Maybe they use bad labor practices, but the reality is that buying skater owned (while you still can) means your money does not go to a globe-spanning behemoth that causes unfathomable environmental harm and human suffering in literally dozens of nations because it's so much cheaper to make every possible kind of shoe and garment when they ravage the land and work their child slaves to death.
Core companies are literally incapable of that degree of harm just by virtue of being that much smaller and more focused on the skate market, as opposed to trying to take over every aspect of the global shoe and athletic equipment marketplace they possibly can. Perhaps buying core is harm reduction? I mostly skate Adidas these days so I'm not perfect on this count by any stretch, but it's food for thought.
Good point, but just to be clear here: In the early 1990s, a former Airwalk employee set up a process with shoe factories in Korea and later other countries in the region and helped 'core' shoe companies manufacture shoes over there. With huge profit margins.
Do you think these factories were practicing sound environmental or labor practices?
Did the 'core' shoe companies care?
Have you smelled a warehouse full of 'core' shoes in the 1990s? It was like walking into a glue factory.
Looking back, a lot of 'core' shoes since the 1990s have been interchangeable product made for cheap with a logo slapped on for legitimacy. Everyone needs to judge for themselves what constitutes a well-made shoe.
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