"Made in China": temporarily upsetting label in my new sneakers

[jmowreader]

One of the problems all Home Depot associates face is the rapid decimation of their sneakers. Walking miles every day on our concrete floors takes a terrible toll on your shoes--I go through a pair every six months, and some people wear theirs out quicker.

Before you suggest steel toed boots, which would make sense in case you dropped something heavy on your foot, remember that walking around on concrete as much as we do would eventually destroy your feet. So we all wear sneakers.

I've been wearing New Balance sneakers for years. They're made well, fit on my weirdly shaped feet better than anyone else's sneakers, and are made in America. On Friday, I went to the sporting goods store that was going out of business thanks to Mr. Bush and his illegal oil war (80 percent of their business was the soldiers who are now in Iraq) to get a new pair.

After some consideration, I chose a pair of New Balance 400 cross-trainers. (Okay, the "consideration" was "this one's in my size!" as well as "this one's cheap enough that when I walk the bottoms off by June I'm not going to worry about it.") Off I went with my new work shoes.

I got home with them and found "made in China." New Balance has been making things in New England for over 100 years; I still remember going to their outlet store along the banks of the Charles to buy shoes to wear to physical training at Fort Devens. So what's this China stuff?

I went back to the store and checked the other New Balance shoes. The expensive ones were all made in the US. The cheap ones were all Chinese or Korean made.

Turns out I didn't have much to worry about. The really popular New Balance shoes are all over $100 a pair; Americans can profitably build $100 sneakers. They can't profitably build $50 sneakers, which is where the Pacific Rim comes in.

This actually makes a lot of sense. When I was in Korea, I could go to Itaewon and buy "New Balance" sneakers, made by Korean workers in a knockoff factory, for about $15 a pair. They weren't anything super special, but they were okay and they looked good. Apparently, someone at New Balance figured out that by having the knockoff factories churn out the cheaper shoes, which they were already making, they could dedicate their five US factories to making the profitable lines. (The knockoffs were all of the low-end NB; I never saw a fake NB 600-series or higher in those places. Which may have explained why I never bought those shoes; I pronate so badly that if I buy something without stabilizers on it and run in it every day, it dies in a month. A pair of $100 shoes is good for six months.)

There are good and bad ways to use Chinese labor. New Balance seems to have figured out a good way.

[Eric J in MN]

1. fair trade labor online shoe store

The Pangea Veg shoe store has a Fair Trade labor policy.

http://www.pangeaveg.com/cgi-bin/miva?Merchant2/merchant.mv+Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=Pangea&Category_Code=01-shoes

[jmowreader]

2. Cool! When I need some shoes for running, I'll get them there

Bookmarked the link. Thanks.

I am going to need some shoes for running soon, mine are getting pretty ratty. You can't walk in your running shoes--when you use athletic shoes, the bottom takes a set, and the set is different when you walk than when you run--so I can't wear my work shoes out running unless I want to risk my legs.

Unfortunately, because of their fair-trade policies, they only sell the good stuff, and the good stuff from NB is too good to wear for selling lumber.

[Old and In the Way]

3. I think our own MaineMary used to work at the New Balance factory

in Skowhegan, Maine. Sadly, the Maine footwear(Dexter Shoe, Nike, Kesler, NB) businesses are pretty well all gone.