that it is not difficult to support the family on the salary of her husband alone.

Before the twentieth century, it was difficult for women in the United States to get a formal job, and many women only worked before marriage and became housewives after marriage, a bit like Japan today. At that time, the reason why American women did not work was not to marry and raise children at home, nor was it due to the national culture, but that American employers were unwilling to provide a formal job offer for women, which was also a form of employment discrimination. When women can't find a job, they don't work.

Women are on the weak side when looking for a job, and they will exist in the future, and in the United States in the nineteenth century, this phenomenon is even more serious, so there have been many feminist movements in American history, almost every time there is an economic crisis, the feminist movement will stop for a while, and once the economy recovers, the feminist movement will rise again.

When World War I broke out, many American men went to war, and American women began to run their own families and participate in work, but after the end of World War I, the vast majority of women who participated in the work immediately lost their jobs, and a large number of men returned from the battlefield, and employers were definitely more willing to hire strong male workers to do labor work.

After the outbreak of the Pacific War, American men once again went to the battlefield, and the United States began to repeat what happened during World War I, and women once again participated in the work. And because women have been discriminated against in the job market for a long time, many employers are still reluctant to recruit female employees, so it is much easier to recruit female workers than male workers, and female workers are paid much lower than male workers.

During World War II, many Europeans fled to the United States, and many of these Europeans were not all elites, many of them did not have any skills, and it was very difficult to live in the United States, and in order to survive in the United States, they were very willing to work in those unskilled jobs, which also provided a lot of human resources for labor-intensive industries in the United States.

Shoemaking is not a position with high technical requirements, it is nothing more than sewing materials together with a sewing machine, and you can learn it with a little training.

Next, the shoemakers will be trained, and the raw materials will be in place, so that the production of sneakers can begin.

……

In the factory, Chen Qiang held a newly produced "Nike No. 1" sneaker, couldn't help but take off his shoes, and began to try them on.

These shoes feel very good to wear, although they are not as good as the sneakers of later generations, but they are already very comfortable in this era, and these shoes are far more comfortable than heavy leather shoes.

In the era of relatively low processing level, canvas uppers with rubber soles are indeed the most comfortable combination, even in later generations, many sneakers still use this combination.

In the process of the development of sports shoes, it was not until the 80s that major sports brands increased their investment in the research and development of sports shoes, the technology of material processing was continuously improved, and the leather could be as soft as canvas, coupled with a variety of new technologies added to the sports shoes, which made the sports shoes comfortable and more and more ergonomic.

Chen Qiang is also quite familiar with the technology of future sports shoes, and by the standards of later generations, "Nike No. 1" is simply scum, but in 1944, Chen Qiang was very satisfied with being able to make sneakers like "Nike No. 1".

"Mr. Chen, these are the shoes that have just been produced in the workshop, are you still satisfied?" A middle-aged man asked.

This middle-aged man, Jared, a Polish-Jew, fled to the United States before the war began, and he was lucky enough to come to the United States early, and if he had stayed in Poland after the war broke out, he might have been imprisoned in Auschwitz.

Jared once worked as a workshop director in a shoe factory, so he was recruited by Chen Qiang to be the director of the shoe factory, Chen Qiang is not an entrepreneur after all, he does not understand the management of the factory, and he cannot stay in the shoe factory every day, so he invited Jared as a professional to be responsible for the management and normal operation of the shoe factory.

The Jews were indeed very talented in business, and this Jared was also quite capable, although the shoe factory was new and the employees were new, but under Jared's management, the whole factory was well run, and soon it was put into full-scale production, producing the first batch of "Nike No. 1".

Facing Jared's inquiry, Chen Qiang smiled and nodded: "These shoes are very good, they are very comfortable to wear, and when they are put on the market, they will definitely be able to compete with Converse's JACK PURCELL sneakers!" ”

"But Mr. Chen, I think we still have room for improvement about this 'Nike One'." Jared spoke.

"What do you suggest?" Chen Qiang asked immediately.

"Mr. Chen, after my research and calculation, I found that if the side logo is removed, our shoe-making cost will be greatly reduced." Jared glanced at Chen Qiang as he spoke, and found that Chen Qiang was listening carefully, so he continued: "Adding a logo of this large company on the side of the shoe is actually a bit more than worth the loss, we not only have to spend an extra piece of fabric, but also spend labor to sew this logo on the shoe." Without this sign, we can save raw material costs and also save manpower. ”

Chen Qiang nodded, then picked up the sneakers again, and carefully touched the Nike logo on the side of the sneakers.

At that time, the logo on the sneakers was sewn on an additional basis, which required additional materials and labor, which were all costs. In order to save this part of the cost, many sneakers simply do not even have a trademark, and when they wear a pair of sneakers, others don't know what brand they are.

After all, people in that era did not have brand awareness, they simply produced a product, and then sold it on the market, and then produced a batch when it was sold out.

This Converse does a better job, even the most original style of Chuck Taytor ALL STAR sneakers launched in 1917, but also sewn the Converse logo on the upper position, Americans look at the Converse logo more, and gradually become familiar with the Converse logo, buy sneakers will naturally choose Converse, and therefore Converse can dominate the American market for decades.

