Just tryin it

World Changing reports a new line of shoes from Nike called Nike Considered. I will try really hard to put the cynical side of me aside for a second and congratulate Nike on this move. This is a really good sign for the mass manufacturing industry. Hell, if Nike can see the market value in minimising the amount of waste created in production processes, and if consumers support this venture, then this kind of mind-set can become mainstream. I was interested in seeing how far they were taking this idea and was pleasantly surprised to see they are even taking product transportation costs into account. Nice one. Now if they could do that with all of their products and maybe release a sweatshop-free labour range of shoes, I might even consider buying a pair of their shoes... I will allow my cynical side out for a second and say I hope that this isn't all bullshit. Nike doesn't exactly have a great reputation for honesty.. Last year the Greens supported a tour raising awareness about the issues surrounding a possible Free Trade Agreement with Thailand (pdf of flyer here, which included bringing over Sripai Nonsee, who is a worker from Thailand. Rod Donald took her into Rebel Sport and she showed him the clothes that she used to make in her factory and told us all about how much they get paid to make them compared to how much they sell for in the stores. At the same time Nike were vehemently denying any involvement with sweatshop labour. *cough* bullshit *cough* I think for now, you're still better off buying No Sweat shoes. You can get them from a Trade Aid store near you.