It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
 | Wear Sweat-Free Shoes? Yes, You Can |
Although the people at the major shoe outlets would like you to think otherwise, you don’t have to buy shoes that are made in a sweatshop by people earning an unliveably low wage.
No Sweat Apparel offers the following shoes made in sweat-free conditions:
All of these shoes are made in a union factory in Jakarta, Indonesia. No Sweat helpfully and openly provides a link to the schedule of wages and benefits for workers there — well above average. Nike wouldn’t dare to do the same.
Blackspot, an outfit started by the people at Adbusters, now offers two shoes as well: a Black low-top sneaker and a Black high-top sneaker. And yes, Virginia, Blackspot also offers information about wages and benefits for the workers in its plant in Portugal.
I’ve purchased and worn a pair each of the No-Sweat low-tops and the Blackspot low-tops for about a year now, so let me share with you my opinion of the two in comparison. They look almost identical to one another, and imitate closely the appearance of the Nike-owned Converse Chuck Taylor. The feel, however, is much different. The No-Sweat low-top is made of a less rigid canvas, and so it conforms more generously to the shape of my feet. These shoes feel more like moccasins. The Blackspot’s fabric is more rigid, with a larger weave. These shoes have held together a bit better, but they hurt my feet after a couple of hours, because they refuse to stretch to fit the form of my feet.
Also, if you’re concerned about being a walking advertisement: the Blackspot has a big, imperfectly painted white spot placed on each shoe. This is somewhat odd, since they call it the “Blackspot,” not the “Whitespot,” but there you go. On the bright side, this spot is recognizeable to the hipper-than-thou types as affiliated with the Adbusters organization, and that gets me all kinds of admiration from young people with various piercings. On the dark, Anakin Skywalker side of things, it means I’m a billboard for the Adbusters/Blackspot brand. Adbusters/Blackspot entrepreneur Kalle Lasn goes on about how this is an “anti-brand,” a “brand against branding,” and so forth, but let’s be real: it’s a brand, and Lasn has done his darndest to create a new uniform for his followers to identify each other by. If you’re more interested in wearing no-sweatshop shoes for the ethical advantages and less interested in calling attention to yourself, the No Sweat low-top sneaker is only barely branded, with a small and inconspicuous “No Sweat” label on the back heel.
In case you’re curious, Irregular Times is not affiliated with either of these groups, and we’re not making any money for referring you to their no-sweat products. We’re just glad that there are now multiple options for the purchase of sweatshop-free shoes, and we’re happy to spread the word.
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