How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

Manufacturing Cost, Markups, and Nike Example

• The thread accepts that factory cost of a $100 retail Nike is relatively low (≈$20–25 landed), but stresses most of the price is downstream: brand, design, marketing, retail overhead, and risk.
• Retailers often work on percentage markups (commonly near 100% on wholesale), not fixed dollar margins, because many costs (inventory financing, insurance, shrink, returns, customer service) scale with ticket price and time-in-inventory.
• Some argue this “percentage logic” is not inevitable and partly reflects investor expectations and capital costs, not physical necessity.

Tariffs and Consumer Impact

• A key point: a 100% tariff at the border is magnified by percentage markups, so a $23 duty can push a $100 shoe toward $150, not $123.
• Several commenters liken tariffs to a hidden federal sales tax that consumers ultimately pay, with little net benefit beyond higher prices and reduced demand.
• Others say if tariffs were applied as a retail sales tax instead of an import duty, the final price increase could be smaller for the same tax revenue.

Onshoring vs. Self‑Sufficiency

• One side: bringing shoe manufacturing back to the US is economically “a fool’s errand” in a high-wage, low‑interest, automation-driven environment; tariffs won’t create many good jobs and will likely be rolled back under voter pressure.
• The other side: some degree of domestic production in critical sectors (chips, energy, defense, medical supplies, sometimes food) is strategically valuable, even if it’s costlier. Sneakers themselves are viewed by many as non‑strategic.

Automation, Jobs, and “Bullshit Work”

• Manufacturing that stayed in rich countries is already highly automated or very high value-add; new factories will be robot-heavy and employ far fewer people.
• Some argue “bringing back manufacturing jobs” is nostalgia; the real future work is designing, maintaining, and reconfiguring automated systems.
• A long subthread debates whether society should keep organizing around “jobs” at all versus some form of basic support or publicly funded creative work.

China, Global Trade, and Geopolitics

• Multiple comments stress that “Asia = cheap shoe labor” is outdated: China in particular is now competitive or leading in EVs, batteries, robotics, and other advanced tech, and rapidly automating factories.
• There’s disagreement over how much China’s demographic decline and political risks offset its strengths.
• Some see deep trade ties as stabilizing (“mutually assured economic destruction”), others as dangerous dependence that can be weaponized in a crisis (e.g., Taiwan).

Retail Concentration and Margins

• Several note that modern retail and cinema chains replaced small shops, increasing pricing power once local monopolies were established.
• Others counter that net profit margins for big retailers remain single digits once rent, wages, and logistics are included; high per‑item markups shouldn’t be confused with windfall profits.