Socially Conscious Shoes

My taste in clothing has been veering towards that of an old man as of late, in that I’m really digging lots of itchy wool clothing of the tweed, herringone, and plaid persuasion. As a result, I am totally enamored by this L.A.-based company I just discovered, TOMS Shoes. Check these out:

Love it. What’s even better is that the company is socially conscious. For every pair purchased, they donate a pair to a child in need. That is awesome.

I tend to be fairly cynically when it comes to the various campaigns many companies will put on to jump on the charity bandwagon where they might donate a couple percentages of their profits to causes while the goal is more to boost their public image. An example would be the Product(RED) project which feels like a thin layer of “altruism” is used to rationalize heightened levels of shopping and a branded self-satisfying conspicuous consumption. There’s a pretty good criticism of it by Robert Peston on the BBC site where he points out that while the campaign has raised $18 million, it has also spent $100 million in advertising and marketing.

The validity of a one-to-one matching donation is hard to argue. I could buy a shiny new $199 iPod and “give” to charity… actually they don’t even state how much they donate. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it’s 5%. So $10 goes to (RED)… all of which gets spent on advertising. Alternately, I could buy a pair of shoes which results in… a donation of a pair of shoes. Sweet. As an added bonus, I don’t get laden with annoying (RED) branding telling the world how good I am. Instead I get plaid!

The only important fact that I can’t find is where and under what labor conditions these shoes are made. I don’t care if they’re made in the U.S.A. (I expect them not to be), but anti-brand shoe company Blackspot Shoes makes a point of ensuring that their sneakers are made in a safe, union-controlled factory. I’ll have to shoot TOMS shoes an email or something to find out what the deal is.

Filed under Art & Design, Politics & Activism |