Inside TCU AD Jeremiah Donati’s life-changing trip touring Nike’s Asia operations
Jeremiah Donati’s initial reaction had been no.
He’s got a young family at home. He didn’t want to be away from TCU athletics for an extended period of time during the middle of basketball season. He just didn’t think it made sense.
But, after talking to a few colleagues and mentors such as Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby and Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte, the “no” turned into a “yes.” Looking back, he’s happy about that change of heart.
Donati joined four other Power Five athletic directors on a Nike-sponsored trip to Southeast Asia last month to tour its contract factories in Vietnam and China, and came away with a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“My kneejerk reaction was, ‘No, I can’t make it,’” Donati said. “I got a few phone calls saying I know you think you can’t do it, it’s too long to be away, but this is something you say yes to. It’ll be that big for your university. It’ll be that big for you personally and professionally.
“And it was a life-changing experience for the positive. I was incredibly honored to be invited to represent TCU. Some of the folks who have been on this trip have been the top administrators for years. To be included in that group and represent TCU, it says a lot about the school and it’s also humbling to be invited to do that.”
Donati was the only Big 12 athletic director on the trip. Purdue’s Michael Bobinski, Virginia’s Carla Williams, Arkansas’ Hunter Yurachek and Michigan State’s Bill Beekman also attended.
It was the 17th annual trip that Nike has sponsored. Previous attendees include Bowlsby, who went as Stanford’s and Iowa’s athletic director, Del Conte when he worked at TCU and Oklahoma’s Joe Castiglione.
“You look back on the list of who’s gone and it’s the who’s who of college sports,” Donati said. “It really made me proud to represent TCU. Joe Castiglione and Bob Bowlsby are legends in the college athletics world.
“To be able to follow in their shoes and talk to the commissioner, ‘Did you do this? Did you meet him or her?’ is awesome. The commissioner and I spent two hours at dinner before Big Monday [when TCU faced Kansas] and just talked about the Asia trip.”
For Donati, it served as an eye-opening experience into Nike’s overseas operations as well as an opportunity to network and discuss various issues surrounding the college sports world with other respected athletic directors. Every school faces similar issues in some form or fashion.
The group went on a nine-day tour of Asia with stops in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and then stops in China at Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing.
Nike has first-class operations overseas, Donati said, and the contract factories are the furthest thing from “sweatshops” that some may link with Asian factories.
“Are there sweatshops over there? Maybe. Is Nike involved in those? No,” Donati said. “Nike has a level of quality and expectations of their partners that they’re not willing to bend. In fact, there was some issue years ago when one of Nike’s manufacturing companies had an underage kid working there. Nike immediately cut off ties working with that manufacturing company.
“The standard of excellence really shined through with their manufacturing partners.”
Getting a first-hand experience of the operations served as a reminder to Donati how much work and detail goes into making a Nike product. He learned one of every two pairs of Nike shoes is made in Vietnam.
Nike, in fact, accounts for 2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), directly or indirectly, in Vietnam. The company, either itself or through manufacturing partners, employees 450,000.
“It’s astounding if you think about one company having that much impact,” Donati said. “The things Nike gave back to the community too.
“They have a MicroLoan program with a women’s association where they’ve donated money to women in the community to start their own businesses and 98 percent of those loans are paid off. That’s quite impressive to see how they’re investing back into those communities and they’ve had a positive impact in Vietnam and China. That was really impressive to see up close and personal.”
Among other highlights for Donati from the trip --
▪ Seeing the Great Wall of China: “It was breathtaking, covering 13,000 miles and the history behind it is fascinating. It took centuries to build, from dynasty to dynasty to slave labor to all the things that went into it. It just seemed to go on forever. One of the most spectacular things I’ve ever seen up close and personal.”
▪ Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam: “The whole trip definitely took me out of my comfort zone and crawling through the Cu Chi tunnels was memorable. That’s where the Viet Cong hid out from Americans during the war.”
▪ Visiting the famed Sam’s Tailor in Hong Kong: “I’ve got some suits that should be arriving any day now. You go in there and it’s the who’s who -- Michael Jackson, pretty much every president, Mick Jagger, Michelle Obama, Yao Ming. It’s this little tailor shop, half the size of this office, but it’s so well designed. Of course, everything I bought is designed to complement a purple wardrobe.”
▪ On being in a few of the most populous cities in the world. Shanghai has 24.48 million people compared to the DFW Metroplex having 7.4 million. “It does make you feel rather small. Every single city we traveled to just absolutely dwarfed the Metroplex. And a lot of these cities have been around for many, many centuries. It put a lot in perspective. Ho Chi Minh City is considered a young city over there and it’s 600 years old. That’s older than the United States of America.”
▪ On the food: “In Ho Chi Minh City, we went on a foodie tour and the last stop was a seafood stop. Mike Bobinski of Purdue and I decided to take the ultimate challenge and eat duck embryo. [Laughs]. That pushed me over the limit. After that, for the next 12 hours, all I did was drink Sprite and eat white rice. That was a little much.”
▪ On returning: “It was hard to be away from TCU, but the executive team did a good job filling in. The place didn’t burn down. … I came back ready to go, so fired up to get back in the office. I feel like it allowed me, I didn’t get a lot of time over the holidays to recharge my battery, we went to the bowl game to immediately being back in the office a couple days later. So it was good to have a little time by myself and process -- where we’re going, what 2019 looks like and how we can continue to get better and keep delivering for student athletes and fans.”
Live with #ADJD
Donati will discuss his Asia trip on “Live with #ADJD” today as well as other pressing topics for TCU fans. TCU fans are encouraged to follow along as it’ll be broadcast live on TCU’s athletics Twitter and Instagram accounts starting at 3 p.m.
Donati is expected to touch on the following --
▪ New uniforms. TCU has received positive feedback since releasing its 2019 football uniforms last month, and Donati will touch on that and reveal a couple new developments as far as uniforms are concerned that should excite the fan base.
▪ East side expansion. Construction remains ongoing on the east-side expansion project to Amon G. Carter Stadium. Donati will update the latest on that.
▪ Football game day. TCU is constantly trying to improve fan experience and that includes for the 2019 football season. Donati will reveal the latest developments on game day prep, as well as his and TCU’s plans to conduct a season-ticket holder survey to better serve fans going forward.
