Corporate Responsibility Mondays enters the footwear industry. As always, Josh will be highlighting a company with a negative record, and I’ll be pointing you to some alternatives. Footwear is a topic I lamented over a few months ago searching out ethical options. In an industry whose pinnacle brand is also the poster child (or should I say, it’s child laborers) for the sweatshop industry, you’ll be happy to know you don’t have to walk around barefoot to be fair consumer. Because different people enjoy different types of shoes I’m going to try and hit the different styles by highlighting some great companies doing some ethical shoe sales.
For the Casual Shoe Wearer:
There is a great company doing a world of good as a shoe shop. The mission is simple: When you buy a pair of shoes, and a pair is given to a child on your behalf. TOMS Shoes is a neat company with a neat story and the goal is to provide you and children around the world with comfortable feet. The one thing I couldn’t find detailed information on is about were the shoes are made. It was mentioned that he found shoe manufacturers in Argentina were he is giving away the shoes, so you would assume they are made under ethical conditions. Just to be sure though, I’ve emailed the founder and asked about the details.
A new shoe option that’s just started up is a group called: BuyShoesSaveLives.com which sells shoes made by people in Iraq and the profits fund heart surgeries for Iraqi children dying from lack of health care. The shoes are called klashes and the website explains most of the details.
For the Classic Chuckies Wearer:
All those looking for a comeback of their old converse need look no further. Both No Sweat Apparel and Adbusters have their own fair trade version of these classic shoes. No Sweat Apparel has a wide range of choices when it comes to sneakers including the stylish ones pictured here. And No Sweat has a simple Union-Made mission to providing ethical footwear:
No Sweat defines the market for goods that support independent trade unions – the only historically proven solution to sweatshops. We market direct to consumers, relying primarily on internet sales for distribution.
They’ve got a great selection of choices of other products as well, I’m sure I’ll highlight them more at a later date.
Adbusters is a little more in-your-face when it comes to their product tactics with their Blackspot Shoes. Their primary goal is to be the non-consumerist, unbrand shoe: “This is your chance to unswoosh Nike’s tired old swoosh and give birth to a new kind of cool in the sneaker industry.” Their shoes are ethical as well:
* 100% organic hemp upper
* made in a union shop
* hand drawn logo & sweet spot
* designed by John Fluevog
* produced by Vegetarian Shoes
For the Athletic Shoe Wearer:
The options thin out a little when you start looking for a sports ready shoe. I’m not sure of soccer cleats or the like available from a union or fair trade store out there. One option for running shoes though is high quality, custom made, by a guy and his wife up in Maine. If you want a shoe with a story behind it and quality at that, Hersey Shoes is the ones you want. The price initially seems pretty steep, but Bart Hersey points out the truth:
A pair of Hersey Customs built just for you will last far longer than off-the-shelf shoes, even if you never resoled them. Also consider that your Herseys can be resoled at least several times before they finally croak, at a fraction of any new-shoe price. And when you finally do need a new pair, we still have your model.
I think it’s worth mentioning one big name shoe company for those who can’t order shoes online or elsewhere. New Balance, of all the major shoe companies, seems to have kept their ethical slate as clean and neat as possible. There has been some indication that their new factories in China, which are extremely difficult to monitor, have utilized sweatshop practices, but there has been only one account of that. So, if you must by a brand, make it New Balance. And when you do, be pro-active and write them and tell them why you purchased them over the others, and encourage them to clean up their act even more.
So, as you can see their are options when it comes to choosing your footwear. Hopefully you haven’t become so tied to brands and styles that you aren’t willing to branch out and find some footwear that supports your ethics and values. In case the links above weren’t enough, here’s a few more sites to check out:
- Vegan Line
- Vegetarian Shoes
- Green Shoes
- Freerangers
- Veja
- Ethical Wares
- Educating for Justice
- Sponsored Link: Mephisto Shoes
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Just just bought a pair of Toms for myself after reading about them in Motto Magazine. Hey, they are actually comfortable!
You are correct that’s there is about zero out their for athletic or cross-trainer shoes. We may work on that in coming years, but right now we’re sticking with fairly traded sports balls and apparel.
I have a hard time justifying running unless I have a soccer ball at my feet, but I may have to try out those Herseys. Thanks for bringing them to my attention.
– Scott James
Fair Trade Sports
http://www.fairtradesports.com
Sorry to tell you, but TOMS Shoes are nowhere near fair trade. They are made in China, as some people below have stated. I guess advertising "Made in China" would be very good publicity.
Very cool. 🙂 Thanks for sharing this, Ariah!
To be honest, I had never given shoes much thought, well, beyond the vegan issues that I have to normally shop with (no leather obviously). Thanks for keeping me on my toes, my brother. You are truly a blessing in my life.
This right here is one of the reasons I look forward to your blogs. Keep on doing the daily thing. I’m digging it!
Ohav Shaolm,
Jamie
This is an awesome post. Thanks for putting this up! It’s been a while since I visited your site…the Erase Racism Carnival, and I am stoked that I decided to take a peek. Good stuff.
