Huge subcontractors find they must dance the tune Nike calls - Suppliers are dependent on - and increasingly monitored by - the footwear and apparel giant By Jeff Manning of The Oregonian (press here). "Pou Chen, owned by Taiwanese entrepreneurDavid Tsai and his four brothers, probably has benefited more than any other Asian company from the explosion in demand for athletic shoes. The company employs more than 150,000 factory workers across Asia." ... The long marriage between Nike and its subcontractors entered a new era last year when Nike formed a team of labor monitors to check on working conditions in the factories. .. The company last spring cooperated with Vietnamese authorities in the arrest and later prosecution of a supervisor at a factory near Ho Chi Minh City. The woman was convicted of abuse charges after forcing 56 workers to run the perimeter of a factory until 12 fainted. She was sentenced to six months in jail... Frank Chang, a Pou Chen executive in Vietnam, went white with anger at the government when asked about the incident. "I'm upset," he said. "She was made an example of to all the foreigners." http://www.oregonlive.com/series/nikeside.html 

Keep searching and you will be able to trace the Mafia Trail... and it will encombass not only Nike, but Adidas, and Reebok into the competition to accumulate sweatshops owned by Taiwan and Korean business families.