The Olympic Games as an opportunity to sell sneakers world wide.

I found an article from the Wall Street Journal entitled"Sportswear With Designs on China; Nike and Adidas Go Local, Betting Pride Over Games Will Sell More-Asian Styles" (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120595163750449205.html?mod=blog)
The article is basically about the weak attempts of sportwear conglomerates to eastern-up their products in order to ride the nationalism wave that’s about to come in this August with the Beijing Olympics. So of course everything is red and yellow, features Chinese characters, is covered in ancient swirling "lucky cloud" patterns dragons, fans, and nothing is original or uniquely designed. Nike has even played up the 1980's style to commemorate the 1984 Olympics where China was permitted to participate under Communist rule. And of course, Nike reported higher profits because people can’t resist a branded version of their culture. This is a quote from the Wall Street Journal concerning the role of huge companies in visualizing China, I just thought the last line of the quote was particularly interesting:
"The companies "will do whatever they can to tell the story, 'we were the partner in China's greatest sporting moment,'" says Terry Rhoads, managing director of Zou Marketing, a Shanghai-based sports-marketing firm. "It's a huge battle."
-Lured by this prospect, "Nike and Adidas are pulling out all the stops trying to localize their products," he says." "