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The more I read & hear about the big sportswear manufacturers, the less inclined I am to buy any of their stuff.
Does anyone know of any shoe manufacturers that are known for their ethical working practices?
Thanks
Does anyone know of any shoe manufacturers that are known for their ethical working practices?
Thanks
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Comments
I think New Balance shoes are made in the UK ?
I will read up on the previous discussion.
Ta
I see it's been a while since ethical issues seem to have been aired on teh forum - I wonder if other RW reasders would be intersted in some coverage of this issue in the magazine? The footwear and otehr reviews of producst tell us all (and sometimes more) than we need to know about stability, cushioning, value for moeny etc. It would be nice if they told us under what conditions the shoes were manufactured [eg in sweatshops, or chil labour, or under ethical, independently monitored codes of conduct?
I run in NB854's.
(forum's lefty vegan student!)
RW please do an article on ethical running kit!
In other words, they ain't gonna bite the hand that feeds them.
All publications are compromised by their advertisers - whether you're The Times or the local student journal. RW is no different. They have to take the soiled Nike shilling to stay alive, so don't hold your breath waiting for an article on ethics.
Shame. It's fertile writing territory here in the running world:- generally youngish, well-educated clientele meets sweatshop (small S) mass production.
NB seem to have decided that their shoes are vegan again?
the 'vegan bunny' logo on the website disappeared for a few months, apparently because they weren't sure their glues were animal-free.
Ah well, buisness opportunity for someone to be making ethical kit!
What's the best way to approach RW about covering this properly?
According to the following link, Puma have a good ethical policy but I can't find anything on their website which kinda states it.
http://www.peta2.com/STUFF/s-wear-puma.asp
Shoes from Saucony, New Balance are partly made in the UK and as New Balance are now labelling stuff as vegan etc.
If you look at the co-op and smile, when they switched to an ethically based banking product, they attacted more customers as a result.
There are a growing number of people who are intrigued by the ethical and 'no logo' way of life and what an opportunity for a british based manufacturer to plug their gear.
Having just read the PETA link, & bearing in mind that I'm also vegan...
... I wasn't impressed. All PETA are actually saying is that:
1. PUMA have made an ad with a vegan skateboarder in, & an animal-rights message. OK as far as it goes (though I'm not particularly into the way PETA goes about campaigning). It's kind of nice that Puma think vegans are 'cool', but I do find it worrisome that PETA is allowing vegetarianism to be exploited as a fashion statement by a company dedicated to plugging consumerism. Personally, not exactly my thing.
2. Some of Puma's range is vegan. Some isn't. The same could be said of just about any clothing manufacturer. Searching puma.com for (vegan OR vegetarian OR cruelty OR ethic* OR sweatshop) produced one result (& that was a recruitment ad for someone with a 'strong work ethic'). This doesn't seem like it's taking either CSR or animal rights / welfare exactly to the heart of what it's about. Another depressing example of a manufacturer seeking out a target market.
Nothing was mentioned about Puma's approach to labour standards, pay & conditions, environmental practises, etc., etc.
I really don't want to get into a holier-than-thou 'vegan police' type argument, but TBH I'm not exactly convinced of Puma's exalted ethical status.
http://www.inov-8.com
If they all do, that's great, but then they ought to be broadcasting that as their repuations are not good on this. If some of them don't, it'd be good to know which ones.
As I understand it, the key to this is not that companies have codes of conduct (I understand virtually all of them can produce a piece of paper saying they're committed to doing the right thing) but that their practices can be independently monitored - ie we don't have to take their word for it, but that in practice an ethical consumer body can assess what's really happening.
Even knowing which companies do/don't allow for inidependent monitoring of their manufacturing plants would be a big help.
I don't think it follows that because something is made in Indonesia or China or wherever it's necessarily made under poor conditions, but thre's obviously a huge gap in information here, and running magazines' reluctance to cover the issue only adds to it.
I tend to avoid the made overseas stuff as much as possible because there aren't any mimnmum guarantees there, whereas at least in the UK there are laws on things like minimum wage & conditions. If I found a company which made clothes overseas to independently certified standards, I'd consider them as well.
It is difficult & sometimes expensive to get independent certification (I'm a trustee for a small charity which imports goods made in a hospital in India as part of its remit - friendsofantarauk.org - & we haven't got any official Fair Trade status because of the costs involved for a very small operation) - but given the history of abuse in the industry, it would be necessary to get me to trust any claims made.
Do you know where would even be a good place to start on this sort of stuff? I asked the 'No Sweat!' campaign people recently, but they basically said 'there aren't any good manufacturers'.
I'll see what I can find. If there eally aren't any 'good cos' then it'd be good to get some sense of who's least worst, who's taking CSR seriously and might reform etc. The frustrating thing is the 'they're all the same' mindset, which means people are deterred from finding out more specifics. I'm reminded of car magazies in the US in the 1960s and 70s who refused to cover anything on safety aspects of different manufacturers, as they were 'all bad' and would withdraw their advertising. Then along came Volvo and made safety central to its marketing.
Or women's magazines in the UK in the 1970s who wouldn't cover anything on lung/breast cancer because of the tobacco advertising they might lose. Now such articles are staples of women's mags.
Surely one of the sportwear manufacturers could push the 'ethical' element of production to people like us?
