Subvert Nike - buy Blackspot sneakers
fab five freddy | 10.03.2004 22:10 | Globalisation | Sheffield | World
For years, Nike was the undisputed champion of logo culture, its swoosh an instant symbol of global cool. Today, Phil Knight's Nike is a fading empire, badly hurt by years of "brand damage" as activists and culture jammers fought back against mindfuck marketing and dirty sweatshop labor.
Now a final challenge. We take on Phil at his own game - and win. We turn the shoes we wear into a counterbranding game. The swoosh versus the anti-swoosh. Which side are you on?
Adbusters has been doing R&D for more than a year, and guess what? Making a shoe - a good shoe - isn't exactly rocket science. With a network of supporters, we're getting ready to launch the blackSpot sneaker, the world's first grassroots anti-brand, with a ground-breaking marketing scheme to uncool Nike. If it succeeds, it will set a precedent that will revolutionize capitalism.
Check out the website at
http://www.blackspotsneaker.org/
Adbusters has been doing R&D for more than a year, and guess what? Making a shoe - a good shoe - isn't exactly rocket science. With a network of supporters, we're getting ready to launch the blackSpot sneaker, the world's first grassroots anti-brand, with a ground-breaking marketing scheme to uncool Nike. If it succeeds, it will set a precedent that will revolutionize capitalism.
Check out the website at
http://www.blackspotsneaker.org/
fab five freddy
Additions
re ethical shoes firms, Europe
07.01.2008 14:57
Looking at the post about European-made ethical-ish shoes, here are some more links:
http://www.ethicalwares.com
http://www.veganline.com has a page about unswooshers
Someone mentioned Guat in Sheffield. They have a web site
http://www.guatshoes.co.uk/
Someone mentioned No Sweat. Their shoe importer is
http://www.earthandwear.com/ (although the people who make the sneakers are only paid £15 a month)
As for capitalism-free shoes: it takes a big machine to stretch material over a mould, so I don't know how it can be done without capital. The factory that makes chunky boots for the Trediar brand, Veganline.com and Vegetarian Shoes is NPS (Shoes) Woolleston, which managed to work as a staff-owned co-op for over 100 years but is a private company now. Equity Shoes Leicester is still staff-owned but I think they make all their stuff out of leather.
hope this useful
John
http://www.ethicalwares.com http://www.veganline.com has a page about unswooshers Someone mentioned Guat in Sheffield. They have a web site
http://www.guatshoes.co.uk/ Someone mentioned No Sweat. Their shoe importer is
http://www.earthandwear.com/ (although the people who make the sneakers are only paid £15 a month) As for capitalism-free shoes: it takes a big machine to stretch material over a mould, so I don't know how it can be done without capital. The factory that makes chunky boots for the Trediar brand, Veganline.com and Vegetarian Shoes is NPS (Shoes) Woolleston, which managed to work as a staff-owned co-op for over 100 years but is a private company now. Equity Shoes Leicester is still staff-owned but I think they make all their stuff out of leather.
hope this useful
John
John Robertson
Comments
Hide the following 19 comments
hmmm
10.03.2004 23:05
but who makes the control decisions on the profit? and there might well be big profit because its an idea that people might want to buy into... out Nikeing Diesel, out Nikeing Nike.
quotes off the website: "We’ve decided to stop whining about Nike; why not make $10 million and use it to run a media literacy campaign instead? I’m really sick of the whiners."
"There’s a certain undeniable power that capitalism and even free markets have," says Lasn. "My problem is with top-down corporate consumer culture. This way of activism is one way for people to take back their culture."
I agree there is an certain undeniable power that capitalism and free markets have...
it is seductive.
Lasn, who makes the decisions in this company? How are these decisions made? Where does the money go?
Why is a media literacy campaign worth $10 million dollars?
heather
Blackspot, never heard of em
11.03.2004 00:10
My advice is to wear Puma's, for one they are dead trendy at the moment and two, they are German and by buying that brand we are supporting a country which opposed the war on Iraq!
Stuey
e-mail:
stuey@surfanytime.co.uk
This is advertising - can we hide it please?
11.03.2004 01:56
From 'Famous and Dandy like Amos and Andy'
Barney
world has gone mad!
11.03.2004 03:23
Whatever next? War for peace?
Oi!
make your own shoes
11.03.2004 10:13
Fuck the fashion industry.
smelly trainers
maybe not puma though...
11.03.2004 10:20
Puma are the main target of the current Oxfam campaign about treatment of workers in the run-up to the Olympics
mike
WTF?!
11.03.2004 10:59
This is not anti-capitalism. This is pro-capitalism. Will these factories be worker managed and owned, using local and sustainable materials, on a non-profit basis? I think not.
"Revolutionise Capitalism"?! Howabout overthrowing it?
Krop
steel toe caps help you walk
11.03.2004 12:20
Today everyday we feel rage anger love hope thats our inspartion the reson for image what is your reson ask the queston and do shit to change shit..
mozaz
mozaz
I'd buy 'em
11.03.2004 13:34
As for make you're own or find them in skips - are you guys taking the piss or are you really so buried in you're own worlds you really believe that crap?
