BBC Finds £1/Hour Pay at Official Shirt Factories — SkimNews
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- BBC Sport investigation traced official replica shirts to Bowker Garment Factory and Trax Apparel in Cambodia, where workers receive basic monthly salaries of $210-$220 (£158-£166), with five payslips confirming earnings.
- Workers at Bowker and Trax reported factory temperatures above 35C, daily production targets of 300-700 items, verbal abuse when quotas were missed, and electric shocks from exposed wires that went unreported.
- An £85 shirt breaks down as £37.45 to the retailer, £16.25 to the manufacturer, £9.50 on marketing, £8.50 on fabric/sewing/shipping, and £13.60 in VAT, according to research cited by BBC Sport.
- Adult replica Premier League shirt prices have risen 50.7% over the past decade, pushing fans toward counterfeits sold for as little as £12, many originating from China.
- Adidas, supplier to 8 of 20 Premier League teams, said it runs ~1,200 factory audits a year and that average net wages across sampled Cambodian suppliers sit 34% above the Anker Research Institute's living-wage benchmark; Bowker did not respond.
- The Clean Clothes Campaign, Labour Behind the Label, and the Football Supporters' Association all called on clubs and brands to guarantee that workers making official kit are "paid well and treated fairly."
- Nike supplies 3 Premier League clubs plus England with shirts made in Thailand, Vietnam and recently Georgia, while Hummel supplies 3 clubs with manufacturing in Turkey, each company citing its own audit regimes.
Why it matters: The investigation exposes a stark gap between brands' public ethics claims and what workers experience: basic monthly pay of $210-$220 at factories producing shirts retailing for £85-£120, with retailer margin (£37.45) dwarfing the manufacturer's (£16.25). For the 8 of 20 Premier League clubs supplied by Adidas and the fans paying premium prices, the report forces a direct accountability test on whether kit-supply contracts will now require disclosure of factory-level wages and conditions.
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