One Geek

Today I decided to buy a new pair of shoes, but I decided to try and buy non-slave made ones. No one seemed to want to sell me mens casuals shoes not made by slaves. Particular because the shoes I buy tend to cost between $90-250.

Shoe shop in centre point one
Only made in China or India. Offered to ask the manager and manager didn’t know, couldn’t assure me.

Myer on George St
Straight out no. At this point my backpack broke, and I ended up buying a bag made in China. I had a heavy backpack and didn’t have the energy to try and find a fairly traded one.

Colarado on Pit St
Didn’t even know what a sweat shop was.

Men’s shoes shop on Pit St
Said most mens casual shoes made in China and India. Found one pair in the shop made in Italy that I liked, but cost $270.

Florshim in Galaries of Victory
Didn’t know of any. Showed me two pairs made in China and India. Suggested that kangaroo leather would be OK because at least leather was fairly made. Then tried to convince me that it would cost to much to make shoes and pay workers more money.

At this point I gave up on buying shoes and decided to do have some probably not fair trade made coffee at a café. I did some work on my thesis and decided to head back to Hornsby.

Ecco Shoes Hornsby
I went and asked in Ecco Shoes Hornsby as one last attempt. I own a pair of Ecco shoes at the moment, they are good shoes but rather expensive. Anyway when I asked the woman in the shop, she told me not only were they not made by slaves, but that the employees in Thailand had a bus and were paid above the local award wage. She told me I could find more on their webpage, but I looked when I got home and whilst I found some positive stuff could not find any specifics.

I think I might buy a pair of Ecco shoes this week.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 10:24 pm and is filed under Social Justice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.