new shoesies.

i needed new walking shoes somethin' terrible (the first telltale sign may, just may, have been the fact that i could see the orange foam guts through the inside heel) and i was frustrated because all seemed to be made in china. and i really wanted a non-leather shoe. so i began delving into those internets to see what they had to offer.

thankfully, i found ryan at veganessentials.com who helped me through the whole process. after sending him an initial note asking for a walking shoe rec, he suggested their hardrock trainer by montrail. i replied back about my desire to try boycotting goods made in china and here's what he had to say:

we just came back from the world's largest footwear tradeshow where we spent four days trying to find athletic footwear made in the usa, and despite talking with hundreds of manufacturers, not one who makes athletic footwear is using anything but chinese production as of this time. though, one thing to note is that montrail has a statement on their site regarding the labor in the facility that does their production, and they say the following in regard to it:

"lots of people ask us about the working conditions in our factories.  we believe it is impossible to create high quality outdoor footwear in factories that employ sweatshop or forced labor.  the factories we use are factories that our production staff find acceptable upon their personal visits.  our production staff visit the factories regularly.  without exception, we have found the factories to be well ventilated, properly lit, and with the appropriate safety measures in place.  additionally, we have observed that the factory employees generally make a wage that is substantially higher than other industries in their communities."

we've spoken at length with various higher-ups at montrail and they take the labor issue very seriously and have given us repeated assurance that their facilities are some of the greatest in china.  They have told us that their mission is to work to make a difference and provide a better option for labor in a country not normally known for providing fair-labor alternatives in the footwear industry.  after we had initially spoken with them we did our own research and could not find any evidence to show that they were not being honest with us, so that pushed us to want to support their works and carry their footwear.  We believe that being vegan means being human-friendly as well as animal-friendly, too!

many people believe that all chinese production is sweatshop, but there is a growing movement to get away from such labor practices and increase the standards where people work.  we're in close contact with many different shoe companies, and as it goes, they've been telling us that the market for us and european made footwear is going downhill quickly and that if it is hard to find footwear made in these nations now, it will only be getting worse in time.  companies like montrail would have to sell their shoes for over us $175 per pair if they were made here in the usa.  as much as they've said they wish it were possible, we've been told that they'd inevitably go out of business because people wouldn't be willing to pay that much extra just because the shoes are made here when they'd be able to get similar quality shoes for half that much from other companies using overseas labor.  it is a vicious cycle with how this whole thing works, but hopefully in time we'll be able to bring more footwear jobs back to the usa and get the currency exchange rate normalized so it isn't so difficult for us shops to carry more european made footwear.

he did a heck of a lot better than montrail's customer service rep, who simply emailed me back that the shoes were "made in china."

can't wait to see how the shoes make me feel (inside and out!).