It is impossible to survive an entire day without seeing them. They’re plastered all over T-shirts, baseball caps, shoes, professional sports uniforms, billboards, television commercials, you name it. Take a walk on campus and hundreds of them can be counted.

They are Nike swooshes.

Most people ignore the poor labor practices of the multi-million dollar corporation, continuing to purchase the company’s products and adorning themselves with the Nike logo.

Then there are those like Steven Myers, who created a Web site in order to express his views against Nike.

“The Official Internet Anti-Nike Site” provides an outlet for criticism against the corporate giant Nike. The slogan for the site is: “Say shoo to the swoosh.”

Myers described himself as a “family man” from southwestern Oregon, and he explained what motivated him to post the page.

“I was at a Foot Locker store and I picked up a pair of shoes and looked over at my kids. I came to the realization that the people that made my shoes are just like my little kids,” Myers said.

He says that he uses sarcasm and humor in his page in order to get his points across.

The site focuses on the issues of child labor and the under-funding of Social Security as a result of companies like Nike.

Myers said that since Nike manufactures its products in other countries, the company does not have to pay Social Security or property taxes. This results in the under-funding of institutions such as libraries and schools.

In addition to creating the “Official Internet Anti-Nike Site,” Myers also helped to establish the anti-Nike Web ring, which contains about 100 anti-Nike sites.

According to Myers, a lot of the sites in the anti-Nike Web ring are posted by people who are into snowboarding and hockey. These people are angry because Nike has recently dominated the production of hockey equipment, Myers said.

Other sites included in the anti-Nike Web ring give facts and figures, as well as pictures related to Nike’s child labor practices in foreign countries.

Throughout the page, there are many animated pictures with crossed-out swooshes that say, “Just don’t do it.”

Myers also created a symbol which he coined the “swooshtika,” resembling the swastika, an emblem for Nazi Germany.

Although these symbols are not the primary focus of his Web site, the issue of race has also been brought up by anti-Nike zealots.

“It seems to be ‘yellow people’ [Asians] and also Mexicans that are subjugated into working in these sweatshops with poor working conditions and underpaid workers,” Myers remarked.

“This movement is very much a nonviolent movement,” he continued, adding that he advocates boycotting Nike in the same way that Mahatma Gandhi used nonviolent tactics in order to help the Indian people.

Myers also noted that his page has received a lot of hits.

On an average day, he gets 10 pieces of e-mail regarding the page.

One question many have asked is why other athletic shoe manufacturers have not been targeted. Myers reasoned that Nike is the “master at seeking the utmost destitute people to ultimately be their wage slaves.”

The Web site also features two poems written by Myers titled “We’ve Been Swooshed” and “The Fate of Generation X.”

A link is also posted on the page for another site, where Anti-Nike T-shirts can be ordered. Anti-Nike enthusiasts can order the T-shirt sat www.bayimprint.com.

“The Official Internet Anti-Nike” Web site can be accessed at www.harborside.com/home/s/stevenm/public_html/antinike.html.