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Day 2: We saw how your Nike shoe was made!

I haven’t been able to keep track of what day or time it is and I feel like this trip is just one long day. It does feel like I have been here for longer but it is only day 2! So today was day number two and the first trip on our agenda was to visit the Nike Vietnam office which was a few minutes away from our hotel. We got a good overview of what Nike does in Vietnam and how the business works there.  Nike has several partnerships with factories that make their products and we were able to get a tour of one of Nike’s running shoes production line.
Honestly this was one of the main trips that I was excited about for our stay in Vietnam. How often do you get a chance to see how a product is produced let alone a Nike shoe? For starters, I had no idea that a Nike shoe takes at least 45 steps to complete its production! The conditions in the facility were really good and the employees were treated really well, which the company made sure to highlight since it is a top of mind topic. I was happy to see a local Vietnamese company standing its own and being responsible for entire operations for production of several multinational brands. The level of sophisticated management and strategic thinking is very important because both the factory and Nike need to work together when it comes to the production of a certain design. Will the innovative design that Nike created be feasible to produce? Can Ching Luh (the name of the factory) be able to supply all the required materials? How long would it take? How would forecasts and orders be planned? How are the different markets considered when it comes to design, color, marketing etc? For example, Vietnamese feet are different than American feet which is a major factor in the design. All these questions were discussed in a presentation that was given by one of the employees at Ching Luh, who I was also very impressed with, especially being a Vietnamese woman. I honestly thought that women would be much more reserved and most presentations would be by men but so far it has been mainly women who are  very knowledgeable about their fields and holding high management positions.

After Nike we went off to lunch at this local cafe restaurant called Ciao Café. We got to know this place through one of Professors Shultz’s old student’s daughter, Au,  who was at the reception that took place on our first day. She was such a pleasant friendly person and offered her time to show us all around. She works at this café and we all went there for lunch. What I liked about it was that it was different and probably one that we would never have seen because we are considered tourists, so we were able to experience a more local experience.
After another tour to the Ben Thanh Market where we all tried to stop ourselves from buying pretty things and practicing our bargaining abilities (some better than others) we all split up to explore the city and its night life…then we got lost. Some of us got a little lost which I personally really enjoyed because we spent most of our time on our tour bus going from one place to another. Despite what the perception is on Vietnam, I personally and none of us felt unsafe or scared…of course being together helped but the people of Ho Chi Minh are up at night hanging out on their scooters or chairs in the middle of the streets, workers working late at night, shops open, massage parlors and tailors offering their service…tired yes but how can we go back to sleep! Some of us decided to get a massage, some wanted to walk around but I was with The Apocalypse Now group (the name of the place to be for a night out at Saigon) where we joined everyone else. At one point I looked around and saw all of us just singing and smiling and I genuinely felt really happy to be with everyone. We are all getting affected by this experience in different ways but all very similar… or in other words, “Same same, but different.”

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