American shoes! (off topic)
This weekend, I went to replenish my supply of New Balance sneakers. I used to get whatever sneakers seemed cheap and decently made; then I refined the list by going with companies that pretended to have labor and environmental standards; then I switched to New Balance so my arches wouldn’t collapse and my back wouldn’t spasm, always wincing at the “Made in China” label that I really do try to avoid (usually without success - it seems like just yesterday Apple made computers in California and Ireland, but now, like everyone else, they switched everything to China, and that’s just one example.)
Not that I have any particular problem with Chinese people, because I don’t. I find China to be an interesting, enigmatic nation, with good and bad qualities. Like most Americans, I’ve mentally disconnected today’s China from the one we indirectly fought in Vietnam, and the one which is still doing rather nasty things to Tibet. I don’t know of any purely good national policies, though I’ll admit part of that is ignorance. Still, I’d prefer to support countries that provide meaningful civil rights to their citizens, and don’t turn their country into a toxic cesspool.
This time, I was pleasantly surprised to see that a number of New Balance shoes are made in the United States. Whether this has always been true or not I don’t know, but it seems new to me. They have five factories in the US, some of which produce shoes mainly of imported materials, and some of which use at least 70% American goods. Each shoe comes with a tag explaining what “Made in America” means in lawyer-speak.
The American-made shoes were $6 more than the imported ones. That’s about 10% higher, and I happily paid the price. It does make one wonder exactly how much is saved by exporting so much to China, when all is said and done. Is New Balance subsidizing American manufacturing, or is there really not such a huge pricing difference? When I was in retail I learned that the actual cost of production was often minimal compared with distribution, packaging, and markup. Doubling labor cost doesn’t mean doubling the price; it could mean a trivial increase.
Regardless, now I can have my healthy spine and arches, and American-made shoes as well. The lesson: just like the commercial used to tell us to “look for the union label,” we should be looking for the American (or Canadian or Mexican) label. Sometimes there actually are options.
Now now… by made in America, was this in Puerto Rico or really in America? I heard that in some products it is actually made in puerto rico and it says “made in America”.
Thumbs up Dave: that sort of thining it´s what keeps many industries alive and well in Europe, Go ask a French, or German or Spanish why do they buy their wine, clothing, cars, instead of foreing?, most of them will reply, becouse we also make those things, they might be more expensive, but i support my country.
How Many Americans/Canadian/Mexicans do that?
Puerto Rico is an American territory, last time I looked. Not sure where their factories are. New Balance is moderately sleazy by my standards, not bad by footwear-company standards. They seem to pretend to have a labor policy for China, like many companies. Factories appear to be in the continental US, not PR, with one supplier owned factory in CA in addition to their five somewhere in the US. Apparently the use of Chinese suppliers is partly due to their rapid expansion in sales; they’ve also expanded American production.
I found this which was generally favorable: http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/rs/profile.cfm?id=270
Isn’t Saucony still around? They were pretty good for having shoes made here in the US as well.
New Balance really tries to live up to a standard of corporate responsibility we have been in business since 1906 and as far a Saucony goes they where from Massachusetts as well and founded in 1910 however they where bought out by stride right in 2005. We are the only athletic shoe maker in the US
And to address comment three New Balance dose not have a factories in Puerto Rico but our four producing factories are in the North East we have distribution center on both coasts. We do request that our sub-contractors in Asia and elsewhere follow the same labor standards as NB North America
As friedman said: the world is indeed flat… And as consumers we have to think about these companies and their goals. Money drives these people…
I am looking for American-made tennis/running shoes after determining that a nasty rash/inflammation on my toes and feet was from Chinese-made Spalding tennis shoes.
Apparently certain chemicals are used in the manufacture of these shoes that burn skin.
I’ll happily pay more for shoes that don’t sear my feet.
In reading the comments above it demonstrates that there are quite a few people in this country that have realized the dangers of purchasing Chinese made goods. Tennis shoes are a perfect example of what we face. Parents wanting to buy their kids the popular item are paying hundreds of dollars for a couple of dollars in material, and a few cents in labor to have the hot name in shoes. Stupidity and poor values are now status symbols. Its not just about buying American, just don’t buy Chinese made goods. Once everyone commits to this we may just get some of our industry back.
Has anyone noted numbness in feet after wearing nubalance tennis shoes?
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