skate shoes that are made without slave labor

[solo]

Ruling out nikes after this pair die. Lakais are coming back with saucy kicks it looks like.. where are they made?

[micky682]

KOREA,...I think.

[I Can't Think]

Lakais are now being made in Korea, but sadly I have no idea how the labour is. I'm pretty sure ipath is committed to eco friendly, worker safe stuff. Etnies talks a lot about the environment and workers to but I get the impression there to big to uphold those claims. Thats all I got

[choke mayne]

vans are made in emerica

[brianwilson]

vans are made in emerica

[happenstance]

vans are made in emerica

Shoe inception?

[swagdragon123]

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vans are made in emerica

[close]

Shoe inception?

shoeception*

[Wh0l3]

I doubt any athletic sneaker companies have ethical working conditions, if they did it would be a selling point.

The only sneakers made in the USA are certain New Balances and they are of foreign materials.

I know you can buy chuck taylor knock offs that are made ethically in like Afghanistan and Dominican Republic.

The thing is, if you boycott sweatshops, you're just putting poor people out of jobs. It's more complicated than it seems and is really fucked up.

It's best to just buy less stuff and/or as much used stuff as you can.

[RightCoastBiased]

Shut the fuck up, hippie.

[dillanharp]

Probably going to have to go this route.

How to make a shoe - Part 1.

[Wh0l3]

Shut the fuck up, hippie.

my man

[Nosferatu]

Probably going to have to go this route.

How to make a shoe - Part 1.

If anyone's going through slave labor its not gonna be me.

[HairyCunt]

I doubt any athletic sneaker companies have ethical working conditions, if they did it would be a selling point.

The only sneakers made in the USA are certain New Balances and they are of foreign materials.

I know you can buy chuck taylor knock offs that are made ethically in like Afghanistan and Dominican Republic.

The thing is, if you boycott sweatshops, you're just putting poor people out of jobs. It's more complicated than it seems and is really fucked up.

It's best to just buy less stuff and/or as much used stuff as you can.

This is true.  There is no reason to go through so much skate product, think back to when you were a kid and you made that shit last. Getting skate shoes once a year.  Personally I skated more back then too, it's just now I can afford to be wasteful. If I really tried though I could be shoe gooing a pair 3 times.  Unless you are buying quality leather men's shoes ie $450 and up, someone is being exploited in a factory. 

[steenz]

Probably going to have to go this route.

How to make a shoe - Part 1.

lol

[dankradschwag]

i dont know about you guys, but them slaves make really good shoes, so fuck it

[Chavo]

Generally speaking, factories in South Korea or Taiwan follow "ethical" working conditions. South Korea is a modern industrial, democratic country, etc. That said, there are still sweatshops in the United States where you would expect the most ideal working conditions of any country.

Brief history of skate shoe manufacturing: Vans made their shoes in the U.S. until 1994. Hi-tops cost (in integrated stores) $32 in 1985 and $40 in 1991. Even in the early '90s the prices were still reasonable--you could custom order any color or material on just about any Vans shoe and get them back in 3-4 weeks for $1 more. During their early history, DC and Sole Tech (and several others) manufactured shoes in Korea. As most others quickly shifted towards Chinese and Southeast Asian factories, DC touted the ethical working conditions of their Sam Il Tong Sang production (until the parent company established satellite factories in Vietnam and China and sourced the work there).

Bottom line is that you could still make shoes in modern democratic countries and keep the prices reasonable. You could probably even make shoes in the U.S., but quality rather than price would be the main hurdle.

[Nick..]

Go drive your Prius off a cliff.

[jhskates84]

Go drive your Prius off a cliff.

60-70 miles per gallon to the cliff, sumbitch

[Wh0l3]

Generally speaking, factories in South Korea or Taiwan follow "ethical" working conditions. South Korea is a modern industrial, democratic country, etc. That said, there are still sweatshops in the United States where you would expect the most ideal working conditions of any country.

Brief history of skate shoe manufacturing: Vans made their shoes in the U.S. until 1994. Hi-tops cost (in integrated stores) $32 in 1985 and $40 in 1991. Even in the early '90s the prices were still reasonable--you could custom order any color or material on just about any Vans shoe and get them back in 3-4 weeks for $1 more. During their early history, DC and Sole Tech (and several others) manufactured shoes in Korea. As most others quickly shifted towards Chinese and Southeast Asian factories, DC touted the ethical working conditions of their Sam Il Tong Sang production (until the parent company established satellite factories in Vietnam and China and sourced the work there).