Finding non sweatshop clothing or shoes doesn't seem that easy anymore so anything that goes the right way is better than anything that don't. It doesn't have to be totally pure or even anticapitalist to be better than what's there already.
"Revolution is not one big leap. It comes into being from a million small steps."
Steve
hmmm, steel toecaps...
11.03.2004 13:44
Wouldn't finding stuff in skips cause problems with personal hygiene, Steel-Toe-Caps-Fella - or are you dead careful about keeping clean...?
I'd be worried about what I might pick up or end up smelling like - but I bet you've got it sussed. You'd have to, to be a real cool skip raider.
Thing is, if we all raided skips then nobody would throw anything out and the system would rapidly come to a full stop - bit like a pyramid selling scheme, isn't it?
Good luck with your raiding though!
LifeBoy
LifeBoy!
dont just talk
11.03.2004 14:31
The European Clean clothes campaign has a lot of reports and stats that can be downloaded or read online
This is a link to the latest report
March 2004, Sportswear Industry Data and Company Profiles
What is the price makeup of a 100 $ sportshoe
This is the uk site for Clean clothes campaign but it is rarely updated
but you can go on a mailing list
another uk site but not just clothing
there are loads more links on these sites
Do a bit of online activism if nothing else
As an exgarment worker I can tell you that most clothes in the cheap shops are at prices that mean the worker cannot be paid a living wage,The expensive stuff is still mainly made by people on less than a living wage but the shops and marketing folk make huge profits.
I know trade unionists(mostly men ) will say we should not have import controls etc but what about the thousands of uk garment workers who lost their jobs because of the greed of companies - - not just M & S but Katherine Hamnet and other 'designers' wrere among the first to shift production to the far east.
Vegetarian shoes are an ethical compamy whose shoes are made in Europe,
If you want ethical clothes find an out of work garment worker and pay them to make your clothes or make your own from recycled fabrics,Im sure some of you already do
ee
Blackspot?
11.03.2004 16:04
or if they actually have an ethical policy,this company could be worse than nike.
ee
Not worse than Nike???
11.03.2004 17:29
If you haven't come across adbusters yet suggest you check out their site:
The attempt to have a go at Phil Knight and Nike is sincere and genuine.
Steve
"Revolution is not one big leap. It comes into being from a million small steps.
11.03.2004 17:50
The global holocaust is a continuous everyday rape of life.Everyday animals are eviscerated, women are raped, children molested and murdered, species pushed to extinction. The earth our home, our life, the mother of all life is ravaged. A stand must be taken now for the crisis is upon us, war must be declared, our culture and its corrupt supporters must fall.
as siad i like the graffs of adbusters etc.. there was nowt negtive in my reply i was showing people to a diffrent perspective etc.. we are all the revolution.. just seems some do not like people like me to be involved or yes i forgot paranoia mozaz. just like i aint modrated.. oh yes more bull shit from mozaz..
of to stick me head up me backside for more bull shit..
mozaz
mozaz
adbusters have lost the plot
12.03.2004 03:21
So there you have it. The aim: a more 'grassroots' version of capitalism. Not an alternative to it, but a better version.
Adbusters just lost a LOT of credibility in my eyes. For some reason I always assumed they were anti-capitalists, but I guess not.
dissappointed
An Advert for Guat Shoes
12.03.2004 12:23
I reckon that the best thing we can do is go to Guat Shoes in Crookes and get some lovely Sheffield made shoes cobbled together.
I've had a pair of Guat Boots for a year now, and they are the most comfortable footwear I've ever had.
The set up in GUat, is one or two people, who I think own the shop, and a load of really beuatiful old sewing machines. The owner maker will draw around your foot and you can pick a leather (inc veggie) that you want.You can have one foot red and the other green if you want.
These shoes are not more expensive than a pair of posh Nikes, or Black spots. Plus they will last longer, are made in Sheffield, and are much more beatiful.
As for making your own shoes, then I don't think its a crazy idea. More people should give it a go. I admire my housemate for having done it already. ( a righteous ranting activist once pointed out that his trousers had been made in a sweatshop; but weirdly enough they were a product of the sewing table in his bedroom)
The future I envisage is one where we are multiskilled, and yes, do make our own shoes.
Why not start now?
Love MATT
Matt
e-mail:
matthewtrevelyan@hotmail.com
pay
12.03.2004 15:10
Ethical for some people means that the materials dont harm the environment or dont harm animals.
If people are only paid the government minimum wage then that is not ethical by my book,whether it is capitalist or not.
If the shoes are manufactured outside of Europe or in Eastern Europe it is very unlikely that the workers are paid a reasonable wage.
The thing is we have capitalism but some capitalist enterprises pay better wages than others. The struggle for a decent wage is part of the struggle of working people to first survive and eat so I would not ideally want to buy anything made by someone on crap wages.
In reality this is hard to do if ones own income is at subsistence level.
I really like the sound of the Sheffield shop.Thanks for that info.
ee
Make sandals from cast-off tyres
12.03.2004 16:52
citizen Able
e-mail:
citizen_able@yahoo.com
Homepage:
http://www.freewebs.com/citizen_able/
hmmm
13.03.2004 13:21
Laura