Chen Qiang plans to make Nike a top sports brand, of course, it is impossible to cancel the Nike logo on sneakers, even if it costs more, Chen Qiang must keep the big "check" logo.

However, from the standpoint of the factory director Jared, of course, he wants to do everything possible to reduce production costs and improve product quality, so things like logos are completely flashy in Jared's opinion, and there is no need to exist.

Chen Qiang understood Jared's thoughts, and he also admired Jared's careful calculations in his heart.

In the future, when Chen Qiang was a university professor, he once accepted the commission of a domestic sports brand to study the development of the domestic sports shoe industry. Chen Qiang still remembers the data obtained after the investigation at that time, taking Nike's basketball shoes as an example, the foundry in Fujian produced a pair of sneakers for Nike, and could only share 2% of the profits, and the rest was divided by other links. The shoemaking workers in the foundry can only get 0.7% of the profits, which means that Nike makes a profit from selling a pair of sneakers, and the shoemaking workers who produce sneakers can't even get 1%.

Judging from this figure, the cost of OEM production only accounts for a small part of a pair of sneakers.

But even so, Nike still felt that the 0.7% for shoemakers was too much, so it moved the factory to Southeast Asia, where labor costs are lower, and the shoemakers there may only get 0.4% or 0.5%.

Capital is greedy, and in this respect, Jared is a qualified Jew.

So Chen Qiang had no choice but to explain: "This company logo must not be canceled, I opened a shoe factory, not to make quick money, but to be a great sports brand, a well-known sports brand, so we must have a well-known logo." I hope that one day, when people see our logo, they will be able to blurt out the name 'Nike'. ”

"BUT THIS LOGO DOES ADD A LOT OF COST TO US, AND WE MAY LOSE THE PRICE ADVANTAGE IN THE FACE OF CONVERSE'S JACK PURCELL SNEAKERS." Jared spoke.

"It doesn't matter, this is our first sneaker, what we want to do is to start the company's signboard, is to seize the sneaker market, as for profitability, I can make appropriate concessions, I am willing to use our profits to exchange market share." Chen Qiang said.

"Market share?" Jared heard the word, and then nodded in realization. As a Jew, he had a keen intuition in business to quickly understand what Chen Qiang meant.

Chen Qiang continued: "As for the fact that this logo will increase our production costs, I think we can solve it in other ways, such as applying methods to canvas fabrics. ”

"Mr. Chen has an idea?" Jared asked immediately.

"At present, we produce two colors of sneakers, black and white, and the canvas fabric we purchase is also black and white, can we let the manufacturer of canvas directly print our Nike logo on the fabric, and then only need to cut the position of the logo to the side of the sneakers, so as to save the trouble of sewing a logo again!" Chen Qiang said.

"It's a really good idea, but I don't know if the weaving mill is willing to produce this canvas fabric with the logo for us." Jared spoke.

"I'll leave this matter to you, go and ask our raw material suppliers to see if it is possible to make special canvas fabrics for us, and we can also add a little more money, of course, it is cheaper than sewing the logo ourselves." Chen Qiang said.

……

The first batch of "Nike No. 1" sneakers was the first to be delivered to the New York Knicks, and each player received ten pairs of "Nike No. 1" sneakers for free.

The players were of course very happy to have free shoes to wear, and on the second day of the game, the players of the New York Knicks all changed into "Nike One" sneakers.

followed by the royal team, which moved to New York not long ago, and it can be regarded as the first month to get basketball shoes from Chen Qiang.

Then there were teams such as the Boston Celtics, the Philadelphia Warriors, the Fort Wayne Pistons, and the Washington Wizards, all of whom received the "Nike No. 1" sneakers given by Chen Qiang, and even the Chicago Gears that had just been typed were not left behind.

Before 1969, there were no real basketball shoes, and basketball players of that era, even superstars like George McCann, Bill Russell, and Wilt Chamberlain, wore ordinary sneakers, just like Hanamichi Sakuragi, who had just learned to play basketball. It wasn't until after Adidas' Superstar came out that there were real basketball shoes.

Therefore, although "Nike No. 1" is an ordinary sneaker, it can be accepted by the players of each team, after all, everyone usually wears ordinary sneakers to play, and now someone sends shoes to the door for free, of course, those who come do not refuse, happily accept it, and wear it happily.

In the future, any well-known basketball player does not need to buy his own sneakers, and those big sports brands are not bad for those shoes, they are happy to sponsor basketball players, and the team's own sponsors will also be able to provide special basketball shoes. Slightly big-name basketball players have signed brand endorsements, like LeBron James, and they can get a huge endorsement contract from Nike in high school.

Top superstars will launch exclusive signature basketball shoes, such as Kobe, as a player, Nike has launched 11 generations of exclusive signature boots for him, and when Kobe retires, Nike still has to squeeze out Kobe's residual value, and launched Kobe12 basketball shoes, the heel is specially made with a super cool mamba snake gold-plated LOGO, which can be sold for a lot of money.

The pinnacle, of course, is the kind of Jordan god, not only has a special brand, but even a special copycat brand.

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