- Quality: If production is in-house, a company can enforce the quality standards it wants. Once production is outsourced, the quality standards may not be as stringent. To solve this, the contracts for outsourcing usually agree on quality standards and who will do the quality checks

1. - Time to market: If production is in-house, the company has complete control of the production value chain and knows if anything is likely to slip schedule. In outsourcing, the company may not have much control over the third-party's schedule and operations thereby increasing uncertainty
   
2. - Brand implications: When outsourcing involves off-shoring, there have been many instances when the working conditions were sub-human, especially in the so-called 'sweat-shops' in south-east Asia and parts of Africa. This has serious brand implications for companies such as Nike
   
3. - Threat of copying: When Nike gives its design to an outsourcer, there is the potential that the design could get leaked and a cheap copy of the original product starts getting sold at a fraction of price, thereby diluting the brand.