China's $20 Sneakers Are Exposing a $250 SCAM — Here's How

A pair of Nike Air Jordans cost $250 in the store. But every piece of rubber, foam, and fabric inside that shoe costs about $9.The person who stitched it together earns less than $3.The total cost to make that shoe and put it in a box, around $20. So, when you hand over $250, you are not paying for a shoe.You are paying $230 for everything around it. The commercials, the celebrity deals, the fancy store lighting, and a small curved check mark that a college student drew in 1971 for $35. But here is where it gets wild. The same factories Nike hired to build its empire in southern China started building something else.