If you are looking for some referance from a brand perspective you can follow the attached link that outlines the WFSGI code of conduct which is adhered to by most (if not all) major sports brands.
http://www.mizuno.com/ethic/index.html
If you are interested in viewing Mizuno specific strategy on enviromental issues you can follow this further link,
http://www.mizuno.com/crew21/index.html
Speaking from my own personal perspective (i.e. not neccesarily the views of Mizuno Corporation) I think it is too easy to jump on the back of major manufacturers backs when the discussion of 'ethics' arises. The majority of brands make no secret of the fact that China is used as a major manufacturing source which is of course primarily down to cost, this fact ensures the consumer ultimately can purchase a shoe at a reasonable price, but also down to technical expertise.
Ethics in the workplace is of course a very sensitive issue in all manufacturing industries but I speak with over 10 years experience in the footwear industry and can confidently say that the vast majority of sports brands strongly adhere to strict codes of conduct within their manufacturing sources and these codes of conduct are very visible to all workers at these sources. The brands no longer leave it to the local factory managers to manage their factories in the way they see fit and will no longer use sources that will not adhere to strict codes of conduct.
We could of course go on for pages on working conditions in this and many other industries but as you were researching on information I thought I could point you in the direction of where we have published info on our website.
Thanks
Simon@Mizuno
Thanks very much for this. Can you tell us which qualified third party external organizations [under Point 6 in the Code of Conduct] monitor and report publicly on Mizuno's manufacturing, and where we can find those reports?
Thanks,
Brian
That is an interesting site. Do you know whether Mizuno have any running shoes which are vegan friendly?
Thanks.
Paul
Thanks!
This is what drives global capitalism and it applies just as much to any mass produced product you buy as it does to sportswear. So the next time you walk around a supermarket, think very carefully about what you are buying......
It was great to get your input about ethics and Mizuno, and it's prompted several questions, as you can see. Do you think you might get the chance to address them?
Thanks
Brian
I've been exploring some of the ethical research that's been done on kit and there's an interesting site with a huge amount of information on it that was promoted before last year's olympics. It can be found at www.fairolympics.org
Oxfam were one of the groups backing it, and it specifically mentions Mizuno as one of the companies being called on to clean up their act (there are others, but I mention Mizuno because of what Simon said earlier in this discussion).
The campaign's research found that:
"• Companies’ promises to behave responsibly are often superficial and lacking in credibility, and are ignored by company buying teams who use cut-throat tactics to reach their targets;
• Factory managers are failing to meet the high-pressure demands from companies and comply with rules on respecting labor standards at the same time;
• The industry is therefore undermining the very labor standards it claims to uphold; some factories falsify records routinely in order to pass inspection and there is plentiful evidence of workers enduring abusive and exploitative working conditions or being sacked for joining a union."
Sorry to throw a spanner in the works and don't get me wrong I do fully support that all workers should be fairly and humanely treated etc. However if we start putting all this pressure on the sports brands etc and consequently they manufacture out of China then surely the cost of our running kit is going to go up as is the cost of our running shoes.
Surely everybody is in business to make money (what is the point otherwise?), the manufacturers and the retailers etc have to make their margin, if the cost goes up at the factories then surely that gets extrapolated to us the end consumer, how much more are you prepared to pay for your shoes?
Then where do we stop, we are all sitting here writing this stuff on computers and laptops, my laptop is made in China how sure am I that this is made in 'ethical' conditions surely the minimum wage in a Chinese laptop factory is the same as a Chinese shoe factory?
I obviously haven't researched this as much as you guys, but what gets me thinking is the fact there are pages and pages on these forums where people are asking where they can get the best deal on a pair of shoes as we are not prepared to pay full price, but then on the other hand we are complaining that the companies should pay more for the shoes.
Surely we can't have it both ways ?
This is a very good point, and of course ethical issues do not begin and end with sprots gear. The reason, as I understand it, that running gear gets so much focus for this attention is the huge discrepancy between how much it takes to make a pair of trainers and how much companies charge us for them.
The charity campaigners who push fair trade say the wages of people making big brand trainers could easily double without adding to the cost of the price of the shoes at all. The difference would come out of the huge profits the companies make.
My basic point in all this, and why i joined this thread, is that discussion on this ought to be promoted. If someone wants to show that sweatshops are a myth, or that any job is better than no job, or that we can't [as you suggest] have it both ways, then that's a great debate. I'd love my suspicions to be wrong, and be shown that thre are no ethical problems with this.
The problem is that RW and other sports appear to avoid any conversations about sweatshops - I've been reading RW and other similar mags for many years and have NEVER seen an article about the ethics of sportswear, although clearly it's an issue for many runners. All I'm asking [and have asked RW, without reply] is that they cover this issue in an article or two.
I can see from extensive articles on trainers how much they weigh, what sort of material is used in the cushioning, and all sorts of medial post stuff that is less important to me than knowing they weren't made by kids or in a sweatshop
My New Balance trainers are made in the Lake District, & cost £60 retail - comparable with anything else in the shop. NB don't do the big-name sponsorship stuff, which might (or might not, I don't know) make the difference. But they do pay above the UK minimum wage. I know I'm not the only person who wears New Balance because they are made in the UK.
Fairly traded goods are making inroads in other areas of the economy - people are prepared to pay more. Slavery in the UK was ended because poeple decided that it was no longer acceptable to do that to people. No, it won't happen overnight, and yes, bringing all manufacturing onto line will probably require regulation beyond consumer choice - but what needs to happen first is support from a critical mass of the population, & then real structural change can happen - but that means that some people are going to have to get the ball rolling.
I might be wrong but I thought that the new balance shoes that are 'made in the uk' are just assembled in the uk and the majority of the parts that make the shoe are actually from the far east (probably made in the same factories as the other brands) and then are purely stitched and glued together here in the UK?
Yes, I've heard this before too, and don't know if it's true but it's exactly the sort of thing that RW ought to be covering to help readers sift fact from myth.