Bottom line is that you could still make shoes in modern democratic countries and keep the prices reasonable. You could probably even make shoes in the U.S., but quality rather than price would be the main hurdle.

Interesting, I didn't know that about DC.

Ya also gotta take into account inflation for those prices doe.

What kinda sweatshops are you talking about in the US? I've heard of illegals being enslaved on farms and shit.

If that's true about the US being aight for sneaker manufacturing, why do companies decide to manufacture overseas? shipping that shit over costs a lot.

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Go drive your Prius off a cliff.

[close]

60-70 miles per gallon to the cliff, sumbitch

fuck a prius

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2008/05/the-ultimate-pr/

[...] it takes 113 million BTUs of energy to make a Toyota Prius. Because there are about 113,000 BTUs of energy in a gallon of gasoline, the Prius has consumed the equivalent of 1,000 gallons of gasoline before it reaches the showroom. Think of it as a carbon debt ? one you won?t pay off until the Prius has turned over 46,000 miles or so.

Oh and these are the chuck taylor knock offs I mentioned earlier. I'll probs get 'em when I've gone through all my sneakers.

I hope they're better than Converse, the regular chuck taylor's really went to shit when Nike bought them.

http://www.autonomieproject.com/502-fair_trade-footwear.html

[ciaran]

If that's true about the US being aight for sneaker manufacturing, why do companies decide to manufacture overseas? shipping that shit over costs a lot.

It's down to greater profit through outsourcing, they are all copying Nike's business model who have never owned a factory at any stage and have always relied on outsourcing - adidas and all their competitors followed suit in the mid-late 90s, precisely when Nike were facing the heat for slave labour practices in the factories they use.  Any high shipping costs would be brought down by economies of scale, presumably to the point where the margins are way greater regardless of having to re-import the stock back to the US.

It's the same for apparel (Levi's outsourced their production to the Far East in the mid 90s after selling off their factories), cars (part of the decline of Detroit's manufacturing industry is down to moving production to cheaper places), tech support, IT, etc.   Read No Logo for more, it goes into the whole debacle in great depth.

[Wh0l3]

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If that's true about the US being aight for sneaker manufacturing, why do companies decide to manufacture overseas? shipping that shit over costs a lot.

[close]

It's down to greater profit through outsourcing, they are all copying Nike's business model who have never owned a factory at any stage and have always relied on outsourcing - adidas and all their competitors followed suit in the mid-late 90s, precisely when Nike were facing the heat for slave labour practices in the factories they use.  Any high shipping costs would be brought down by economies of scale, presumably to the point where the margins are way greater regardless of having to re-import the stock back to the US.

It's the same for apparel (Levi's outsourced their production to the Far East in the mid 90s after selling off their factories), cars (part of the decline of Detroit's manufacturing industry is down to moving production to cheaper places), tech support, IT, etc.   Read No Logo for more, it goes into the whole debacle in great depth.

Word, thank you. I knew some of this but this very helpful.
I think I misread the other poster when I replied. I thought he was saying that the main issue around making skate shoes in the U.S. is quality and not cost.

Maybe Romney will bring sneaker manufacturers back I'd still probably buy chinese made shoes if it was a core company though. They need the money more than 'mericans.

[256 Ply]

There's the Blackspot Sneaker, but I don't know how they skate:
http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/blackspot

[HairyCunt]

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If that's true about the US being aight for sneaker manufacturing, why do companies decide to manufacture overseas? shipping that shit over costs a lot.

[close]

It's down to greater profit through outsourcing, they are all copying Nike's business model who have never owned a factory at any stage and have always relied on outsourcing - adidas and all their competitors followed suit in the mid-late 90s, precisely when Nike were facing the heat for slave labour practices in the factories they use.  Any high shipping costs would be brought down by economies of scale, presumably to the point where the margins are way greater regardless of having to re-import the stock back to the US.

It's the same for apparel (Levi's outsourced their production to the Far East in the mid 90s after selling off their factories), cars (part of the decline of Detroit's manufacturing industry is down to moving production to cheaper places), tech support, IT, etc.   Read No Logo for more, it goes into the whole debacle in great depth.

[close]

Word, thank you. I knew some of this but this very helpful.
I think I misread the other poster when I replied. I thought he was saying that the main issue around making skate shoes in the U.S. is quality and not cost.

Maybe Romney will bring sneaker manufacturers back I'd still probably buy chinese made shoes if it was a core company though. They need the money more than 'mericans.

Once 3-D printing is more efficient, economies of scale won't matter anymore, and we'll see a return to manufacturing in the US.