Fair Trade Sports: Let's Make it All a Fair Trade Playing Field
Published November 24, 2008 @ 07:20AM PT
Last week, Puma made the groundbreaking annoucement that they would produce their first Fair Trade Certified soccer balls. Puma has had a history of less than stellar human rights records and poor environmental standards but have also been one to tout their commitment to corporate social responsibility amidst all these reports and accusations.
With all the controversy that has surrounded Puma in the past (or maybe even recent history), Puma's annoucement of producing their first Fair Trade Certified soccer balls is a big deal. It has the potential of changing the face of the production of sports ball equipment. After I heard the annoucment, I talked to Scott James, the founder of Fair Trade Sports - the world's only line of Fair Trade sports equipment. Scott has been in the game of bringing Fair Trade into the sports world for two years now, so I was sure he would have some telling words to share.
Yes. It is GREAT news. If we can encourage them to repeat this - to the point where they make a company-wide *permanent* commitment to certified Fair Trade - then we win! One of the primary goals of Fair Trade Sports is to show the Top 5 brands (Nike, Adidas, Puma, Baden, and perhaps a distant #5 competitor like Challenger or Mitre) that a certified Fair Trade sports ball line is possible...and exactly what the marketplace wants right now.
I've said from Day 1 (which was just two years ago) that if we can get one of the Top 5 brands to convert to certified Fair Trade, then Fair Trade Sports has won!
In the short term, our supply chain is still unique as we still have the world's only eco-certified Fair Trade sports ball line (green certification from Forest Stewardship Council) made with Fair Trade rubber. Hopefully we can get them to mimic us in those areas as well!
The ball is in the court of the top sports companies to make the production of sports equipment a Fair Trade playing field and bring respect to their workers and to the environment.
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Author
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Zarah is the Operations Manager for the Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store, a project of the international human rights organization, Global Exchange. Alongside her work with marginalized communities from all over the world to get their products into the international market, Zarah serves to educate and inform the public about a more just and sustainable trading system.
