Boycott of Nike products threatened over Jordan row

The Consumers' Foundation said last night that it would boycott Nike products if Nike Taiwan doesn't respond to disappointed Michael Jordan fans with goodwill by tomorrow.

The foundation would also dispatch volunteers to local Nike outlets, advising consumers not to buy the products of the American sportswear maker, Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏), secretary-general of the foundation, said yesterday.

Cheng made the remark after a news conference called earlier yesterday by Nike in Taiwan ended abruptly, with the reporters themselves walking out en masse to "protest" Nike executives' refusal to apologize for their handling of former basketball giant Michael Jordan's visit to Taipei last week.

Hu Shan-ming (胡山明), an assistant general manager for marketing at Taiwan Nike, and Jeanne Huang (黃湘燕), the marketing manager for Taiwan Nike, angered reporters from the Association of Basketball Reporters in Taipei by saying sorry only to "some of the 700 basketball fans" who were disappointed by Jordan's too-brief appearance at a much-hyped event in Taipei on Saturday.

They added fuel to the reporters' fury by stalling on questions about how their company would respond to a local consumers' group's demand for refunds for fans who bought a lot of Nike sportswear in order to get the chance to have "close contact" with Jordan, as the company touted in an advertisement.

Complaining that the two executives were simply repeating what they had said the previous day, the reporters walked out en masse, forcing the news conference to an abrupt end.

The dispute stems from the event staged by Taiwan Nike for local customers. Although the organizers guaranteed those who attended the event the chance to see Jordan up close and personal, Jordan appeared for less than two minutes, to the great disappointment and anger of the participants.