Thanks for the heads up on Hersey shoes. I’m always on the look out for sustainable needle trade producers who are good role models for other businesses.
The hippest ones are the Veja !!! I found them in American Rag, San francisco…
I’m surprised no one here has mentioned Yellow Port http://www.yellowport.ca
These guys have some really funky trainers and boots, made from a variety of recycled and environmentally sound materials.
Their founder, Celio Caetano also adamantly opposes child labour and is very transparent about the company’s manufacturing conditions.
Maybe someone who speaks portugese more fluently than myself could translate some of the Brazilian media coverage on Yellow Port or even interview Celio Caetano for Digg – just a thought.
Terrel,
I’ll definitely look into it. Never heard of Yellow Port before. How did you find them?
I stumbled onto their website (www.yellowport.ca) while looking for eco-friendly footwear.
clarification: TOMS shoes are currently MADE IN CHINA. i’ll bet they don’t run around parading that information like they do the “one for one” gimmick.
Jacob,
Thanks for the info. Do you have a pair that says it on the shoe? Or is there a source you can send me the link to for that information?
TOMS are currently made in China, but it is under both free trade and fair labor conditions that are strictly enforced. The production facilities they were using in Argentina simply couldn’t handle the demand the way that China can.
Ted,
Do you work for TOMS?
I’m wondering if I can get some specific details on the “free trade and fair labor conditions” your talking about.
Thanks for maintaining this site! I stumbled on it this way: Time mag piece by Bill Gates re: “creative capitalism” (and thinking why do corporations have to give away from their profits? how about they pay fair wages and clean-up-as-the-go, which would do a lot for any economy?)> blurb on Tom’s Shoes and the one-for-one > cool, but NOTHING at the Tom’s site about how the products are made. You posed that question over a year ago, Ariah. Did you get an answer? Now, Ted suggests “free trade and fair labor conditions” in China. I, too, want verification. Meanwhile, I’m e-mailing the reporter who did a piece on Tom’s for Time back in 2007. Why didn’t she ask about the manufacturing process? Hope we get some answers. I need new shoes, and these look right.
I;m currently researching the company as well, and have not found any firm information on where they get their materials from, what the working conditions are, or what happens to these shoes after they have been worn to pieces. Their sole is made from EVA, which I doubt is biodegradable. Do they have a trade back or recycling program?
thank you for mentioning biodegradable! is that even POSSIBLE in the shoe world? i really hope so… of course, if you aren't worried about the shape inside the shoe/sole, second-hand/thrift stores would be the most conscientious way to go…
and what about the detriments to the human body of wearing shoes all the time (something for which we're obviously not designed) …check this article out, it's full of stuff i've thought of before but haven't heard many others say: http://nymag.com/health/features/46213/
because of it, i'm looking into terra plana, http://www.terraplana.com …lemme know any thing anyone digs up on this?
thanks for the article!
Toms shoes are in fact made in China…or the pair I have are. I'm not sure what I think about that. It actually does say it on the shoe but in teeny tiny letters on the inside. If I look into my shoe it's on left side of the shoe on the inside. If yours are old though there is a chance its been worn off since it's screened on.
Ted, that's really interesting. A few months ago, a friend told me she heard that TOMS were not "fair trade" so I decided to look into it. I went onto the TOMS Shoes website during their business hours and clicked on their live HELP Chat option. I asked them questions about how they ensure their shoes were not made in sweatshops and were fairly traded, and the response I got was pretty disappointing. The representative I was talking to told me that there are no International fair trade regulations for SHOES, only clothes. The person said that TOMS was looking into enforcing and regulating fair trade practices, but nothing they said indicated that regulation was something they were already doing- instead, it was something they were hoping to do in the future. Unfortunately, this answer was satisfying for me. I think if you're going to claim that your shoes are made fairly and the workers involved in every step are paid livable wages and are treated fairly, then you better be sure that's the truth. Until I can get more solid and consistent answers (it seems that TED and the associate I chatted with have two different ideas of how/where TOMS makes shoes), I'm not going to shamelessly promote them like I used to. It's unfortunate, but people should do more research.
forgive me, I meant to say that the answer was NOT satisfying for me.
Has anyone found any information regarding the materials used for TOMS? I'm doing a project for school. A preliminary search has shown no information, other than that shoes are made in China, Argentina, and Ethiopia and the same quote someone posted previously.
toms shoes are a total joke at social change, the "one for one" gimmick is total crap and really in effect does nothing for people in the developing world. the working world produces a better looking similar style shoe actually produced in a democratically worker-run factory- that's real fair trade:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003M5YYU2/ref=cm_sw_su_…
I’m very surprised that soleRebels (from Ethiopia) isn’t on this list – they are the world’s first WFTO Fair Trade Certified footwear company, and really define what it means to be a true fair trade footwear brand.
They pay their workers 4x minimum wage and provide 100% health care and education to employees’ children. Find out more about them at http://www.solerebelsfootwear.co
This list is a little out of date. Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll check them out.