Face of Fair Trade: Scott James of Fair Trade Sports

by Zarah Patriana

Published November 11, 2008 @ 04:54AM PT

Fall is a big sports season. College football is in full swing, as is Pro Football and my beloved Lakers are 5-0. Oh happy day.

With all the sports in the air, I chatted up Scott James, founder of Fair Trade Sports, the first sports equipment company in the US that provides eco-certified Fair Trade sports balls. Their sports balls are ensuring fair wages to their adult workers and making sports a fair (trade) game. Not only that! They have quite a commendable business model. They are commited to donating all profits after taxes to domestic and international children's charities. Very much like the Newman's Own way of doing things. With that, I am proud to feature today's Face of Fair Trade: Scott James.

What is your role in the Fair Trade movement?

Founder of Fair Trade Sports, bringing the world's first line of eco-certified Fair Trade sports balls for soccer, football, basketball (and more) to North America.

How did you first get involved with Fair Trade?

I was in the high tech industry when my first child was born. I knew one day he was going to ask me what I did for work. I wanted to be able to tell him I was  directly helping people, directly working on some of the Big Issues we face, like extreme poverty.

Frankly, I believe as Fair Traders we are trying to work ourselves out of a job. And I think it can happen with two generations. The Fair Trade movement is a medium-term remedy (read: 75 years) to fix our currently broken economic system, which is not sustainable nor holistic in how it interacts with human beings around the world. I look forward to the day when we no longer need Fair Trade or eco labels, when *everything* will be made with true sustainability in mind. My five year old son already wonders aloud what type of Fair Trade company he is going to start. He's just assuming that he would make it a sustainable company from the beginning.

Consumer education. Despite the many friendly faces at events like Green Festival, we're still a fringe movement in North America. We need to continue working together - across product lines and industries - to promote the face of Fair Trade. Whether we're talking about coffee or handicrafts, flowers or sports balls, we need to all do our part to educate North American citizens about the benefits of Fair Trade for themselves and producers.

Any background/general information about yourself you want to add?

I love the current pace of innovation we're seeing in sustainability. It's an exciting time to be a part of the positive solutions we seeing launching just about every day.

[Photo Credit: Chip Py, Co-Op America]